Item-9 Consulting » News http://item-9.com Web Design, Marketing, WordPress Development Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:37:16 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Improving WordPress Theme Development through Standardization http://item-9.com/2010/06/improving-wordpress-theme-development-through-standardization/ http://item-9.com/2010/06/improving-wordpress-theme-development-through-standardization/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:52:11 +0000 Jason Pelker http://item-9.com/?p=836 Related Posts
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]]> I spoke at WordPress Chicago on June 6, 2010. In my presentation, I spoke about three ways theme developers can trim down and standardize their theme building efforts. My suggestions were:

  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.

Improving WordPress Theme Development through Standardization

View more presentations from Jason Pelker.

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]]> http://item-9.com/2010/06/improving-wordpress-theme-development-through-standardization/feed/ 1 Jason Fried Drops Item-9 Some Love on Signal vs. Noise http://item-9.com/2009/12/jason-fried-drops-item-9-some-love-on-signal-vs-noise/ http://item-9.com/2009/12/jason-fried-drops-item-9-some-love-on-signal-vs-noise/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:17:53 +0000 Jason Pelker http://item-9.com/?p=472 Related Posts
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]]> In his December 2 article Creative Haystack Listings, Jason Fried of 37signals used a sample from my advertisement on Haystack as an example of creative marketing on the service:
Haystack Example
I’ll quote the exchange we had in the article’s comments:

(Me) Thanks for the mention! Haystack has [cliche alert] changed the way I do business. I’m booking clients with bigger budgets who actually come to me. That’s a vast improvement on trolling Craigslist where hardly anyone replies to emails and when they do, they “have a limited budget” (read: spec).

…Last month was the most profitable since I went freelance eight months ago and I don’t think it’d be possible without this service. Keep up the good work!

(JF) AWESOME . That warms us up inside! So glad to hear Haystack is bringing you good business. Thanks for listing. Continued success.

Wow, that whole writeup and exchange definitely made my day. Not only is Jason Fried one of my business heroes, but since I began freelancing, I’ve never been an example on a public blog. I feels great to be recognized—one of the things I miss most about working in an office.

Another funny thing is that the logo/slogan I created actually did take a while to get just right, so I appreciate the fact that someone took notice (I hope potential clients do, too). It was a design and marketing experiment that seems to have worked. By the way, I also appreciate the traffic spike I received from Signal vs. Noise that day. Thanks, guys!

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]]> http://item-9.com/2009/12/jason-fried-drops-item-9-some-love-on-signal-vs-noise/feed/ 0 I’m Speaking at a Chicago WordPress Workshop on 11/14 + Link Dump http://item-9.com/2009/11/im-speaking-at-a-chicago-wordpress-workshop-on-1114/ http://item-9.com/2009/11/im-speaking-at-a-chicago-wordpress-workshop-on-1114/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:47:38 +0000 Jason Pelker http://item-9.com/?p=460 Related Posts
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]]> Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at OfficePort Chicago for the official 1-Day WordPress Workshop. This event seems to be sold out but hopefully, there will more workshops in the near future for those who can’t make it.

My topic list includes WordPress themes and plugins, so I thought I could provide a list ahead of time of some links we might use during the discussions.

Finding the Perfect WordPress Theme

WordPress Plugins List – The Most Useful + Highest Quality

  1. Fluency Admin
  2. Google Analyticator
  3. All in One SEO Pack
  4. Ajax Plugin Helper
  5. Akismet
  6. Redirection
  7. Twitter Tools
  8. WP-DBManager
  9. WP No Category Base
  10. Get the Image
  11. Gravity Forms
  12. Lightbox Plus
  13. flickrRSS
  14. Pods
  15. More Fields
  16. GigPress

…And Other WordPress Resources

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]]> http://item-9.com/2009/11/im-speaking-at-a-chicago-wordpress-workshop-on-1114/feed/ 0 I’m on YouTube http://item-9.com/2009/10/im-on-youtube/ http://item-9.com/2009/10/im-on-youtube/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:21:04 +0000 Jason Pelker http://item-9.com/?p=425 Related Posts
  1. Improving WordPress Theme Development through Standardization
  2. I’m Speaking at a Chicago WordPress Workshop on 11/14 + Link Dump
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]]> youtube…but, then again, so is everyone else. Check me out anyway–I’m being interviewed on Chicago public access about WordPress.

Looking good, right?

 

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  1. Improving WordPress Theme Development through Standardization
  2. I’m Speaking at a Chicago WordPress Workshop on 11/14 + Link Dump
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]]> http://item-9.com/2009/10/im-on-youtube/feed/ 0