WordPress Conference Report – What I Learned at WordCamp Orange County 2019

One of the most effective ways to jumpstart your personal growth is to attend a conference, seminar or convention on a topic that you are interested in or that is related to your job or goals. Benefits of attending such events, include learning more about the conference subject matter, increased awareness of organizations or products in the topic area that may benefit you, and of course, the ability to network with others who have similar interests. This past weekend, I attended a conference that has me all fired up about my blogs.

WordCamp Orange County 2019

On April 27 and 28, 2019, I attended WordCamp Orange County 2019 in order to learn more about effectively using WordPress for my blogs. There was so much for me to learn as someone who started as a hobbyist blogger, who is now trying to expand my first blog into something much more substantial and would like to make the most out of this one. This article is specifically aimed at those beginner bloggers who may be on the same path. I hope the information I share about my experience will direct you to resources you will find useful in your blogging journey.

First, I want to give a shout out to my friend over at Tiaraed Warrior, who brought my attention to the existence of WordCamp.  She had been to a WordCamp in her area. She found it useful and recommended it to me when I told her that I was starting Squintillions and wanted to do more with the blog than just write. I checked the WordCamp website and found two that were coming up in my area, one in Los Angeles and one in Irvine, CA. I couldn’t make the Los Angeles WordCamp, but my schedule was open for the weekend of the Orange County WordCamp. WordCamp OC was held at the beautifully designed beach-themed space at The Cove at UCI Applied Innovation.

Before I go into the details of the various sessions I attended and what I learned, I’d like to recommend WordCamp to other beginning and even intermediate level users of WordPress. Besides the priceless information that I learned and ideas that were sparked by attending two full days of sessions and the time for networking, the WordCamp OC experience was certainly good value for money, considering the extras. For the price of $50, all attendees also received lunch paid for each day, a closing party buffet on Sunday afternoon, free snacks all weekend, a cool WordCamp T-Shirt, a WordCamp glass, a WordCamp pin, and a WordCamp knit beanie! Plus there was swag available to those who talked to the sponsors. Lots of sponsors helped make the event not only possible, but something worth attending. And when did you last attend a conference where you could sit in deck chairs during the presentations? Please share in the comments any other great events for bloggers that you may have attended or want to attend.

Empowering Your Storytelling with Gutenberg

After the opening conference remarks, the first session I attended was titled “Empowering Your Storytelling with Gutenberg: How to Use Blocks to Boost Your Communication” by Andrea Zoellner.  For anyone not familiar with WordPress, on December 6, 2018, a new content editor, referred to as Gutenberg or the block editor, was released as part of WordPress 5.0.  This left many long-term users scratching their heads on how to effectively use this new editor. The classic editor is still available to use, but the block editor has additional features that make it a more dynamic editing system.

Andrea to the rescue! In her clear and thorough presentation, she covered seven areas for efficiently using the blocks editor. These included:

1. Embellishing the design of posts, particularly adding emphasis on text with color, different fonts, and positioning.
2. Diversify your images by using gallery blocks
3. Integrate to other post types
4. Spice it up with multimedia, such as embedding videos
5. Add breathing room, aka white space, by using columns, page breaks, and space separators
6. Build in a call-to-action in your post, such as subscribing (Subscribe now to Squintillions!)
7. Simply your workflow by creating reusable blocks

Thanks to Andrea’s presentation, I learned about features of Gutenberg that I didn’t know existed. I also learned that it is relatively simple to change older posts from the classic editor to the blocks editor by using the convert to blocks option. Her talk also sparked the idea for me to create a call-to-action on my landing page to encourage subscriptions. I would also like to go back to some of my previous posts (starting with those with higher viewing numbers) and embellish the design and add more headers.

My main takeaway from this talk was that adding style to your text will help readers know what content they should be engaging with.

If you are interested in this topic, a video version of her presentation from a previous conference is available on YouTube.

Inspired by Andrea’s talk to learn more about the block editor, I found this well-organized blog article about using blocks, called “WordPress Gutenberg: A Step-by-Step Tutorial (For Bloggers).” I will certainly be checking back with that as I continue to write my posts using the block editor. She also recommended some plugins to improve your experience with the blocks editor, see the list in the photo below.

Ecommerce and Email

I next attended a presentation called, “Ecommerce and Email: How to Get More Ecommerce Sales with Email” by Amy Hall. I’m not engaged in ecommerce right now, but I do have plans to build an email subscriber list. She began by identify the different types of subscribers:

• Those who haven’t purchased products
• Those who have purchased and are engaged
• Those who are engaged, but not active (opening your email, but not buying
• Those who have lapsed and have not interacted with your content in the last 6 months or more

She also covered different email campaign formats, including transactional emails, review requests, page triggers, product promotions, and newsletters and discussed how the campaigns can be target to the different types of subscribers as you plan your campaign. The follow up for me is that I need to set up an email marketing platform in order to start building a subscriber list and to write a welcome email explaining what subscribers can expect to receive from me in the future.  The overall message of Amy’s presentation is that:

“Communication is at the heart of ecommerce and community.”

Amy Hall

Optimize All the Things!

Maura Teal delivered a detailed discussion on how to “Optimize All the Things!” that people use in WordPress that might be slowing down your websites. She began by explaining how creators benefit and websites are improved by optimizing. It can lead to increased revenue, help with retaining users, improve accessibility and site speed, and help search engines assess your site. Some of the presentation covered more technical issues, such as running the most up-to-date version of PHP on your server, full page caching, image optimization, and asset optimization. She also talked about using Chrome Dev Tools and improving your database, which was outside my realm of experience.

Secure WordPress Without Coding Skills

The last talk I attended before lunch was “Secure WordPress Without Coding Skills” given by Francesca Marano. She told the story of how her website for a small group of women in Italy was hacked and so she was on a mission to help others avoid a similar experience. Francesca explained who perpetrates such attacks and their purposes.  In her case, it was ransomware, in which the hackers hijacked her account information and were trying to get money from her in exchange for returning the account back to her.

Her suggestions for reducing the chances of being attacked included:

• Making sure that you are using WordPress plugins and themes from trusted sources that have been tested on the current version of WordPress (5.1.1)
• Using HTTPS – which secures communication between your website and the rest of the world
• Creating long, multi-character (20+) passwords that are different for every website you login to (and using a password manager, so you just have to remember one password).  This reminded me to check my own password list for duplicates and increase the length of some of them.

Coupons, Order Bumps, & One Time Offers

After an hour and a half break for lunch, in which I talked to a young woman who was interested in setting up an ecommerce website to sell handcrafted art gifts and silkscreened shirts, it was back to a jam packed afternoon of sessions, where it was difficult to choose where to go. I had been wanting to go to the session on the new Google Search Console, but it was jam packed. For now I will have to settle for this article, “How to Use the New Google Search Console” written by that presenter, Erik Wardell.

The session I attended in its place was full of information great information for anyone doing ecommerce (not me, presently), “Coupons, Order Bumps & One Time Offers: How to Make More on Your Store” presented by the dynamic Chris Lema. At least now I know what tricks to look for when I am shopping online. He defined each of these three selling tools and how to use them most effectively on a web store.

The main point he drove home was to not contribute to people leaving your website by the way you have designed it. An example of this is having a large “apply coupon” button. This is a good way to encourage people to leave your site looking for a coupon. I certainly have done that when shopping online, especially when buying more expensive items. Info regarding coupons should be written as text, allowing those who have one to be able to find where to enter the coupon code, but not being such an obvious reminder to those who don’t have one.

He thoroughly explained using order bumps and one time offers. Order bumps occur in the checkout process and Chris recommended that the new item being offered cost less than 20% of the price of the triggering product. One time offers work best after the transaction is nearly completed and should have a tone of exclusivity as well as being clear that the deal is going to be offered only once.  If you are trying to upsell, this is the place to do it. One of his friends recorded his presentation of WordCamp OC. If you have run a web store, watch it!

Content First or Not

Next up was Jennifer Bourn explaining the relationship between content and design in her talk “Content First or Not: Creating an Approach to Website Content That Works.” Creating content prior to designing the website has become a common practice for site developers.  Jennifer posited that this approach has been misunderstood and misused in the industry. It does not mean that all content should be completely written prior to the website being designed. She encouraged the use of content strategy and a clear content structure in order to provide a context for the content and the site design. When looking at and planning for these pieces, consider what are the first, second, and third things you want people to do before they leave your site. Content structure aids the design process, whereas trying to reach content completion first, delays the design process and so is an inefficient method of working.

Mastering Your Company’s Brand Image

The final two presentations of the day were from representatives from Iceberg Web Designs. First, Jessi Gurr shared her knowledge on “Mastering Your Company’s Brand Image.” She explained branding as “how others feel about your business,” particularly the emotional connections they make with it and how they talk about it. She encouraged businesses to turn their customers into brand advocates.

Her speech highlighted six strategies for mastering your brand, the first three involve creating an emotional connection and the rest cover the visual aspects:

1. Create brand values – what values are important to you and why?
2. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition – what makes your business different?
3. Give your team purpose, which will increase their value
4. Keep your content consistent, so you don’t confuse your customers
5. Keep your visuals consistent, especially across different media (and social media) platforms — do so by using a brand style guide (example in photo below)
6. Represent your brand in person, when taking part in meetings and events

How to Use Plugins

Jennifer Brueske took over the microphone to talk plugins in her presentation “How to Use Plugins Without Breaking Your WordPress Website.” I was curious to hear this one as I haven’t yet started using plugins on WordPress. It was helpful that she started off by offering four questions to ask yourself when you are choosing to use a plugin. They are:

1. What are the goals of the site?
2. What is the purpose of the plugin?
3. Does it bring value?
4. Is the plugin supported?

She also advised looking at specs, reading reviews, and considering your prior experience when making a choice. She helpfully showed this slide of plugins that she uses.

Jennifer advised future-proofing your website as much is possible and remembering to backup and update your website regularly, especially before adding a new plugin. She further recommended adding plugins one at a time and checking over your website after each new plugin has been added to make sure everything appears is at should. The number of plugins you are using doesn’t matter so much as that the plugins are compatible with one another. She sited an example of a client who had installed three plugins designed to do the same thing, that had caused problems with their site.

That concluded the Saturday sessions. It was a full day (8 sessions!), with so much information being presented, that it was mentally exhausting.  Sunday’s schedule had a little more space to it and the sessions were to start an hour later in the morning and finish an hour earlier, allowing time for the closing social.

Content Calendars and Synergy

Sunday morning found me in the session titled “Content Calendars and Synergy – Planning Ahead is the Only Way to Cultivate a Cohesive Brand,” by Wrigley Gannaway. I wasn’t sure going into the session how it would fit in with my plans for my WordPress websites, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong learning how to work more planning into my life.

Wrigley reinforced the message of creating a brand with consistent style across platforms and emphasized how visual media is the key to reaching a relevant audience. Her recommendation for the content calendar was to create a rough outline of posts, photos, and thought-out articles that you will have ready to go up to one to three months in advance of your intended upload dates. (Yikes, I am barely planning the week before I post!) Further, she recommended knowing your audience and staying consistently on trend with the content you are sharing. She also talked about popular social media platforms and how to best use them, how often to post, and the best times to post (see following image).

Web Accessibility

The most valuable session that I attended at WordCamp OC had to be “Web Accessibility Made Easy for WordPress” presented by Joseph LoPreste. This was a no-fluff presentation about making your website compliant with Section 508 and the recommendation to consider incorporating the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. Joseph provided 11 steps to take to improve the website viewing and navigating experience for differently-abled users, sharing examples from his background working with visually-impaired people.  He urged us all to consider how others experience our websites. He handily put all 11-steps onto one slide.

One thing I know I haven’t been completely consistent on is adding alt text to all of my photos, particularly on my other site, so I know I need to go in and check through those. He recommended the WP Accessibility plugin to complete that task easily. Here are some of his other suggested sources to help with improving accessibility.

Handling Failure

I wasn’t interested in either of the pre-lunch sessions on the schedule, so I dropped into the Business Track space to hear whatever Chris Lema had on his mind. He was sharing some of his personal experiences with failure, one of which was being part of the hiring team that hired someone that they thought had worked for Microsoft for many years, but it turns out he had only been there 6 months. The guy then stalled with multiple excuses about why he wasn’t coming into the office. Anyway, Chris advised to not dwell on failures, but to look at them with the perspective of “that didn’t work, let me move on and try the next thing.”

Valuable Networking Over Lunch

I headed to lunch early and had an extended conversation with three ladies, two were on the tech side of things and have taught classes in Long Beach. The other lady is a writer with WPMU Dev, a company that is another handy resource for WordPress users.

The important thing I learned at lunch was that I should be using WordPress.org and not WordPress.com. I am already in the process of transferring my music blog to WordPress.org and once that has been completed successfully, I will transfer Squintillions over. Note that Squintillions will be out of commission for a few days during that time. Once I have secured the site on my hosting server and re-launched it via WordPress.org, I will be able to:

• Start making use of all the great plugins I’ve learned about
• Begin integrating affiliate marketing campaigns into my sites
• Develop and execute an email subscription service on my sites

Thirteen Blog Tips

After lunch, I headed to the intriguingly titled “Thirteen Blog Tips from a Thirteen Year Old” to be presented by Emily Lema (yes, the daughter of the aforementioned Chris Lema). Having a 13-year-old kid myself, I was not going to underestimate this one, and I clearly made the right decision. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree idiom is certainly true of this family. Emily was as dynamic a speaker as her father, with the bonus of having a lightening quick sense of humor. She’s already been blogging for 5 years, though sometimes sporadically. Here are her 13 tips:

1. Take your own photos
2. Use headings
3. Have an opinion (they are interesting – anyone can state facts, people go to your page to hear your ideas)
4. Put your picture on the site (in the sidebar) to personalize your blog
5. Always be helpful – give answers, tips, your expert opinion
6. Allow comments
7. Don’t worry about looks (focus on your blog content and don’t be too fussy with your design)
8. Have an About page
9. Finish when your thought is out (don’t worry about word counts)
10. You don’t have to hit publish (remember “Save Draft” is an option)
11. Hit Publish (haha, teenagers) – her point here was don’t try so hard to perfect what you are writing, but make sure to share your thoughts with the world. I heard a good guideline to combat gnawing perfectionism recently – that you should do your best job within the time constraints and the resource constraints you have.
12. Keep at it (it’s okay to take a break, even a few months, and it’s okay to come back to writing)
13. You will find your voice – if you are struggling for topics, think about what you have been doing since the last time you blogged and see if there is something there you can work into a new blog post.

My favorite tips were about giving your opinion and finishing when your thought is out.

As a person who tends to be more of an academic-based, observational writer, I tend to be good at writing facts and I must remember to work toward adding my own opinion to the pieces I write.

I also love the idea of finishing your post when the thought is out. I have been wondering myself, what is a good length for an article. Research has been showing lately that longer articles are getting more views. But maybe this is because the search engines are pushing the longer articles because there are more words available for bots to crawl through to boost the longer articles’ rankings. Maybe search results don’t have such a strong relationship with people’s actual preferences. I love that she gives us permission, that if we have exhausted your own ideas on a subject and the post is just a few paragraphs, so be it, it can still be published.

Plugin-A-Palooza

This being my first WordCamp, I didn’t know what Plugin-A-Palooza was, but it turns out it is a contest for teams of 1 to 3 people to develop a usable plugin in a period of about two months. Six teams competed this year, creating plugins that are now in the WordPress plugin repository. This year’s entries included plugins for debugging, keyboard shortcuts, adapting the WordPress user interface, and a rhythm-based security plugin called Fakeblocks (which was really good at keeping people with a bad sense of rhythm out of WordPress). I didn’t take any notes during this section, instead relaxing and enjoying the gentle ribbing of the developers and the self-deprecating humor of the contest host.

Immediately following was the closing social, in which attendees were served a buffet-style meal and some much-needed sweet treats as they took some final moments to socialize before parting ways.

Closing Thoughts

WordCamp OC gave attendees excellent value for the costs of registering. Sessions were geared toward multiple experience levels of users and focused on enough differing areas to cover the varied interests of people using WordPress. I certainly would consider attending another WordCamp in the future and I am excited to get to work on my two websites, putting the tips I’ve learned into place. Now I’ll conclude my post as Emily Lema recommended – because my thoughts on this topic have run out.