Mullenweg Vs. Pearson on Mixergy.com

A good example of this assimilation was integration of WooTheme’s menu functionality into WordPress 3.0. Of course, the finished product ended up being slightly different (and in my opinion, slightly better) than the original Woo menu, but the important point is that there is now a menu standard that has been readily adopted throughout the theme building community. Almost every new theme takes advantage of this functionality, so it becomes easier to build universally on top of this technology now that you have a set of conventions on which to work.

“Originally themes were designs. Then they became designs with functions stuck on.” –Alex Denning, WPShout

Now, as everybody in the WordPress community has already covered, long-time GPL-hater Chris Pearson has begrudgingly agreed to adopt a partial GPL (Gnu Public License) for his Thesis theme (which he considers to the most important WordPress theme ever, btw). The partial adoption refers to the fact that he has actually decided to split-license his theme, meaning that he GPL’ed the PHP and WordPress functionality that he stole borrowed (seriously, though, you can’t steal GPL code–that’s the whole point of the GPL), but also instituted a more strict propriety license on the theme’s images, CSS and javascripts (which to note, is absolutely kosher).

What does this all mean? It means that Thesis is now GPL compliant because of a hard-fought war of attrition and the dual licenses (which was Matt Mullenweg of WordPress’s idea, btw) really do seem a win for everybody:

1. Automattic (the company behind WordPress) and Matt don’t have to incur a PR nightmare by dragging Pearson to court to set an inherited license precedent (especially silly since so many other major theme authors already adopted the GPL last year). In fact, Matt kinda looks like a bad-ass (Ghandi-style, at least) for persuading Chris to go GPL, using just some well-formed arguments and a couple of online soapboxes, including the infamous tipping-point discussion on Mixergy.com.
2. Chris gets to keep making a fortune off of theme sales (around $2 million so far, according to Chris’s first Mixegy interview), since nobody is allow to resell his theme outright (not with his images and CSS, anyway).
3. Most importantly, the WordPress community can now use Thesis’s functionality in other themes, and hopefully, take what many consider to be a standard-bearing theme admin panel, and turn it into the actual WordPress standard theme admin panel.

As an active ThemeForest downloader, I’ve seen dozens of different options panels, and while some are excellent, most are imitations of older versions of admin panels from the major theme developers, like WooThemes. Imagine, though, if every theme had the same easily updatable options page–making customizations a snap, as well as allowing you to reuse code (or create plugins) that added functionality to each and every theme options page right off the bat.

Another obvious feature that comes with these standards and conventions is exporting/importing. If all future admin panels shared the same hooks, actions, filters and even input id’s, you could easily transfer settings from one site to the next without fear of corrupting your database.

“Sure, there are some limitations with this system. With a set standard, new plugins will likely emerge to fill in the gaps.” — Justin Tadlock

As you can tell, I’m glad to see the walls of proprietary licensing finally fall away from long-time WordPress theme holdouts, like Thesis. There is work to be done, though, and the next step is taking this newest open-sourced theme and integrating either into the core of WordPress, or maybe even into a core theme admin plugin like the import/export function did in WordPress 3.0. One way or another, we need to create efficiencies by aiming to standardize as much of the WordPress backend experience as possible. I know it sounds crazy, but I’d like to one day see WordPress developers focus on web design once again;) If Thesis can become the de facto admin panel, we’ll be well on our way.

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New York Times “Next Post” Animated Button Examples

Just like the NYTimes button, upPrev allows WordPress site admins to provide the same functionality for their readers. When a reader scrolls to the bottom of a single post, a button animates in the page’s bottom right corner, allowing the reader to select the next available post in the single post’s category (the category is also clickable to access an archive page). If no next post exists, no button is displayed.

The plugin’s only current option is choosing a fade-in or a fly-in animation.

It’s absolutely beautiful. I love Grzegorz’s work and I invite you to download the plugin in the WordPress repository.

DEMO | DOWNLOAD

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1. modularizing theme parts
2. enacting naming conventions
3. sharing theme options

I owe an entire post (heck, maybe three) to cover these ideas, but I’m going to save those for another day. But do check out the presentation below. If you were at WordCamp, drop a hello in the comment form, too.

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• Sitemaps and SEO
• Supporter
• Google Analytics

They’ve also got an upcoming plugin to allow automatic default blog content that I’m looking forward to. If I’m lucky, this post will get me a year-long WPMU Dev subscription—fingers crossed!

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Argument #1: Open-Sourced (Free) Beats Proprietary ($)

Expression Engine licenses costs money (here’s their pricing chart). WordPress is free (and open-sourced). Here’s a 2004 post on WordPress.org describing Movable Type’s (at that time, WordPress’s major blog publishing rival) new pricing structure for their developer brand of their software. Here’s the response from WordPress’s Matt Mullenweg regarding MT’s pricing changes:

I have been receiving emails all morning asking if I have any plans to charge for WordPress in the future. The answer is no, but my answer doesn’t matter. The license WordPress is distributed under —the GNU Public License—ensures that the full source is available free of charge, legally.

We saw how well that pricing structure and propriety licensing worked out for Movable Type (it didn’t). Three years later in 2007, MT dropped the licensing costs altogether and officially went open-source. By then, though, a lot of damage had been done to their brand and thousands of their users jumped ship to WordPress.

Open-sourcing WordPress from the beginning was a double-sided advantage for the development of the software. In the short-term, it was obviously free to try WordPress, so lots of people did. There was little commitment to give it a go. As a long-term strategy, though, being open-sourced has  encouraged thousands of people to become involved in the WordPress community (see WordCamp for a great example of what community really means), which is exactly why the software keeps getting better and why there are so many add-ons to help complete a project (this is a great example of Metcalfe’s Law).

Expression Engine, by comparison, has a small community, so you won’t be able to find pre-built themes as easily (just check out ThemeForest to see how many inexpensive, excellent WordPress themes exist) or, more importantly, plugins to fill in the content management systems’ blanks. There are almost 10,000 plugins in the WordPress repository and this isn’t counting all the great premium plugins that are now becoming a viable marketplace on their own (i.e. Gravity Forms and BackupBuddy).

This also means that there is no dearth of WordPress tutorials, blogs, books, forums, meetups, workshops, conferences and consultants (wink, wink) to help you out when you get stuck.

Argument #2: Timely Updates Appease the Masses

Expression Engine is slow to ship.

The EE developers been working on version 2.0 of the software for almost two years now. When I first heard about this big software upgrade, I was like, “Oh, I’m so gonna become an Expression Engine guy”. Well, where the f@#k is EE version 2? Apparently, it’s still in public beta and at this point, it should be done around 2045.

In the meantime, WordPress will have had 50 major upgrades and it will probably be able to cook your toast by then (WordPress averages 2-3 major feature upgrades a year). And somehow, Expression Engine expects its customers to pay for its software when it seems to over-promise and under-deliver.

And did I mention WordPress is free?

I know there have always been a lot of great features in Expression Engine, but WordPress refuses to stand still. The WP 3.0 release is scheduled to be shipped in May 2010 and it will contain all kinds of great changes and features, including multi-site capability, menu editing on the fly and–a long-held Expression Engine feature–custom post-types with custom taxonomies.

Remember, though, even if WordPress is/was missing a killer feature that other CMS’s may have had, plugin developers could usually be counted on to provide that functionality in a stellar manner. Again, the community ensures timely updates, new features and when it needs to, it fills in the gaps through plugins and creative theme development.

With all these great additions to WordPress, I’ll be amazed at what comes next in version 3.1 (due in August 2010). I’ve heard rumors that dynamic image resizing will be included in that release (goodbye TimThumb). And what’ll be included in version 2.1 of Expression Engine? Who knows–I guess we’ll have to ask our grandchildren…

Conclusion

I think that should clear up any questions about the WordPress vs. Expression Engine debate. The clear winner: you (right after you install WordPress through Fantastico–it takes less than 60 seconds). WP is better supported and loved by millions because of (and through) its community.

Expression Engine may someday overtake WordPress as the defacto self-publishing web content management system, but not without first converting all those talented WordPress developers and users.

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To a potential client with a very small budget

As a small business consultant, I can tell you honestly that your limited budget would be better spent directly (and daily) updating your Facebook Fan Page. It’s the cheapest, most effective advertising mechanism you can pursue.

Check out how Freelance Folder works their Facebook Page. They provide semi-daily updates on their page that mirror their blog, but they’re not using any auto Facebook blog posting feature to drive the page because it just makes sense to not fight people’s natural desire not to leave Facebook to go to a different website. On your Fan Page, your posts are cut off and that doesn’t encourage Fan participation (also, you haven’t updated the page in two weeks–it really needs to be updated several times a week).

If you’ll notice, Freelance Folder’s Fan Page posts are short and they often ask questions to their fans. When they’ve got a longer post, they do attach a link to it, but generally speaking, their goal is to collect comments (and “likes”), because your Facebook friends get to see when you comment on something in their own front page Facebook stream (which equals viral marketing).

Anyway, $1,000 isn’t going to get you a new WordPress web design (which usually takes 6-8 weeks to complete) or even much quality domestic development work in general. Plus, your site has limited return appeal (not just yours, but all businesses) and email newsletters aren’t worth the time it takes to publish them (nobody reads email newsletters anymore).

To reiterate, run with the Facebook Fan Page, and take it all the way. I bet you can double the amount of your Fans in two weeks if you post thrice a day (each post taking less than a minute of your time). Ask questions, solicit feedback or take pictures/videos of your products, your store, you–it doesn’t matter. This is also a great place to ask for articles from your Fans like you suggested.

So, I wish you luck with your efforts. If you have any other questions, please let me know. Thank you in advance.

I also posted this reply directly on my college’s Facebook Fan Page shortly after I wrote the above email

Marketing Thoughts: The Outside Eckerd Tumblog should probably have its own “Outside Eckerd” Facebook Fan Page. That way the official Eckerd College fanpage could properly focus on college events, news and maybe even athletic wrapups.

You can always cross promote the Tumblog, but again, this fan page should have more general updates and also, post them more often. By doing so, you’ll receive a lot more comments and “likes”, which is a great and inexpensive way to virally market the school (i.e. increase the fan number). I’m starting to understand that this is the unexplained (and most important) goal of creating and administering a Facebook Fan Page.

To note, I received my International Business degree from Eckerd in 2004, so if this advice is poorly received, you can blame my professors at your institution:)

The point is, I’m starting to really grok the power of Facebook Fan Pages, especially when used properly. It’s only been a while since Facebook introduced the Fan Page (moving away from the near-useless Groups it began with). Do you have any additional Fan Page best practices? Feel free to share them in the comments.

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As the newest product from the iThemes-spinoff, PluginBuddy, this plugin is a unique and surprisingly simple solution for both WordPress developers and end users to prevent data loss (through complete, rather than just database backup) and to migrate their WordPress sites to new servers. The second feature was the most interesting to us—several database backup options already exist (and backing up wp-content files isn’t difficult to do manually) but until now, there has been no true WordPress migration tool. And as developers, we can attest to the amount of site migrations that go on in the site-building world.

After reading several positive reviews, we decided to put the plugin through its paces, so we bucked up and dropped $75 on a Business License (which supports up to 10 sites) to fully test BackupBuddy’s backup and migration capabilites. And here’s what we found (hint: it’s awesome).

BackupBuddy Product Tour from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.

Getting Started with BackupBuddy

Just like any other plugin, BackupBuddy can be installed from the Plugin menu in WordPress administration.  Simply click on “add new,” search and locate the plugin zip file, and start uploading. After uploading, the plugin creates a new Backup Buddy drop down menu in WordPress with the following options:  Getting Started, Backups, Scheduling, and Settings.

The Getting Started menu option is obviously the best place to begin. After a paragraph-long promotional blurb at the top of this menu page, the plugin provides a very concise list of instructions for backing up and restoring the site.

Backup & Restore Instructions from the Backup Buddy “Getting Started” Menu Page

Before making a backup, the user is required to create a password in the Settings section of the Backup Buddy menu. This password will be used when restoring the backup file. After creating the password, the user is ready to navigate to the “Backups” menu section and perform the backup.

Making Your Backup

Upon visiting the Backup menu section, the user will notice that there are two backup options: full backup and database only. Either backup can be initiated by simply clicking the button bearing the name of the backup type. The full backup we performed on a simple WordPress site took only a second. After the zip file is created, the following items appear in the same menu section: file name, date modified, file size, and sending options.

Backup Zip Files Created by Backup Buddy

The two sending options available to the user are “send by FTP” and “send by email.”  We tested the “send by email” option.  On the first attempt, a message with the zip file attached was received in our email account after approximately one hour.

The backup zip files created are given a unique file name containing the date of the backup.  It is important for the user to not change the name of the backup file.  Later, when the backup file is restored, any changes to the file name may cause the file to not be recognized by the PHP import buddy function.

Now that the user has a backup zip file, when he or she is ready to restore the file, the importbuddy.php script must be downloaded.  The Backup section of the menu displays a link for downloading this importing tool.

Restoring and Migrating Your Backup

We took our backup zip file and importbuddy.php script and plugged them into a sandbox web host account.  In order to start the restoration process, the user must navigate to the domain containing the import script (http://2createanebook.com/importbuddy.php, in our test).  The user will then see the following screen:

After entering the password created previously,  the user is taken to step 1 of 4.  In this step, as long as the user has not changed the file name provided by Backup Buddy, the drop down menu should include the name of the zip file loaded onto the destination server.

Step 2 of 4 involves checking to make sure the backup file is indeed the correct file.  In this step, the user can see the site URL, the blog name, and the blog description.

Step 3 of 4 involves the user modifying any old settings in the backup file prior to uploading the contents to the destination server.  In our test, we received a notice that the URL of the backed-up site, https://theschedulecsite.com, did not match the destination URL, which was created purely for testing purposes. While this appears to have not caused a problem during this step, the migration ultimately did not succeed, and this difference in URLs may have had something to do with the failure.

After the user determines that the import data is correct, clicking “Next Step” will start the restoration.

This step passed very quickly, but unfortunately the next screen indicated that an error was experienced during the restoration:

Our First Attempt Failed

Originally, The restoration/migration function did not work for us.  We expected to complete step 4, and then be able to navigate to the destination URL and find a fully functional and restored version of the original site.  Luckily, the plugin developers are busy guys, and the plugin was undated later in the afternoon. The update included a “compatibility mode” that helps migrations on Windows-based webhosts or servers with other wonky configurations.

Wrapping Up

So, in the end, BackupBuddy worked exactly as advertised. It helped me transfer the site exactly as it existed on its previous server. All the images were in tact, and the content was preserved and maybe most helpfully, every single WordPress setting was migrated over, as well. Resetting all those plugin and WordPress settings generally takes a significant amount of time (and a very good memory), so that feature is worth the money alone.

We highly recommend purchasing a BackupBuddy license for your WordPress sites. It’s cheap, easy and you can’t beat the sense of euphoria that comes with a successful website migration. Also, with a purchase, you’ll have access to unlimited BackupBuddy upgrades for a year, including any new features added to the plugin.

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Mr. Hudson:

I read an article last week about passing along gratitude to those who deserve it. If the article was correct, most people do not get thanked much, so when this morning, I again thought about your astrobiology class I attended while at Eckerd College in Fall, 2001 (I actually think about the class quite a bit), I decided I would take a few minutes and give appreciation for a very interesting, very educational and very enjoyable semester with you.

I still think (and talk) about the lessons–both book and otherwise–I learned in astrobiology. In a post-Wikipedia world, that class stands out as the last big information digestion I’ve had in my life. I learned a lot from you and I actually had fun doing so. The class was obviously challenging (this was the last semester before the class went Honors) and thus, incredibly rewarding to receive an A at the end.

I also thoroughly remember completely failing the constellation identification test on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week and having to stay at school an extra day to study and pass the exam the next evening (I appreciate the second chance you gave me, as well). I worked hard in Astrobiology and I’d like to imagine this one class having positively affected my work habits henceforth.

Mr. Hudson, I thank you for your dedication to science, students and learning. Never imagine that your efforts are in vain.

Appreciation is a very rare currency, so it never hurts to say thank you to someone who deserves it. I hope that you’ll take 10 minutes and try it out yourself today!

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Sans Tim Ferris, Item-9 wouldn’t exist. I listened to the Four Hour Workweek audio book several times while I was traveling through Costa Rica and Panama in March 2009. I hadn’t listened to an audio book since I had a go at Huckleberry Finn in fourth grade and I thought that approach might have been easier than actually reading the book. It wasn’t. I learned then that I’m a visual learner (photographic memory and such) and audio is the worst way for me to learn (imagine how poorly I did in my Spanish classes).

Anyway, Tim’s audio book allowed me something I don’t normally do while I read books—I wrote. Specifically, I brainstormed ideas for a business to start when I got back to the States. Before the trip, I had just quit my full-time web development job in Chicago and without the inspiration and case studies I listened to in the Four Hour Workweek, April’s rent (and May, June and July’s, as well) wasn’t going to be met. The book was the catalyst for starting my own consulting company and the rest is history.

As a Chicagoan, Jason Fried is obviously one of the bigger influences on how I run Item-9 Consulting. His company, 37signals, provides two very important tools to my business: Basecamp for project management and Sortfolio for advertising. I’ll admit that I got on the Basecamp bandwagon a bit late and that I often complain about the pricing (oh, how I complain), but the truth is that there is no better PM software available.

And Sortfolio—where would I be without Sortfolio? There probably wouldn’t still be an Item-9 Consulting without the revenue I generated through that site over the last two months. The well was almost dry, but since January 15, 2010, I’ve had a 600% increase in revenue, due 100% to the clients who found me on that service.

Besides these two great services, 37signals is also responsible for the brand new book Rework that I really hope redefines the way all business is done (of course, the recession already started this process two years ago, but again, I’ll save that idea for another post).

Last, but not least, I’ve got to write about Seth Godin. For those of you who don’t know, Seth is marketing. Every word he writes becomes the marketing gospel and he’s been a direct influence upon every English-speaking business person over the last twenty years. I find it hard to have an idea about marketing that this guy hasn’t written about.

Today, he republished some thoughts on the problem of the high school mentality permeating long after graduation and then into college and the work place:

Yet most of my classmates refused to choose. Instead, they treated college like an extension of high school. They took the most mainstream courses, did the minimum amount they needed to get an A, tried not to get into “trouble” with the professor or face the uncertainty of the unknowable. They were the ones who spent six hours a day in the library, reading their textbooks.

These guys don’t just write about marketing—they write about life. Their words help rookies like me continue to move towards some kind of actualization and help veterans who are surrounded by sheep whip their coworkers into shape. I’m thankful for their help and I invite anybody interested in improving their 9-5 day to check them out.

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3. How Freelancers Can Use Retainers to Remove the Guessing From Project Estimates

I had a one-on-one telephone session with Ryan Kovach yesterday about not leaving money on the table with clients, and I’m now thinking of calling the business model mentioned below “micro-retainers” since Ryan advocates using much larger retainers ($20,000+/year) to better sustain a web development business.

Anyway, I still advocate these “micro-retainers” for a number of circumstances, such as:

• You’ve just been introduced to the client and you want to test out the working relationship before you agree to anything long term.
• The client is a jerk and you want to do as little work for them as possible (in that case, you may want to think about firing the client outright. Getting rid of a difficult client is tough in the short-term but pays off richly in the long).
• You’re doing work for a friend

The issue is that these micro-retainers aren’t going to generate a lot of cash (which is fine if you’re working for friend) unless the client gives you permission to burn through the hours freely (eventually, you will run out of work to do, though). It’s probably best to at least double your normal hourly rate and round up your tasks to the nearest half hour (within reason, of course). That way, all the little things you do for a client, like project manage and provide quick responses to their emails, get accounted for in the end. It’s also important to note that your availability is worth something to the client (probably a lot, actually).

It’s nice not to have to burn out on a project to make rent, as well as give yourself the ability to count research, communication and other similar extracurricular work towards your clients’ workload, all of which probably accounted more fairly in a monthly/yearly retainer setup.

Now, back to the original post…

Lawyers love retainers, and as a web, print, copy or any other type of freelancer, you should, too. It takes a while to figure out a comfortable project pricing structure (not to mention the main variables that go into pricing, such as the hourly rate and estimated time), so I can understand any hesitation to try something new. But instead of forcing every project into a static, long-term contractual price, a lot of times it’s just easier to at first offer a retainer and see where the project goes from there.

This is an example of an estimate I’ve sent to a client in the past using the Ballpark web app by Metalab (to note, Ballpark is an awesome, affordable and beautiful estimate and invoice creator). This estimate, like almost all estimates, entails a lot of guessing. That’s exactly why it’s called an estimate.

Now, I, like most freelance web developers would have, used this initial estimate as my first, last and only bill to my customer. Of course, I turned the estimate into an invoice first, but hardly ever will the project price change from the beginning of the project to the end. That’s why I’ve always tried to accurately estimate time for web projects, but like Smashing Magazine wrote, underestimation is common because:

• The technologies required by the project have never been used before
• At the time of estimating, there are grey areas or complete unknowns
• The client operates in a specialized industry and the solution needs bespoke features that are not familiar to the supplier
• Splitting the project down into the detail would require as much as work as the requirements gathering phase that is chargeable

As well as:

• The client needs an estimate for their project tomorrow or they will go elsewhere
• Revenue needs for cash flow now trump the effects of not winning the new work now
• No previous project ‘estimated vs. actual’ data analysis has been conducted to draw on
• Estimating time for a project is not fun!

So, 90% of the time, the freelancer is going to get screwed on the estimate. My guess is that 9.9% of the time, the client gets screwed (I use the term loosely—as long as the site is completed within the contractual constraints of the project, the client is generally happy). That leaves 0.1% of all estimates that accurately reflected the correct amount of time it took to accomplish the project. (Of course, any time valuation should to be taken with a grain of salt because what takes an hour today might take 90 minutes or 45 minutes tomorrow depending on all external factors, not the least of which is distraction).

The bigger point here is that clients hate unexpected change, especially a price increase due to underestimation on your part. There are few things more likely to guarantee that you won’t be asked to do second project with a client than raising the cost of your invoice halfway through a project (in fact, most contracts aren’t going to permit this anyway, so again, you’ll likely eat the extra time and costs yourself, anyway).

Using a Retainer to Eliminate Guessing

Herein lies the beauty of the retainer block. You might already be using retainers after the project is complete for tasks like website maintenance or social media marketing (if you’re not, you should—it’s a great way to earn residual income).

I know some developers charge a monthly rate for site upkeep, but again, this is just another inaccurate way to price a project. What happens when the client needs something done, but it falls outside of the normal scope of maintenance? Chances are, the client is going to:

1. Be afraid to ask you and go elsewhere else with the task, or
2. You’re going to end up completing the task on your own time, AKA Scope Creep

Getting into the retainer habit after projects were completed allowed me to see an opportunity I was missing with my potential clients. I get a lot of work requests, especially from local business owners that tell me that they have a limited budget. In the past, I might have ignored these requests because I didn’t have much to gain. I would likely spend an hour giving them free consulting advice, but in the end, they wouldn’t have the budget to move forward with their project and work with me. It would have been a wash for both of us.

Now, once I figure out that the client’s budget isn’t going to garner a full site redevelopment (pretty much anyone talking below $1,000), I immediate push them towards purchasing a retainer block so at least we can address their most pressing website needs. This might not be perfect for every situation (some clients do not have websites at all or their sites might be completely useless), but for the most part, my team and I can accomplish some serious results in five hours of time, including:

• Adjust and simplify the site navigation to be more like what visitors expect when they visit a website
• Improve the home page to not look like a blog
• Clean up the footer and add useful information like a phone number and address
• Add a popover plugin to increase email or social media participation
• Update WordPress or plugin versions

The best part is, most of these tasks only take about 15 minutes for me to do, whereas the client either doesn’t know how to do these or more likely, doesn’t even realize how important they are to his site.

Another good feature of using a retainer is that if I outsource the task to one of my team members, I don’t have to think very hard about how to split up the tab (I hire my team using a retainer system, as well, just in the opposite direction and at a slightly lower rate than what I charge my clients).

At the end of the retainer block, my team and I tally up all the time and tasks we recorded using a time tracker client and submit the time sheet to the client. At that point, the client can re-up for another retainer block or we can choose to go our separate ways (hopefully, with a LinkedIn recommendation in tow, though).

In the end, I’m able to:

• Pick up work that I normally would have lost,
• Get paid accurately and fairly for any work I might do
• And maybe most importantly, I get to try out clients before engaging in a long-term contract with them.

I’m calling this system the Retainer Revolution and I truly think that all businesses will move away from the salary system (where work does not come even close to equaling pay) and into this retainer format for all personnel within the next ten years. I guess we’ll just have to see what the experts have to say about these matters. Stay tuned…

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