In November 2006, I was approached by Wiley Publishing to author the official Dummies book for the WordPress software. They heard of me through word of mouth from people who know me as an experienced designer and WordPress consultant. I wrote WordPress For Dummies and it was published in November 2007 and stayed at the #1 top spot on Amazon.Com in the category of Blogging books for 7 solids months, and today, still remains in the top 5. I recently finished writing and revising the book in December 2008 and will publish WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition in Jan/Feb 2009 and it will cover the most recent updates to the WordPress platform, through the latest version of 2.7 .

In the meantime, because of the fast-paced development of the WordPress software, I recently published a bonus chapter for readers of my book that covers the most recent updates to the WordPress platform. The WordPress For Dummies Bonus Chapter: What’s New in WordPress 2.5 (PDF) can be downloaded here.

I was an early adopter of WordPress - having moved from the Movable Type blogging platform to WordPress in 2003. I truly enjoy and appreciate its flexibility and extensibility for my personal, and business, web sites.

I am the owner of a very busy design studio called E.Webscapes that provides design and development solutions for several hundreds of bloggers and web site owners, world wide. Though E.Webscapes does provide solutions for other platforms, like Movable Type, Expression Engine and Typepad - approximately 95% of our business, design and consulting work revolves around the use of WordPress as a Content Management System. E.Webscapes has been in the business of designing custom solutions for WordPress users since 2003, and today, remains one of the busiest provider of quality, professional custom designs and development for WordPress users.

Together with my husband, Chris, we own and operate a full service web hosting company called Blogs About Hosting. Started in 2002, Blogs About Hosting has an emphasis on blogs and bloggers, particularly the use of the WordPress and WordPress MU platforms for site development. I am in the nicely unique position of being able to provide our hosted clients with experienced and comprehensive WordPress technical support. It surely doesn’t hurt to have a web host who wrote the book on WordPress, right? Approximately 98% of our hosted clients at Blogs About Hosting run WordPress, or WordPress MU, as their platform of choice for managing the content on their web sites and blogs.

I speak frequently at meetings, groups and conferences on topics related to WordPress design, development and consulting. Recently, I gave a presentation to the Milwaukee Web Development Community, Web414, on the topic of WordPress Design and Development (June 2008). I also recently spoke at the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive Festival on the topic of WordPress and my book, WordPress For Dummies, in Austin Texas (March 2008). I was also a panelist at the 2006 South by Southwest Interactive Festival on the topic of blog design, emphasizing the use of WordPress as the development tool. I am currently available for speaking engagements, if you are interested, please do contact me directly.

I truly enjoy the opportunities that have been available to me in shedding some light on the WordPress platform and showing how very easy it is for users of all levels of experience to use. That, together with its flexibility… your presence on the web really knows know bounds!