Michael Torbert » WordPress

Cory Miller’s WordCamp Chicago Presentation

Michael — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:54:47 +0000

Everyone’s favorite iThemes owner gave a profound and inspiring presentation about the trials of owning your own WordPress-based enterprise. I saw a lot of parallels to my own experiences as a WordPress entrepreneur in his talk, and certainly took away a lot from it. To those who attended, it was a very moving experience.

Take a look at the video where we show our appreciation:

On the topic of WordCamp, make sure you’re keeping up with the latest WordCamp Raleigh news… we’ve been away in Chicago but will continue to post slideshows, videos, pictures, recaps, etc at wordcampraleigh.com.

Cory Miller loves his All in One SEO Pack shirt!

Michael — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:16:18 +0000

Cory Miller (of iThemes and webdesign.com) wearing his All in One SEO Pack shirt. Cory told me he likes this one better since this is his normal face. Which picture do you like better, this one or the one from WordCamp?

WordCamp

Michael — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:26:34 +0000

WordCamp closing thoughts by my favorite WordPress Developer.

WordPress 3.0 RC1

Michael — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:59:28 +0000

WordPress 3.0 RC1 released tonight.

No related posts.

WordCamp Raleigh

Michael — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:06:05 +0000

WordCamp 2010

Favorite WordCamp 2010 picture

Michael — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:59:58 +0000

I’m trying to decide which picture from WordCamp last weekend is my favorite. There are so many great ones but it has to be either this one of Matt Danner or this other that I like the best. Matt Danner (who works for Cory Miller at iThemes) is a great photographer, but somehow always managers to end up in great shots himself!

WordCamp Raleigh went well

Michael — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:42:33 +0000

Check out the WordCamp pictures from this year’s WordCamp Raleigh!

My Blog Could Beat Up Your Blog

Michael — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:12:50 +0000

Today I received a couple iThemes shirts from Cory Miller of webdesign.com. Add this to my lot of other WordPress shirts from the official WordPress shop, and I’m getting quite the collection of WordPress gear. I’m always up for more WordPress gear/attire, so if you’re aware of any others, please let me know!

iThemes Michael Torbert

Fellow Semper Fi WordPress geek, Steve Mortiboy, likes his iThemes WordPress shirt as well…

iThemes Steve Mortiboy

WordCamp Miami

Michael — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:10:45 +0000

Had a great time meeting everyone at WordCamp Miami yesterday. Mark Jaquith’s Tips and Tricks presentation was pretty interesting. Watch the video after it’s posted if you haven’t seen it yet. Enjoyed hanging out with Scott Basgaard again. Met a number of great new people. Got several great photography tips from Travis Ballard and Carlos Miller. Of course riding in Blanca Stella’s car with Steve Mortiboy and Aaron Brazell driving to different bars in Miami was crazy.

Overall, I had a great time. and I’m looking forward to coming back down next year.

Neither Snow nor Sleet

Michael — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:12:44 +0000

The January Meetup was cancelled due to snow, and even though it snowed again last night we weren’t going to let that keep us from this month’s meetup. Craig Tuller of StudioPress gave and excellent presentation on theme news, customization, tweak hints, and development.

A Big Thank You

Michael — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:53:06 +0000

Lately, there has been talk about WordPress Plugin and Theme developers not receiving enough credit and appreciation for their work, if any at all. While this may be true, I want to make sure we acknowledge those who do express their appreciation and gratitude through Paypal donations, sending a gift on my Amazon wishlist, or even just sending a message of thanks on Twitter.

Today UPS delivered a mid-sized to my home. As I opened the cardboard shipping box, I was amazed to find a gift-wrapped package inside. Someone had purchased the book Do the Right Thing, by Mike Huckabee, from my Amazon wishlist. The book was gift-wrapped, and included a note which read

Thanks heaps for creating the All in One SEO WordPress Plug-in. Great Work.

I want to send a huge “Thank You” to Brad Younger, of Vickley Marketing. It is always nice to know that your hard work is appreciated, and his thoughtfulness certainly went a long way.

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WordPress Plugin and Theme GPL Misconceptions, Misinformation, and Perspective

Michael — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:56:09 +0000

I don’t have some crazy linkbait title bashing some plugin, developer, or Automattic employee/executive, but you’re here so I guess you still found the post somehow.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about a variety of issues related to the commercialization and GPLness of plugins, themes, and Automattic. Some of these discussions have been overlapping and conflicting. Most of them are crap, and it’s getting harder and harder to weed through all the crap to find the legitimate stuff.

It’s been made clear before, but I’ll say it one last time, if you develop a plugin or theme for WordPress and plan on hosting it at wordpress.org, giving it away, selling it, or distributing it to the public in any fashion it must be GPL. If you don’t like this, then go develop for something else. When I started developing for WordPress, I did so with the knowledge that someone could take the fruits of my hard work, and redistribute it as their own. This is seen by some as a crutch, a roadblock to making money with GPL software development. Some people have decided that the GPL is some sort of burden (whether by design, flaws, or implementation) to making money. Tell that to Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, our own Automattic, or the countless thousands of people and companies making their living from WordPress in some way (including fully compliant plugin and theme development).

For one thing, if you’re developing plugins because you think you’ll get rich off the donations, then stop right now before you waste your time. Aside from the fact that we do it for other reasons that you’ll never understand, your average wp.org plugin just isn’t going to provide you with donations on a level that will afford you early retirement. Open source software development is about the community being able to bring together collective and individual efforts to create applications that best serve everyone. It’s not about getting software free of charge, even though that often can be a great side effect.

I sometimes wonder if some of the GPL misconceptions we see in the WordPress community are largely due to people having their first exposure to “free and open source” software with WordPress. They see this great free software with lots of free community supporting, plugins, and themes, and perhaps think that everything has to be free, or that everything touched by GPL software has to be free (in either sense of the word).

Let’s look at Akismet. You can download the Akismet plugin, which of course is free of charge, but also the GPL kind of free. This plugin interfaces with a proprietary Akismet service. The Akismet service doesn’t have GPL freedoms, that doesn’t even apply here. Whether or not the Akismet plugin costs money has absolutely nothing to do with it being GPL, and whether or not the Akismet service it interacts with costs money has nothing to do with the plugin being GPL. Another example would be any one of the many Google-related plugins. There are plugins to interact with Google Maps, Google Analytics, Youtube, Google Translate, Google search, etc. These plugins are all GPL (free as in liberty). They interact with a service that is not. We don’t have access to the source code of Google, and have no liberties with it, other than being able to use their API. Whether or not Google charges for any of these services is irrelavent. The code that the GPL applies to is the plugin itself. The fact that it happens to interface with something that may or may not be commercial, and may or may not be GPL doesn’t affect the GPLness of the plugin itself.

Making money with WordPress Themes and Plugins

There have been some recent movements to help plugin developers either be better compensated for their work, or to develop a solid business model.

There has been talk a while back, and again recently, about Automattic creating a commercial themes repository for the community theme developers to use. Now people have been talking about a commercial plugin repository, which could possibly be similar to the iPhone App store. While I wouldn’t be opposed to this happening, I won’t lose any sleep at night if it doesn’t. I keep seeing all these posts and comments lately that Automattic or Matt needs to define a list of business models. Although I suppose it would be great to have someone tell me how to make tons of money, it really isn’t their responsibility to hold the hand of someone trying to figure out how. They’ve made it clear that they pretty much don’t care (and fully support) whatever business model you dream up, just as long as you comply with the GPL.

Another topic being discussed lately is the fact that donations to plugins are fairly meager. Again, I have to point out, that if you’re concerned about how you’re going to make money with the plugin you uploaded to the repository, you’re missing the point of creating that plugin. As someone who develops several popular WordPress plugins, I can testify that you aren’t likely to make a living from the donations. Do I enjoy receiving and appreciate donations of any size? Of course I do. Do I require it or look down on someone just because they don’t donate? Absolutely not. I have no problems with receiving little or no donations from most people for my contributions, that’s not why I do it. If I never get another donation I would still continue to work on developing my public and private plugins and love doing it!

Some people wonder about a plugin developer who’s had part or all of the functionality of their plugin intergrated into the core of WordPress. I suppose I can see why someone could be upset if they just lost what was their primary means of income, but again, this is missing the point of the GPL. (I need to point out that certain functionality of a plugin winding up in the core doesn’t mean that the specific code they used is the same as the code to achieve that functionality in the core, but that’s a topic for another day.) The point of the GPL isn’t to enable someone to have access to free (of charge) software, or to be able to take someone elses’ software and put their own name on it. Are the developers of SimplePie or TinyMCE upset that WordPress uses their software in the core? I doubt it, especially since SimplePie themselves makes a WordPress plugin. The whole point is that we can all benefit. It may not be much consolation to tell you that you should be honored that the functionality of your plugin was so great and so desired that it made it’s way into the core, but that’s what it’s all about.

All in One SEO Pack increased support for WordPress as a CMS

Michael — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:16:24 +0000

The new version of All in One SEO Pack now has increased support for using WordPress as a Content Management System. There are also various bug fixes and security updates. Make sure you stay up to date with the ONLY All in One SEO Pack.

Raleigh WordPress Meetup May Pictures

Michael — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:40:02 +0000

This past month we had our first official WordPress Raleigh Meetup. If you didn’t make it out this time, be sure to join and stop by!

Pictures from the May Raleigh WordPress Meetup.

Hosts:

Michael Torbert, Semper Fi Web Design

Aaron Brodney, Linux Virtuoso

WordPress buttons, stickers, and pins… Oh My!

Michael — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:50:46 +0000

Today we received our shipment of WordPress gear for our next event. I’ll be there speaking on a variety of topics. Seats are limited so make sure to reserve your spot today!
Sign up for the Raleigh WordPress MeetUp.

Stan Crawford

Michael — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:36:41 +0000

I checked my mail today and found a relatively large, padded envelope. I opened it to find a signed copy of the latest album, Crazy Water, from Stan Crawford.

Stan Crawford is a singer/songwriter from Mineral Wells, a small town in the heart of Texas. After graduating from Texas A&M, Stan went on to discover sharing his love of music with others. Somehow he is still able to find the time to volunteer teaching children to play music when between tours.

Best of all, his site is powered by WordPress.

Click to hear Crazy Water

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Raleigh WordPress May Meetup

Michael — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:44:57 +0000

I’m speaking at the Raleigh WordPress Meetup event on May 23. We’ll be discussing SEO for WordPress, Apache directives and configurations, how to use WordPress as a Content Management System, and general blogging/design/development issues. This meetup will have something for everyone, whether you’re a new to WordPress or a pro.

WordPress Meetup hosted by Michael Torbert

WordPress Skin for iPhone 3G

Michael — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:16:53 +0000

Introducing the WordPress Skin for the iPhone 3G. As a lover of all things iPhone and WordPress, as soon as I saw this I knew I needed it immediately.

iPhone 3G WordPress Skin

You know you’re a WordPress addict if…

Michael — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:28:41 +0000

After a great conversation in the WP Tavern, I just couldn’t stop myself from coming up with ways to know if you’re a WordPress addict…

…you can’t name the number of WordPress sites you have without looking it up.
…you listen to WordPress Weekly rather than going out on Friday night.
…you visit a website and look at its source code to see if it’s WordPress.
…you time how long it takes to install/upgrade WordPress, and celebrate when you break your own record.
…you refresh your blog stats A LOT over and over.
…you get up in the middle of the night to check them.
…the first thing you do each day is check to see if a new WordPress update has been released.
…you see a problem in daily life and wonder if there is a plugin to solve it.
…you don’t like newspapers because you can’t leave comments.
…you refuse to go on any vacation where there’s no electricity, phone lines, or hotspots.
…you finally take that vacation, but only after buying a data-enabled cell-phone plan and a wi-fi card.
…you compare your bank’s website to the wp-admin and tell them to take ideas from it.
…you see a great website you like, and wonder what plugins they’re using.
…the WordPress shirt in your closet is a great source of pride.
…you’ve cried while using the WYSIWYG editor.
…you spend more time on your girlfriend’s WordPress site than on your girlfriend.
…you worship Matt Mullenweg.
…as soon as you saw the new government/Obama/Change sites, you checked to see if they were using WordPress.
…when writing a query for a non-WordPress project, you accidently try to use the $wpdb class.
…you can name 10 active tickets in Trac off the top of your head… extra points if you’ve debated them.
…Firefox says your most visited sites are WordPress.org, Weblog Tools Collection, Ma.tt, Lorelle on WordPress, WP Tavern, any of the WordPress theme developers, and any twitter accounts for WordPress developers.
…you signed up for the WP Tavern forum before it was remotely ready to be officially launched.
…you can name three core WordPress developers.
…Google registers hundreds, if not thousands, of 301/302 redirects for your site.
…your computer desktop background has WordPress logo art
…you had never heard of .htaccess, Trac, or SVN until you started using WordPress
…when someone doesn’t print WordPress correctly, you are personally offended.
…you have ever woken up in the middle of the night and started blogging about the dream you just had.
…you see a good looking girl and wonder if she has a blog.
…your inbox has more emails from various WordPress installations than actual people.
…you rewrite some of the more inefficient code in plugins you use, just for fun.
…you get mad when someone says they’re writing a new blog (rather than blog post).
…you’ve had headed arguments about the GPL as it relates to WordPress, and its plugins and themes.
…you’ve ever written a useless plugin just for the fun of it.
…you stay up until 3am participating in the WP Weekly after show.
…the biggest social event of the year you’ve attended is WordCamp.
…you know when Thank a Plugin Developer Day is.
-and someone thanked you.
…someone asks for your address and you give them your WordPress blog address.