Five Days of Focus – How Using a Content-First Development Approach Saves Money
Day 3 of our 5 Days of focus 2020. Okay, so you’ve got your proposal equipped with your master services agreement, and you’re starting to set clear expectations with your clients. You’re almost ready to
Five Days of Focus – How to Define your WordPress Project Scope
This is Day 2 of our Five Days of Focus preparing for 2021 – highlighting Project Management essentials. In our heart of hearts, everyone’s a little bit of a people-pleaser. We love to see the people
Accountability as Motivation – It Works!
You might have heard the saying, “We plan, God laughs,” and that rings true in every aspect of our lives—both with clients, and with our own projects. The last two years have been proof enough
The Power of the Project Notebook
Using a project notebook is a practice we started way back in the day, before everything was electronic and digital. That means we always had a physical hard-copy notebook. Although that’s not the case in
Content-First Development: A Comprehensive Guide
If you’ve signed up for any of my freebies or the WP Project Manager’s Academy, then you know that I ask this question a lot. “What are you struggling with most?” Far and away the
You Might Be a WordPress Project Manager IF…
Today our topic is what it means to be a Project Manager… specifically, a WordPress Project Manager. I Just Want to Build Websites I hear a lot of people complain, “I don’t want to manage
How to Leverage Your Project Team (Even if You *THINK* You Don’t Have One)
You Already DO Have a Project Team Many people think if they are a solo provider, that they don’t have a team. This is wrong for 2 reasons. First, you always have a team because
What Do I Do Now? How Do I Deal with a Global Crisis?
During this uncertain time, you are probably in one of two places. Either your WordPress business is taking a downturn or an uptick. I’ve heard folks talking about both. But, regardless, everyone is struggling with
How to Use GoDaddy Pro to Be More Productive
Is the task of keeping all your clients’ websites updated taking a big chunk of your time? Here’s a 5 minute video to show you how to save TONS of time on plugin updates and
Can We Talk About Your WordPress Estimating Process?
In recent episodes of this “Can We Talk” video series, we’ve been talking about all of the standard processes and plans that your WordPress agency or you as an individual provider need to have in
Elements of a Good Change Control Procedure
This is Episode 6 of “Can We Talk About Your WordPress Projects” and you’ll be happy to know I have given up doing the cheesy Brooklyn accent in these videos. I still hear it that
Change Management – The Key to Controlling Scope Creep
Can We Talk About Your WordPress Projects? – Episode 5. In the past few episodes and in a few more, we are talking about the standard processes you need to have in place for your
Can We Talk About Your WordPress Competition?
This is the 1st posting of my new video program called “Can We Talk About Your WordPress Projects?” The goal is to give you quick tips and insight into improving your project management approach to
Who ARE you? WordPress Designer, Developer, Consultant, or Analyst?
The Case for Better WordPress Titles I recently referred to a highly technically-savvy WordPress practitioner as a “WordPress Developer” and was quickly corrected that he was not a developer, because he did not write code
4 Best Practices Successful WordPress Providers Use to Get Content from the Client on Time
All you have to do is pose a question in a WordPress Facebook group or other WordPress-focused forum regarding getting content from the client. Chances are you will get a litany of responses that clearly
Why We Need a WordPress Website Development Methodology
At first, I wasn’t sure if I should call this thing that I think we need a website development framework or a methodology so I looked up the terms. As it turns out, technically, a
How a Content-First Approach Can Help Control WordPress Scope Creep
First, let’s look at how things typically happen on a WordPress web development project, or ANY web development process for that matter. You and the client agree on the site design and a target date
What Does It Mean to Define a WordPress Project in Detail?
People commonly want to know more about what is involved in Principle # 1 – Define the Job in Detail with a Content-First Approach. It’s interesting because, in practice, the other principles are really subsets
The 6 Principles of WordPress Productivity
It’s important for you to know right up front that the 6 Principles of WordPress Productivity are not entirely original. History of the 6 Principles of WordPress Productivity Back in the 1980’s, John Keane, the founder and
The Importance of a WordPress Project Acceptance Management Plan
On any web development project, WordPress or not, delivering a result that the client accepts is not always easy. Too often, the developers sequester themselves while they work on the project and then emerge with
New Proposal Section to Control WordPress Project Scope Creep
When creating a Project Proposal or any other place where you are defining the WordPress Project Scope for the client, most WordPress Practitioners will include what is IN scope and what is OUT of scope.