WordCamp Miami 2010 Recap

This past Saturday, February 20, 2010 I had the pleasure in attending WordCamp Miami. Before I get into any details, let me just say that overall this event was awesome.  I learned a lot of new things about WordPress and it sparked a lot more creativity from within.  Unfortunately, since I am only one person, I was only able to attend some of the events, so I will give my best feedback on each of the sessions that I was at.

Great Plugins for Your Next Client Project – Pete Bernardo

Pete was a very well spoken guy.  With a subject like this, I’m sure he could have spoke for hours, but was limited to only about 40 minutes, so he went through as much as he could.  There were four categories of plugins that he spoke about, forms, CMS, E-commerce and general.  Pete gave an example of a good plugin for each of these categories.

Forms

His recommendation for a form was the Gravity Form plugin.  With Gravity Form, you are able to conduct surveys which I think is a great feature of it.  You can make a very simple contact form, or if need be, a complex detailed one.  It gives you multiple options and should be easy for your client to be able to make changes to the forms themselves after you have designed the site.  This form is not free however, $39 for single site, $99 for 5 and $199 developer package.

E-Commerce

Pete then went into e-commerce plugins and spent time talking about the Shopp plugin.  Once again, very easy to use and set up.  It offers multiple payment gateways including PayPal Express, Google Checkout, PayPal Pro, Authorize.net, and 2checkout.com.  One of the best things is that it works with any theme, as in whatever theme you have it will adopt it’s settings.  If you’re running an e-commerce site you obviously want some sort of inventory management which Shopp does offer.  You can also export orders for shipping purposes.

General

Just a few plugins that Pete mentioned were Disqus, Search and Replace, HITS PNG, and pageMASH.  I am only familiar with Disqus, so I provided links to the other plugins.

Here is his full Wordcamp Miami – Plugins for your Next Client Project presentation

Finding Your Blogging Voice – Jess Jurick

Just from the name of this session, I was excited to go to it.  I believe that there shouldn’t be a search for your blogging voice.  Your blogging voice is your voice.  If you are blogging about things that you don’t believe in, or that you’re not interested in, then what the hell are you blogging about it for?  Jess spoke about that as well, which made me very happy.  During her session she admitted that blogging may sometimes feel like a chore, and I’ll admit, at times it does, but like myself, I’m sure Jess enjoys it most of the time or else she wouldn’t do it.  She also gave a shout out to GaryVee which also made me happy.

To sum up her session, I loved it because she gave great advice on finding new ideas to blog about and tips on blogging  such as seeing the world and meeting new people and what I think most importantly, read a lot!  Jess’ Finding Your Blogging Voice presentation is also available.

WordPress SEO – John Carcutt

This is not the first time that I have heard John speak, nor will it be my last.  This was by far my favorite session.  I think it may have had the most amount of people in it, but I could be mistaken.  John was able to take a very complex idea, Search Engine Optimization, and make it sound pretty damn simple.  John broke it down into three main categories of SEO, Site architecture, content targeting and link building.  One important thing that John went into depth about was tags vs. categories and don’t ever use the same phrase for both.  A quick point on content was having a consistent theme in your post / page is crucial.  Make sure that everything is on that particular topic.  He used an example of having a post about Beagles.  Don’t talk about different kinds of dogs, break those posts up into individual posts instead.  Also, try to keep your posts between 500-800 words, anything more you will start to get into a keyword dilusion. (this post is longer, but it’s ok, it’s a recap).

WordPress Themes 101 – Jake Goldman

This sessions was a very good beginners sessions, which I knew going into it, but I thought I would have learned a little more.  Not to say it wasn’t a good session, it was just not for me.  I was there with somebody and they learned a lot from John.  He went through how easy it is to set up a theme in WordPress and broke down the different types of themes, free vs. paid

Ecommerce and WordPress – Shayne Sanderson

I was very excited for this session.  I have used WordPress for blogging for three years, but have never turned it into an e-commerce site.  Shayne went into detail explaining the benefits of several plugins.  I will provide links to each of the ones that he discussed, because I don’t want to give you not enough details about them.  Quick shop, eShop, Fat Free Cart, Storepress, ShopperPress, Shopp, WP Ecommerce.  Shayne’s presentation also available.

Unfortunately, I had take off after that session and was not able to make the last sessions.

With this being my first WordCamp, I was very impressed.  The speakers were great.  The one and probably only thing that I was not happy with was the lack of how to.  I know that the sessions were only 40 minutes long, so it was tough, but I would have liked to see a little more how to and demos.  I know that in Shayne’s session, he was going to give a demo, but didn’t have enough time.

I can’t wait for the next one.
photo credit: petebernardo via photopin cc