I am attending and presenting at WordCamp Savannah this weekend and am really looking forward to it.  From what I understand, Savannah has a young WordPress community full of true beginners and people just getting started with WordPress.  Jane Wells is doing a bang up job in organizing a local WordPress community there, and this is just the beginning.  I’m thrilled to help!

I arrive in Savannah tomorrow, early afternoon, which leaves the rest of the afternoon and evening getting acquainted with Savannah. Any recommendations would be welcome!  I’m staying right on the river – just 1/2 mile away from the venue, the SCAD River Club.

There is a session all day on Friday titled “Get Your WordPress Here!” that is meant for true beginners — we’re talking about people who have never installed WordPress before.  They are tasked with bringing a laptop, some pre-prepared posts and content for some basic pages.  The entire day will be a beginners Workshop for folks who are brand new to WordPress.

I’m following up with that group on Saturday at 11:45 am with my session titled “WordPress For Dummies: LIVE Q&A“.  New users will spend the day Friday learning about getting started with WordPress, then attend my session on Saturday to follow-up with your burning questions.  Keep in mind, my session is user-focused and is meant for beginners … so I will not be addressing or discussing questions related to advanced topics (WC Savannah has a developers track for the more geeky among us!).

I don’t have any slides prepared or any specific talk planned.   What I do have planned is an informal chat where we will discuss the topics the audience wants to know about.  I plan to do this by taking questions from the attendees about topics related to getting started with the WordPress platform.   I will very much be winging it and am looking forward to meeting everyone who attends!

As a bonus – I will be giving away 10 copies of my latest book, WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition. This book is hot off the presses (released early August 2010) and is in keeping with the theme of my sessions, which is to help new users explore the WordPress platform and discover how they can use it to freely, and easily, publish content on the WWW.  I will be on hand all weekend to sign your copy, if you’d like — and if we’re lucky, since Matt Mullenweg (Co-Founder of WordPress)  will be in attendance – maybe we can get him to sign it too!  Keep our fingers crossed!

WordCamp Savannah has an amazing line up of speakers ready to present on topics for users and developers, alike!  I’m looking forward to a great weekend of learning, sharing and meeting new people.  AND visiting Savannah for the first time … roaming around and getting to know the place a little!

If you’re planning on attending and will be there this weekend – please stop me and say hi!

Related posts:

1. WordCamp NYC, BuddyPress & Me!
2. WordPress All In One Desk Reference
3. WordCamp Chicago 2009

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 2 comments |
Read more in: savannah, WordCamp, WordPress

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

I would give a word of thanks and gratitude to Wiley Publishing, in particular my editor Amy Fandrei for their continued support, encouragement and faith in me as an author of their most popular series of books on the WordPress platform!

WordPress Web Design For Dummies will focus completely on designing web sites with WordPress.  The book assumes you already have knowledge of how to use WordPress (ie: you have already read my other book, WordPress For Dummies) – and you want to learn more about designing web sites with WordPress.

This book is for:

• Bloggers who want to spice up their existing WordPress blogs
• Designers who want to delve into WordPress theme design practices
• Anyone who wants to learn how to make child themes based on popular theme frameworks
• Folks who would like to explore using WordPress as a CMS to create sites for
  • E-Commerce to sell products and services
  • Photo Galleries and Portfolios
  • Social Communities using BuddyPress (extending on the information in my other book,BuddyPress For Dummies)
  • Small and large business
  • …and more!

I am currently in the process of writing this book (yes – in tandem with my other new book: WordPress All In One Desk Reference!) and have fast-tracked the writing process in hopes of getting it out on the shelves by early 2011!

I would like to hear from you!

As I am delving into the chapters over the next 2-3 months – I would love to hear from the WordPress designing public on what topics you would like to see covered in depth in a book like this? I cannot promise I will cover every single possible design topic known to man – - but as it relates to WordPress, would love to hear of any areas you would like to read and learn about and I will do my absolute best to make sure its covered.

What do you think? What areas of WordPress web design would you like to read about??

Related posts:

1. WordPress For Dummies – Available Monday 10/29
2. It's Official – BuddyPress For Dummies
3. WordCamp NYC, BuddyPress & Me!

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 14 comments |
Read more in: CSS, Design, For Dummies, themes, Web Design, WordPress

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

Now that the radio show is over and the announcement has gone public there, I feel good about announcing it here, as well.

As many of you may have guessed – it is another book project..with a little different twist to it this time, though!

A few months back, I was having a talk with my editor at Wiley Publishing, Amy Fandrei – mostly talking about what it would take for me to finish up writing the 3rd Edition of WordPress For Dummies and what was happening with the 3.0 development of WordPress, etc.  That lead us into a talk about some more advanced topics surrounding WordPress – - more advanced than what my Dummies book covers.  Let’s face it – a For Dummies book is meant to be for beginners and intermediate users, right?  But what about a book that covers the WHOLE gammut?  A reference book that is useful for a wide variety of users – -so that beginners can start with it, and as they continue to grow – can continue to use the resource to step into areas of WordPress that they may never have tried before.

This discussion lead to me signing the contract for a brand new WordPress related book under the Wiley Publishing roof.  This new book is in the process of being written right now and it is slated to be a 940 page book (approximately) and it is called … The WordPress All In One Desk Reference.  (I can’t even link it yet, because it’s so new that Amazon.com doesn’t even have a whiff of it yet!)

What’s SO exciting about the WordPress All In One Desk Reference is that is not just ME writing the book!  This time around – it is a fully collaborative effort that involves a group of authors that I hand picked to help me write the text — as a reader of the book, you will benefit from the voice and experience of different WordPress experts from their specific area of expertise – and so far, we are all having a BLAST! Here are my partners in crime for the WordPress All In One Desk Reference book – and a little bit about what their role in the book is:

• Lisa Sabin-Wilson (@LisaSabinWilson) – Author of WordPress For Dummies and BuddyPress For Dummies, owner and creative designer at E.Webscapes and co-owner of BA Hosting.  Lisa is writing the text on the overall WordPress user experience from (soup to nuts) the mechanics of installing, configuring and using the software to publish a blog and/or web site on the internet.
• Cory Miller (@CoryMiller303) – Owner and founder of iThemes Media, Plugin Buddy and WebDesign.com.  Cory is authoring sections of the book on WordPress Themes from beginner level on through to Advanced theme design, theme admin options, theme functions  and frameworks.
• Michale Torbert (@MichaelTorbert) – Developer of the insanely popular WordPress All In One SEO plugin and owner of Semperfi Web Design.  Michael is contributing TONS of information on WordPress plugins – - from the basic installation and use of plugins to taking you through steps on how to write your own WordPress plugins, including best practice and standards.
• Andrea Rennick (@Andrea_R) – The WordPress community loves Andrea from their experience with her in the WP and WPMU support forums and from her site WPMUTutorials.  Andrea is an expert in the area of WordPress MU and when 3.0 merged the MU code base, Andrea and her husband, Ron, were the immediate ‘go to’ people.  Andrea is busily writing all of the chapters that cover the use of the WordPress Multi Site features – - she will take you through how to activate it, set it up and configure it — as well as taking you through the user experience, plugins and themes and troubleshooting references and real world expeirences to help you build and grow your own network.
• Kevin Palmer (@KevinPalmer) – Owner of SocialMediaAnswers.com and an SEO and Social Media guru in his own right. Kevin is contributing a section of the book on how to use WordPress as a social media hub, gobs of informative and resourceful text and content on SEO practices, Analytics and reputation management.  I’ve already read a few of his chapters – and did you know all of the above can be done directly from your WordPress Dashboard??  Good stuff!

There you have it!  The WordPress All In One Desk Reference book is set to publish in early Spring 2011, brought to you by the aforementioned motley crew band of merry gentlemen, and ladies.  We are all hard at work, collaborating on the book and working together to bring you a desk reference that will be a must have!  We’re all excited about this project and can’t wait for you to read, learn and enjoy!

Related posts:

1. WordPress For Dummies – Bonus Chapter
2. WordPress For Dummies 3rd Edition available
3. WordPress for Dummies

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 31 comments |
Read more in: andrea rennick, book, Cory Miller, kevin palmer, michael torbert, Wiley Publishing, WordPress, wordpress all in one desk reference, wordpress book, wordpress resource, WPMU

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

(Been waiting, and waiting for this new release  – - now I can finally redesign this site.  It needs it BADLY!)

Aside from LOVE loving this release and all the great new features, I’ve had to keep a close eye on development in order to finish writing the THIRD edition of WordPress For Dummies! I finished it a few weeks ago and as you read this, it should be whizzing its way through final production . . . then print!

WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley Pub.) is now available on Amazon.com for pre-order.  This edition of the book was, almost, completely re-written and covers all the basics about the WordPress platform – including all the great new features that version 3.0 brings to its users, including how to set up and use the new Multi Site features so you can run more than one blog or web site on ONE installation of the WordPress software, how to use the custom menu feature to build and create your own custom navigation menus, a comprehensive look at the NEW default WordPress theme called Twenty Ten, using custom post types to create new ways to present different types of content – - as well as the rest of the information you’ve come to expect from WordPress For Dummies – - getting YOU up and running on your own WordPress powered web site … making it easy to understand so you can concentrate on the important stuff, like your content and your readers!  Reserve your copy today to make sure you’re getting the most up-to-date information and resource that only a For Dummies book can give you.

While you’re at it, you may also want to nab a copy of my other book, BuddyPress For Dummies, which takes you through all of the information you need to know about setting up the suite of plugins for WordPress called BuddyPress.  My book takes you through deciding if BuddyPress is right for you and your web site, how to install and set it up and how to use all it’s fantastic features that allow you to run a fully functional and full-featured social community on your own domain!  Did you know that you can run BuddyPress on a regular installation of WordPress?  It used to be that you were required to use the Multi User (now known as Multi Site) version of WordPress – - but you CAN set it up on your regular WordPress.org installation and, with 3.0, you don’t even have to use the Multi Site features.  My book takes you through it – check it out! (don’t forget about my FREE BuddyPress Webinar on June 23rd that I announced last week!)

I also started a new e-mail newsletter that you may want to check out (click the link, or you can fill out the sign up form beneath this post, or over in my right sidebar).   When you sign up for it, you will receive 2 weeks of free, daily WordPress tips written by me as a way of saying THANKS for reading!  I also send out regular announcements on new projects, book releases, public/speaking appearances and different specials that I run for WordPress design and consulting over at my business web site, E.Webscapes.  Give it a shot – sign up today – -  get 2 weeks of free WordPress tips and let me know how you like them!  My daily tips cover fun, practical and useful information on using WordPress.

What’s next now that WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition is finished??  If you know me well enough, you know that I always, always have a fun new project up my sleeve just WAITING for one project to complete so I can move on to the next one.  I DO have something that has been in the works for several months that is just now getting rocking and rolling and I’m really excited to be able to announce it.  BUT, I’m not announcing it today… in this post (sorry!).

There is a reason I’ve held on to the information this long and have recently been giving the ‘go ahead’ to announce it publicly.  My good friend, Jeff Chandler, runs a pretty popular and highly trafficked, and very informative WordPress web site over at WP Tavern and he also does a weekly WordPress radio show on Saturdays at 2pm EST (Jeff also has an excellent forum on his site with an available VIP membership – - the forum is a very valuable source of information all about WordPress – check it out!)

At WordCamp Raleigh, I was teasing Jeff a bit with some minor details of this new project and he wanted me to tell him so bad – but I couldn’t, not at that time.  But I did promise him that when I was able to announce it – I would do it, first, on his radio show.  I keep my promises!

SO – tomorrow … Saturday, June 19, 2010 … at 2pm EST I will be on Jeff’s WordPress Weekly radio show – - along with 4 other people who are collaborating with me on this project, to announce my latest project coming down the pike that I think will be of great interest and benefit to the WordPress community.  If I’ve piqued your interest – - drop by the show and join us! We’ll also be talking a bit about WordCamp Chicago – - a little WordPress weekend conference that I organized in Chicago, Illinois and was attended by 500 WordPress peeps!  It was a great success – just haven’t had a chance (read: the time) to post about it – - but plan to soon, complete with LOTS of photos!

That is all.

Related posts:

1. WordPress For Dummies: An Update
2. My Free BuddyPress Webinar at WebDesign.Com
3. WordPress For Dummies – Bonus Chapter

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 13 comments |
Read more in: buddypress, For Dummies, WordCamp, WordPress, Wordpress books, WP Weekly

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

I speak on the topic of BuddyPress often, as a matter of fact, I just finished up a presentation at the WordCamp in Raleigh, North Carolina this past weekend and it’s great to see how excited people are about BuddyPress. It also amazes me how many people do not yet know what BuddyPress is – or how they can use it to add that layer of social networking to their WordPress site!

In my webinar, you will discover the following:

• What BuddyPress is …. and what it isn’t
• The features available within BuddyPress
• How each of the features work to create a social network on your site
• How different web sites are using BuddyPress today to power their own social community

Click here to sign up for my FREE BuddyPress Webinar on June 23rd at 1pm CST. It’s free. It will last about an hour and is being moderated/emcee’d by my pal Cory Miller of iThemes and WebDesign.com

In February of this year, I published BuddyPress For Dummies (Wiley Pub.), which makes a great companion to my other book, WordPress For Dummies.Wiley Publishing wanted to publish a book on BuddyPress because they acknowledge the emerging popularity of the BuddyPress suite of plugins and how it empowers WordPress users to take control over their own social networking content. The book is doing pretty well and is a nice way for people to get introduced to the BuddyPress software, how to install it on your WordPress site, how to set up and use its great social features and how to customize it for your own community. If you don’t have a copy, pick one up today!

Related posts:

1. WordCamp NYC, BuddyPress & Me!
2. It's Official – BuddyPress For Dummies
3. WordPress, BuddyPress and Social Media at F5Expo

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 12 comments |
Read more in: buddypress, WebDesign.com, Webinar, WordPress

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

I haven’t blogged a lot about my travel experiences – and I do intend to.  It’s been a crazy month, so hence the lack of posts here.  However, I do want to tell you about my experience in Oklahoma with the crew from iThemes, including some of the exciting stuff that they have going on over there, and why you should pay attention.   The folks from iThemes are putting out some amazing products that I want to bring to your attention here.  Aside from their iThemes offerings of premium WordPress themes, they started up their PluginBuddy site a few months ago and made available some killer plugins that you should be using – - some of them are free, some of them are not, but all around, they are invaluable and fill a big void, as far as I’m concerned:

Backup Buddy – I downloaded this particular plugin on the very day they released it and love it! Now, I recommend it to everyone I know because I’ve found it to be an invaluable tool for the work I do. It’s called Backup Buddy and it gives you the ability to fully backup your WordPress blog easily. This isn’t like exporting your posts and content via the WordPress exporter – - this plugin backs up EVERYTHING – - your content, themes, plugins, settings, options – everything! It also has a built in importer option that gives you the ability to import backups to restore your WordPress powered site in a flash. From a developer and designer standpoint, this has made my life SO much easier. I often create ‘sandbox’ or ‘test bed’ development sites while working on my client projects. With Backup Buddy – I can now get my sandbox development site set up just right with the necessary themes, plugins and options settings – - then I create a backup copy of it using BackUp Buddy .. and then import it into a new installation of WordPress (using the Backup Buddy import script) and I’m done. I don’t have to sit there and activate themes, plugins and then go through and set the plugin options and theme settings all over again, because the plugin takes care of all of that for me. It also has an option to schedule regular backups of your site, automatically. A description from their own web site:

BackupBuddy is an all-in-one solution for backups, restoration, and migration. The single backup file created by the plugin can be used with the importer script to quickly and easily restore your site on the same server or even migrate to a new host with different settings. Whether you’re an end user or a developer, this plugin is sure to bring you peace of mind and added safety in the event of data loss. Our goal is to keep the backup, restoration, and migration processes easy, fast, and reliable.

Pluginbuddy Mobile – This fantastic plugin creates a really nice iPhone version of your site for mobile browsers. It has a built-in style manager that gives you the ability to create and customize a mobile version of your site that displays beautifully in several different mobile browser systems, such as : Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Android Device, Palm Device, Blackberry Device, Windows CE Device, Mobile IE, Sony Playstation Portable, Sony Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.  Whew!

The team at Pluginbuddy,  headed up by developer Dustin Bolton, have really worked hard on this one.  It’s a really simple and easy way to make sure your web site renders well on mobile devices – I’m working with it currently on several client sites and it’s easy to use and an excellent mobile browsing plugin solution for WordPress.

iThemes Pluginbuddy has a few other plugins that you may also be interested in checking out:

• Billboard – Ad Management Plugin
• ServerBuddy – Free WP plugin to check hosting & security
• Billboard & Rotating Images Plugin
• PluginBuddy Developer Suite

I had the opportunity to share experiences with the iThemes community in Oklahoma City in April, 2010

To kick off the event, I spoke on my own experiences with WordPress, spoke a little about opportunities that WordPress offers its users and spoke a little about BuddyPress.  This was a crowd that was really engaged, passionate and curious about how they can leverage the publishing power of WordPress.  Lots of great questions and feedback and I had a super time.

While there, iThemes did some give-aways of my BuddyPress For Dummies book to the people who attended Builder Bootcamp.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the attendees brought their copy of WordPress For Dummies for me to sign for them – that was a bonus!  Many of them even made the trek across the street to the local Barnes and Nobel to purchase a copy of WordPress For Dummies so I could sign it – - that was fun!  I ended up signing about 50 books that weekend – - so I had the chance to brush up on my autographing skills!

The rest of the weekend saw iThemes team members like Matt Danner, Chris Jean, Cory Miller and Benjamin Bradley (of the iThemes WebDesign.com division) speaking on various topics such as design, plugins, marketing and promotions – along with a really helpful Q&A session with their community at the end.

I learned about their Builder theme, which is a WordPress theme framework that enables you to create several different types of layouts with just one theme.  Chris Jean is the brains and developer behind the Builder framework and they’ve built a really cool community of users who are using the Builder framework to create dynamic WordPress sites. Check it out if you have some time – it might just fit into what you’re trying to do with WordPress, with 9 different child themes to choose from (and more coming), a built in style manager and a dedicated SEO plugin – - and the support team at iThemes is second to none – - this is really a super group of folks.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to meet members of the iThemes community, like Lynn Dye (pictured with me on the left) — who, by the way, expressed an interest in interviewing me for her own blog while I was in Oklahoma – - she published her experiences at Builder Bootcamp, as well as the interview she did with me on her blog.

I had the chance to sit and talk one-on-one with iThemes founder, Cory Miller, about what they’ve been up to and what the future holds for the iThemes brand – it was an enjoyable and enlightening weekend and very much worth the time spent in Oklahoma City.  Cory, and his wife Jen, are super nice people – aside from being wholly impressed with what they’ve built…I just flat out like them.  I’m looking forward to seeing them again at WordCamp Raleigh and talking with them more about some exciting future collaborations.

Some upcoming events that I’ll be attending in the next month:

• WordCamp Raleigh – May 21-23
• WordCamp Chicago – June 5-6

Related posts:

1. iThemes Builder Bootcamp April 23-24th
2. WordPress 2.0
3. Saying Goodbye to Sponsored Themes

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 8 comments |
Read more in: backup buddy, buddypress, builder bootcamp, Cory Miller, ithemes, oklahoma city, pluginbuddy, WordPress, WordPress Plugins

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

iThemes creates premium WordPress themes, plugins and they host ‘BootCamps’ for their clients, and anyone else who wants to learn about how they can use the iThemes Builder WordPress theme framework to make awesome web sites.

But, let me backup a little bit here. . .

I had mentioned my trip to Austin for the SXSW Interactive conference that I attended in March.  If you EVER get the chance to go, I highly recommend it.  Each and every single time I attend SXSW, the networking and opportunities that you can find there are amazing!  While there this year, I had the fortunate opportunity to spend some quality time with the great folks over at iThemes: Cory Miller, Matt, Danner, James Dalman and Brad Ulrich.  These are a great group of guys and their passion for designing great web sites and giving users the tools to enable them to do it is contagious!

Check out the video interview I did with Cory Miller – it was a lot of fun!

So, I met up with them – had dinner with them and enjoyed a lot of shop talk.  The end result ended up being a very gracious invitation to have me join them for their upcoming Builder Bootcamp in Oklahoma City April 23-24th, 2010.  I couldn’t turn it down — so I’m very happy to announce that I will be joining their Builder Bootcamp, giving a little talk to their group about why using WordPress is such an awesome idea because it’s such a fantastic content management system.

We will also be giving away signed copies of my book WordPress For Dummies while I’m there and I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone who is attending.  Here are a few of the great topics they will be covering during their 2-day event:

• The keys and benefits to using WordPress as a CMS
• How to install and optimize WordPress for search engine optimization and every day use
• The best tools to use for WordPress and Builder web design
• How to backup, restore and secure your WordPress sites
• What WordPress theme files do and how Builder works
• Graphic design tips and tricks to personalize your WP sites
• Tips for customizing Builder with Child Themes and CSS through Style Manager
• How to make your website a marketing hub for your clients and yourself

Tickets are still available – however, there are only 20 seats left, so if you are in the OKC area and are able to make it – go on over and register today (tell them I sent you over, that will make me feel all warm and fuzzy!)

As an aside – - I have some announcements coming over the next month (or so) about some exciting collaborations I am doing with the WebDesign.com team – headed up by iThemes founder, Cory Miller and WebDesign.com’s Vice-President, James Dalman.  Exciting stuff coming in the near future, and I will announce as soon as I am able!

In the meantime, if you are able and/or interested in making it to Oklahoma City for the iThemes Builder Bootcamp and would like more information – drop me a comment in this post, and I’ll get you the info you need!

Big thanks to Cory Miller and the iThemes team for including me in their weekend of Bootcamp fun – I’m really looking forward to it!

Related posts:

1. ServerBeach at SXSW
2. SXSW Craziness!
3. Saying goodbye to 2008

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 15 comments |
Read more in: builder bootcamp, Design, ithemes, oklahoma city, themes, WordPress

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

I am doing several things at the F5Expo - it’s really exciting!  The event is on April 7th 2010 and is being held at the Vancouver Convention Center.

First, I am speaking on a panel called  The Metrics of Social Media – my co-panelists include:

• Alfredo Tan – Senior Director of Sales, Facebook
• Darren Barefoot – Author: Friends with Benefits
• Kris Krug – President, Bryght

What a line up!  I am excited to be a part of the panel talking about how to effectively market your business using social communities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and Squidoo.  What do I bring to the table on this panel?  Why WordPress and BuddyPress, of course!  This panel also explores the possibility of hosting your OWN social community on your own domain and why that may be, in some cases, a better plan and using the other networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as a second layer of your marketing strategy.  (teaser: it’s all about who owns your content, your traffic and your community)

Second – I’m running TWO workshops at F5Expo:

• WordPress For Dummies -  How some of today’s leading companies are using WordPress. Attending this workshop does not infer that you are a ‘Dummy’ by any stretch of the imagination! Instead, it is meant to explore the ease in which individuals and small business are able to host a dynamic, interactive and useful web site of their own for the very low cost of free. Together, we will have a look at how some of today’s leading companies are using WordPress to runs sites that range from basic blogs to fully integrated web sites with portfolios, galleries, e-commerce and more!
• Building Your Community with BuddyPress – Helping you determine if BuddyPress is right for your site. This workshop introduces you to the features available, aimed toward helping you make the decision if BuddyPress is right for your site, and has features that you would like to add to enhance and grow a social community on your own domain.

BIG thanks to the crew over at PEER1 Hosting for sponsoring both of my workshops at F5Expo.  I’m very excited to be working with Peer1 again.  My good friend, Rajan Sodhi from PEER1 and ServerBeach will be there – and having just come off a fabulous trip to Austin for the SXSW Interactive festival where I had the opportunity to spend some time catching up with the whole ServerBeach SanAntonio crew – I’m excited to hook up with their Vancouver crew to round out the month!

If I am lucky – I may even get the opportunity to meet Malcom Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, & What the Dog Saw.  Malcom is keynoting the event – definitely something to look forward to!

If you are in Vancouver, and/or attending F5Expo – drop me a line!  I’m there from April 6-8th – and who knows, maybe I’ll even climb the mountain again while I’m there!

Related posts:

1. It's Official – BuddyPress For Dummies
2. WordCamp NYC, BuddyPress & Me!
3. BuddyPress

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 14 comments |
Read more in: buddypress, f5expo, Social Media, WordPress

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

This conference will focus on educating people on how to utilize internet marketing and social media to drive strategic business results, increase profits, and lower costs.  Think Tank Live is committed to providing high level insights that will provide real-world results for your business.

Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Time: 8:30am – 5pm
Location: Country Springs Hotel, 2810 Golf Road, Waukesha, WI
Tickets: Regular admission – $225.00 prior to the event, and $275.00 at the door. Includes Continental Breakfast and Lunch.

You can read the PR Press Release about the event, and visit the Think Tank Live! web site for more information on the event.

I am privileged to be sharing the speakers podium with other talented individuals such as:

	Mary A. DuQuaine: I.M. Think Tank Founder, Community Engagement and Events Specialist
	David Dalka: Search Engine Marketing Management Consultant, I.M. Think Tank Content Management Advisor
	James Bird: Owner, Marshal Firth – Affiliate Marketing
	Christopher Campbell: Owner, SEO Specialist at Lakeshore Branding
	Chris King: SEO & Web Analytics Specialist
	Mert Sahinoglu: Integrated Marketing Specialist
	Jo Stumpner: Pay-Per-Click Marketing Specialist
	Tony Verre: Owner, Silver Arc Search Marketing
	Seng Weiland, Marketing Consultant

I’m happy to be a part of Think Tank Live in February – if you’re in the Milwaukee area, I hope you’ll think about going – and if you do, be sure to seek me out to say hello!

Related posts:

1. WordCamp Chicago – A sold out event
2. Web414 – Milwaukee's Web Community
3. Forgot to mention: Web414 June Meet Up

© 2010 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 11 comments |
Read more in: public speaking, search marketing, Social Media, think tank live

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!

So I’m headed to bed for the night after working on my presentation for WordCamp NYC and thought I would put my money where my mouth is about attending WordCamp – - I would simply like to sponsor 10 attendees who would not otherwise have gone.  That’s right – I’ll pay your ticket price to get you in the door.. all you have to do is get there.  Game?

Pay attention – here are the rules:

1. I’m going to sleep right now – I’m exhausted.
2. Retweet this post
3. I’ll wake up in the morning
4. I’ll have my coffee first (this is an absolute requirement – I will NOT be bending this rule…not even a little, so don’t ask!)
5. Pick 10 random retweeters (who are NOT already registered – feel free to retweet and spread the news for those of you already registered) and send them an email to arrange their WordCamp NYC ticket
6. If I don’t have 10 takers by morning – I’ll keep this going all week until I have 10 people interested and registered.

Why am I doing this?  Just because I’m sometimes random… sometimes spontaneous and sometimes get caught up in the excitement and spirit of things like WordCamp that I just want to share the fun and experience.  Really – that’s it!

Can I get a re-tweet??

Related posts:

1. WordCamp NYC, BuddyPress & Me!
2. WordCamp Chicago 2009
3. WordCamp Chicago opens registration

© 2009 Lisa Sabin-Wilson, author of WordPress For Dummies . | Permalink | 18 comments |
Read more in:

Lisa is the Owner and Creative Director of E.Webscapes Design Studio where she provides custom design solutions for WordPress users, worldwide. Browse Portfolio | Read the Design Blog | Place an order

Join Lisa's Newsletter today and receive FREE WordPress tips every day for 2 WEEKS - delivered to you daily. Members also receive FIRST notice of book news, appearances, specials on design and services - and more!