Last October I attended BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas. During the event I did an interview with Wiley/WROX to talk about my new upcoming book Professional WordPress Plugin Development. The video interview is now featured on the Amazon page for the book! Check out the video below (ignore my derp face):
WordCamp Phoenix 2011 Recap
February 3, 2011 By 7 Comments
Last weekend I attended one of the best WordCamps I have ever been to, WordCamp Phoenix 2011! I was joined by April, Brian, and Scott of WebDevStudios. The event was hosted in the beautiful town of Chandler, AZ by some amazing organizers.
During our time in Phoenix I had the opportunity to check out Gangplank. I can’t speak highly enough about the amazing setup they have and was truly inspired. Gangplank is a collaborative coworking space with a major twist, there are no fees to work. Just show up, plug in and start working.
At the event I gave a presentation on WordPress End-User Security with Dre Armeda. Dre is the co-founder of Sucuri.net and truly passionate about security so it was great to collaborate with him on the presentation. Check out the slides from our presentation below:
I also had the pleasure of doing a video interview with Ryan Imel of WPCandy.com. We discussed WebDevStudios, working with WordPress, my new plugin development book, and more! Check out the interview below:
The event was a huge success and I couldn’t believe how many of my friends in the WordPress community attended. Attendees included Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Dre Armeda and Toni Perez of CubicTwo, Ptah Dunbar, Matt Danner and Cory Miller of iThemes, Amanda Blum, Michael Torbert, Steve Mortiboy, Josh and Sally Strebel of Page.ly, the 9seeds crew of John Hawkins, Shayne Sanderson, and Todd Huesh, Grant and Clay Griffiths of Headway, Boone Gorges, John James Jacoby, Ryan and Crystal Duff, Matt Martz, Mark Jaquith, Andrew Nacin, Pete Mall, Danielle Morrill, Jonathan Davis of the Shopp plugin, Ryan Imel of WPCandy.com, Stephanie Leary, Brandon Dove, Andrew Norcross, and many more I’m sure I forgot.
I had an amazing time at WordCamp Phoenix, hung out with some great WordPress addicts like myself, and enjoyed the sweet January Phoenix weather. This will certainly be an event I plan on attending again in the future!
And now for the chaos:
Professional WordPress Plugin Development Available for Presale on Amazon!
January 18, 2011 By 8 Comments
Pro WordPress Plugin Dev Book
Co-authored with Ozh Richard and Justin Tadlock, this book is the definitive guide for WordPress plugin development.
We cover a wide range of plugin dev topics including:
- Plugin foundation
- Creating widgets and shortcodes
- Custom post types and taxonomies
- WordPress coding standards and styles
- Action and filter hooks
- Best security practices
Pro WP Plugin Dev is the first of its kind with the many advanced topics covered. Most of these topics have never been in print!
Advanced plugin development topics include:
- HTTP API including Google Map examples
- JavaScript and Ajax
- Cron event scheduling
- Rewrite API and query handling
- Multisite networks
- Developer’s toolbox
- and more!
This book is the next edition in the WROX programmer to programmer series. It was written by developers, for developers, and will teach you how to program WordPress in easy to understand tutorials and explanations. In fact this book comes packed with 80+ fully functional plugin examples and tutorials for download!
Make sure you reserve your copy today and don’t miss out on the WordPress plugin development goodness!
CollabPress v1.0 beta Has Been Released!
November 29, 2010 By 2 Comments
CollabPress v1.0 beta, the task management plugin for WordPress, has been released and is available for download! The plugin was rebuilt from the ground up by my company, WebDevStudios.com. We utilized custom post types to make the plugin fully optimized and compatible with the latest version of WordPress (including Multsite!). We also hardened the security and added more features!
Be sure to read all about the new version of CollabPress and download the beta.
WordCamp Philly 2010 Was A Huge Success!
November 4, 2010 By 2 Comments
WordCamp Philly 2010, the inaugural Philadelphia WordCamp, was last Saturday and was a huge success! I was lucky enough to be one of the organizers, along with Anthony Bubel and Marilyn Moran, and couldn’t be happier with how the event turned out.
We had an amazing lineup of speakers and topics for the event. We also had some awesome sponsors step up and help making this event a great success.
The event was held at Alter Hall in the Fox School of Business building. This building was absolutely amazing! The technology in each room was superb and made for a flawless day of presentations, slides, and even the official WordCamp Philly soundtrack!
The entire WebDevStudios crew almost attended (we were missing Scotty B), but the rest of the team was in attendence and myself, Brian Messenlehner, Chris Cochran, and Ronald Huereca all gave presentations.
There were also many of my WordPress friends in attendance including Ptah Dundar, Hal Stern, Michael Torbert, Steve Mortiboy, Jane Wells, Andrew Nacin, Doug Stewart, Jayvie Canono, Ryan Duff, Ted Mann, and many others I’m sure I am forgetting.
Check out pictures from the event below (photo credit to @tweetsfromchris):
WordCamp Philly is Tomorrow!
October 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Tomorrow is the inaugural WordCamp Philly! I’m co-organizing the event and can’t wait to kick it off!
We have an amazing lineup of speakers for the event including Ronald Huereca of WDS giving a presentation on WordPress and Ajax. I’m giving a presentation with Brian Messenlehner, the other co-founder of WDS, on Spooky WordPress: Disturbingly Brilliant Uses of WP.
We have four tracks (two beginner and two advanced) and an unconference room running ad hoc discussions and presentations. We’re giving away some amazing prizes and even have a costume contest (with prizes!) for the after party.
This is going to be an amazing WordCamp, and hopefully the start of an annual tradition in Philly. I’ll be sure to post a recap after the event with pictures.
Professional WordPress Book Signing at Blog World Expo
September 23, 2010 By 1 Comment
Next month is Blog World and New Media Expo 2010 in Las Vegas. I’ve just confirmed I’ll be doing a book signing for Professional WordPress at the event!
Wiley will have a booth setup where you can purchase all of their amazing books. I’ll be signing copies of Professional WordPress at the Wiley booth on Saturday, October 16th at 1pm.
I’ll be attending Blog World Expo with Brian and April from WebDevStudios. As many of you know my company redesigned the BlogWorld.com website a few weeks ago using the Genesis theme framework. We are also sponsors of Blog World Expo this year!
It looks to be a great event so if you plan on attending be sure to stop by and say hi!
WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 Recap
September 15, 2010 By 5 Comments
Last weekend I attended WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 in Baltimore, MD and had a blast! I was joined by Brian and Chris from WDS.
I attended some really amazing presentations. Jake Goldman gave a great talk on customizing the WordPress admin dashboard. I also enjoyed Andrew Nacin’s presentation on Advanced WordPress APIs. I even learned about a few WP functions I have never heard of.
One of the best moments was the last keynote by Jane Wells. Jane gave the keynote via Skype video while driving down the road ( Ryan Boren was driving ). Not only was it a great interview but it really demonstrated where technology is at these days. Amazing!
I had a great time hanging out with Cory Miller, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Steve Mortiboy, Aaron Brazell, Ryan Duff, Andrew Nacin, Jake Goldman, Jayvie Canono, Joel Fisher, Scott K Clark, Scott Ellis, and many more I’m sure I am forgetting.
My presentation was on WordPress Security and can be found below:
WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 Here I Come!
September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’m heading to WordCamp Mid-Atlantic today (Friday) in Baltimore! This WordCamp has a special place in my heart, as last year was the first WC I attended and presented at! It’s amazing how much has changed in just a year and a half. I’ll be attending with Brian Messenlehner and Chris Cochran.
I’m speaking on WordPress Security (surprise!) and have a few giveaways that might involve a book on WordPress! This is one presentation that I think should be given at every WordCamp, because it’s that important.
Security is a vital part of any website. I’ll cover the most current tips and tricks, top 10 WP security tips, recommended plugins, hosting consideration, and even an example of a popular hack and how it works.
If you’re attending make sure to track me down. I love talking WordPress as much as a cold beer!
WPClassroom.com Is Back! New WordPress Training Classes Scheduled
September 9, 2010 By 2 Comments
The WordPress Classroom is back with new classes scheduled! If you’ve ever wanted to learn WordPress, or expand your knowledge, WPClassroom.com is for you! We offer the best value ($25/class!) and the best instructors!
WordPress for Beginners is set for September 28th at 7pm ET. This class is for beginners with a focus on content. Learn how to create posts, pages, links. Also learn the ins and outs of comment and discussion moderation. The class will even cover tips and tricks including automated backups, scheduled posting, security plugins, and more!
Extending WordPress for Beginners is set for September 30th at 7pm ET. This class is for WP site administrators with a focus on customizing WordPress. Learn how to install and configure themes and plugins. The class will also cover menu management, user accounts and roles, and WordPress settings.
Both courses run 1 hour in length with a 1 hour question and answer session. That’s TWO hours of WordPress training for $25! You can also register for both classes for $40. All WPClassroom.com classes use the most powerful online training tools provided by Cisco WebEx. Training is even recorded for later playback!
I couldn’t recommend these courses enough for people who want to truly understand everything that WordPress has to offer.
