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Making Your Content Do More!!!!

Earlier this week I wrote about turning frustrated users who need urgent support into community managers. I said that this is an important part of your content strategy. I believe this not only because it allows for your content, and your overall support system to be responsive to your user’s needs but because it’s an efficient way to generate content.

I love the saying “work smarter, not harder” as it translates to me into “work smarter, not longer” as I already work too many hours. One of the easiest ways to live up to this saying is making your content do multiple jobs.

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Thank You For Pointing Out My Failures!!!!

Recently, for the first time, I had a decent number of people using some of the themes I wrote. The best part about this experience was the people using my themes found the bugs I missed when I tested them.

I know that sounds sarcastic but it’s true, I really am grateful.

When we think about content strategy we often only think about in terms of a blog and marketing copy, but every interaction with user is an opportunity to bring them into the community or push them away. Not only that, how we shape our content can help make users feel a part of the community which can have a radical effect on how they deal with the bugs they will inevitably find.

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A yellow flower in out-stretched hands.A yellow flower in out-stretched hands.

I May Be A Giver, But I’m Not Exactly Altruistic!!!!

The WordPress community is woven from gifts–gifts of code, support, Meetups and WordCamps–gifts that people have given because they need them to exist.

Recently someone posted to a Facebook group I frequent an article that was wholesale copied from one I wrote. I was flattered. I know that sounds sarcastic, but it’s true. Really, it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to giving freely. Am I getting screwed a little on this one? Sure, but I don’t focus on every little exchange. Overall I’ve benefited more than I can possibly calculate by what I have taken from the WordPress ecosystem. Keeping score would be pointless.

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Getting Started With WordPress!!!!

I’d like to share some lessons I’ve learned about getting started with WordPress. Sharing, after all, is at the heart of what WordPress is about.

If it seems like everyone is using WordPress for their websites these days that’s because WordPress is no powering more than 20% of the internet. There is no better time to get started with WordPress to share your story and opinions as well to grow your business or start a new one. I can say from personal experience that learning these skills and getting involved in the WordPress community has been one of the more rewarding and transformational experiences of my life.

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Building An Email List From A WordPress Site!!!!

So far, the focus in my series on content strategy has been on attracting the right audience to your site, but maintaining your audience is just as important. So, today I will be showing you how I set up the optin slide-ins and pop-over optin forms for subscribing to this series. I will also be […]

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Marketing Your Authentic Self!!!!

If you were creating a content strategy for a magazine, it would be driven by what sells the magazine’s product, which is advertisements or subscriptions. On your personal blog, your product is your authentic self.

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Time To Modernize Custom Backgrounds In WordPress?!!!!

Is it time to update the custom background functionality in WordPress to provide better options for users and developers? When was the last time that you used a tiled background image on a site, or saw one used and didn’t chuckle? If you wanted to use a tiled background for an ironic laugh WordPress’ custom background function has that as an option. What it doesn’t have is the ability to set a fixed position, full-screen background.

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