WordPress: It's Not Just For Blogs Anymore

Dean McCall | Ideaginwww.ideagin.com

Blair Garrou | DFJ Mercurywww.dfjmercury.com

Today’s Talk

• Choosing a CMS for SMB clients• Brief History of WordPress• About Ideagin• Case Study: DFJ Mercury• Development process for DFJ Mercury• Final Product• Top WordPress Development Shops• Q&A

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Choosing a CMS for SMB ClientsQ: Traditional ISV platform or Open Source?

If Open SourceQ: Extensive customization or moderate customization to web platform?

If extensive customization

If moderate customization

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2003 co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little release WordPress as a fork of the b2/cafelog codebase

• licensing terms for the competing Movable Type platform are changed by Six Apart, causing many of its users to migrate to WP

2008 WP continues to grow at a rapid pace, with over 5.3M downloads for WP v2.8 (8th major release)

Brief History of WordPress• A leading blog publishing application

and content management system (CMS) written in PHP

• Developer Community = Most Powerful Aspect

• Community continues to improve WP and create more user options Robust plug-ins directory

Hundreds of custom themes

• Result = very adaptable CMS platform

• BONUS - WP is closely associated with Automattic, where some of WP’s main contributing developers are employees

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About Ideagin• San Antonio-based web development

and marketing company• Founded by Dean McCall, CEO• Ideagin Services

– Interaction consulting services– User-interface and web design– Web development and support– Ideagin Finishing School (coming soon…)

• Why Ideagin?– Deep knowledge of web trends and

technology– Separate “buzz” from real thing– Delivered sites and events for both global

multi-million dollar companies and SMBs

• Sample Clients:

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Case Study: DFJ Mercury• Houston-based seed and

early-stage venture capital firm• 12 employees• Needed a website with the

following characteristics: Fresh, clean look Basic “brochure-ware” needs Easy to update without the

need for a “web master” Availability of Social media

widgets and plug-ins• Approached Ideagin for a

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Development Process for DFJ MercuryNeeds/Budget• Easy and Cheap! ($10-15K upfront)

Platform Decision: Expression Engine vs. WordPress• WordPress has wider range of functionality given their large catalog of plug-ins • SEO, Popup windows, customizable Contact Forms, Lightbox, etc

Widgets & Plug-ins: Existing vs. Custom Development• We incorporated a number of widgets (SEO, Popup windows, Alpha Post Sorting)• ShareThis – social network distribution• News Post – created custom RSS widget to modify existing WP RSS feed• WP Lightbox – added due to conflicts in the JavaScript libraries version used when

adding the prototype library to WordPress

Issues/hurdles to overcome• Integrating right set of plug-ins and development on a custom theme• Continued Diligence – stay on top of security releases and plug-in updates!

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comHome page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comHome page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comHome page w/Lightbox

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comHome page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comHome page w/ShareThis widget

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comFocus page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comTeam page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comPortfolio page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comNews page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comNews page

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Final Product: www.dfjmercury.comNews page

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Top WordPress Dev Studios• Automattic: NYC-based firm that was one of the first independent WP dev

studios. Many top WordPress code contributors work at Automattic.• cnp_studio: Enterprise-level WordPress development.• Covered Web Services: WordPress plug-in development, content

migration, security analysis & performance tuning.• Crowd Favorite: Alex King’s WordPress dev shop based in Colorado. • Jessica Perilla Design: High-end WordPress blogs and websites that are

fully customized and easy to maintain.• Slipfire: NYC-based WordPress development studio.• Sandbox Development & Consulting: Web development firm specializing

in WordPress blog and other CMS solutions.• Watershed Studio: Offering WordPress consulting related to blogging,

CMS, podcasting, plug-ins and themes.

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Q&A and Follow-upDean McCallCEOIdeagin, Inc.dean@ideagin.comTwitter: @ideagin; @deanmccall

Blair GarrouManaging Director DFJ Mercuryblair@dfjmercury.comTwitter: @dfjmercury; @bgarrou

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