December 2018 Holiday Networking with Metro Detroit WordPress Meetup

For our December 2018 meetup, we’re joining with the Metro Detroit WordPress group to host a holiday networking event.

Join us on Monday, December 17, 2018 at the Canton Township Tony Sacco’s Coal Oven Pizza for an evening of networking with fellow metro Detroit area WordPress meetup members. Continue reading December 2018 Holiday Networking with Metro Detroit WordPress Meetup

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November 2018: Intro to WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg

With the imminent release of WordPress 5.0, it’s time for us to take a closer look at the new features in the upcoming version, including the new Gutenberg editor. Continue reading November 2018: Intro to WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg

Recap: October 2018 Show and Tell

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our October 2018 Show and Tell meetup this week. Here’s a quick recap of our meetup.

Three Things to Know About WordPress

Website Tips and Advice

During our meetup, members shared their tips and advice on website creation and content management, including:

  • Keep your domain name registration and hosting at different companies.
  • Hosting should be in the name of the site owner, not the developer/designer. It’s the site owner’s website, they need to own it (for when designer/developer leaves or relationship goes south).
  • Craft content that’s easy to read. Use good color contrast and headings. Write short paragraphs and short sentences. Explain what acronyms mean on first use.
  • If you have a client with a low budget, consider hosted WordPress.com, which offers ability to use your own domain name, customize your branding, and is constantly updated with the latest WordPress version.

Show and Tell

Since our speaker Basia Dabrowski wasn’t able to attend, member Sue Schneider stepped up and shared two of the recent sites she launched.

Jogue is a business-to-business site which launched this summer. It’s the first website Sue has ever created.

Using Divi, she worked with the client to highlight their services, including a product-specific dropdown in the contact form. The client was especially happy with that feature for their product-specific customers.

The second site she shared was Sue’s own website which also launched in the past few months.

Upcoming Meetup

Save the date!

Since Thanksgiving falls the week we would typically meet, we changed our next meetup date to Tuesday, November 13, 2018.

Hope to see you there!

The topic for the next meetup is WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg. We’ll take a look at the new editor as well as new features expected in WordPress 5.0.

One of our new members is checking into whether we can meet at a local library. I’ll post meetup details and registration when we’re confirmed for our meetup space.

Recap: Share Your Favorite Productivity Tool or Tip

At our September 2018 Share Your Favorite Productivity Tool or Tip meetup this week, our West Metro Detroit WordPress members discussed:

  • Several WordCamps going on in the area!  Cost to attend works out to about $20 per day. If you learn one thing, it’s worth it!
  • WordPress 4.9.9 is in process – last WP release before 5.0. Coming in November 2018. Keep up to date on 4.9.9 release information on WordPress.org.
  • ProBlogger posted a helpful article today – 8 Important Admin Tasks to Do When Launching a New Blog.
  • On that note, when you have a post regarding number of things such as the above example, it’s best to leave the number out of the URL. That way when the list is updated in the future, the link doesn’t change.
  • Having dates in the permalink is the default on WordPress.com.

During our meetup, several members shared their favorite productivity apps, Canva, Zello and Hushed.

Canva is a slick, free online graphics editing tool which allows the easy creation of custom images for web and print.

Many of the images you see on Pinterest are created with tools such as Canva, and there is an entire section of layouts for use in social media, amongst many other projects!

Zello is a free, push to talk two way radio app that turns your phone into a walkie talkie. Create an account and invite your friends to connect – you can also create channels in which you can add contacts and “broadcast” to the group or communicate privately.

Works anywhere you have a mobile data signal!

Hushed is a service providing disposable phone numbers, custom voicemail and call forwarding. Especially helpful since Skype has discontinued the personal recording of outgoing greetings!

Resources

Here are some of the resources shared during the meetup. If I missed any, share them in the comments.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the meetup and helped to answer our members’ questions!

Our next meetup is Show and Tell on Tuesday, October 16, 2018. Hope you’ll join us!

September 2018: Share Your Favorite Productivity Tool or Tip

At our July 2018 meetup, one of our members spoke about how they organize their writing. Another member commented, That sounds like something I could use. What app is that?

Which prompted me to think, why don’t we have a meetup where we share some of our favorite productivity tools or tips? Continue reading September 2018: Share Your Favorite Productivity Tool or Tip