Recap: 9 Tips to Help You Safely Change Your WordPress Theme

At our April meetup this week, we had a great discussion about changing your WordPress theme. After I gave my presentatation, our members chatted about themes, talked about WordPress, and enjoyed delicious slices of pie from Grand Traverse Pie.

I’ve published my talk on my blog, where you can find the nine tips, along with my recommendations for finding themes.

In addition to the presentation, we discussed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the upcoming 15th WordPress anniversary.

General Data Protection Regulation

Here’s what I mentioned about General Data Protection Regulation at the meetup, along with helpful resources:

  1. GDPR is a European Union (EU) data privacy law that goes into effect May 25, 2018.
  2. The aim of the regulation is to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens.
  3. Regardless of your physical location, if you process the personal data of any EU citizen on your website, GDPR applies to you. And your company must be able to show compliance by May 25, 2018.
  4. GoDaddy has two excellent resources on GDPR. One article explains GDPR compliance for web designers and developers. The second article is a practical guide for moving your site toward GDPR compliance.
  5. Another excellent resource is how to make a WooCommerce website GDPR Compliant? (12 steps).
  6. MailChimp has released their GDPR-Compliant Form

Our next meetup is Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Hope you’ll join us!

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9 Tips to Help You Safely Change Your WordPress Theme

Imagine you’ve had the same theme on your website for a few years. It’s starting to look dated and you’ve decided it’s time to change to a new theme.

That’s exciting! The new theme has features you’ve wanted to add to your site and you can’t wait to get started.

WordPress makes it easy to switch to a new theme. But before you activate it, there are a few things you can do to make sure you safely transition to the new theme.

For our April 17 meetup, we’ll share nine tips to help you get your new WordPress theme up and running quickly.

What You’ll Learn

Our WordPress experts will share their experience switching themes, offering tips for:

  • Reviewing your existing theme
  • Selecting a new theme
  • What to do before activating the new theme
  • What to do after activating the theme

Meetup Details and Location

We’ll be meeting at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. in Plymouth at 41640 Ann Arbor Road, on Tuesday evening, April 17, 2018 from 6:30pm until they close at 8:00pm.

When you arrive, look for a bunch of tables that have been pushed together, with a sign on the table that says “West Metro Detroit WordPress.”

Cost is $4.00 (we’ll be providing pie!). Register for the meetup on Eventbrite.

Share Your Favorite WordPress Tip or Plugin at our March 2018 Meetup

For our March 2018 West Metro Detroit WordPress meetup, we’re planning a “Share Your Favorite WordPress Tip or Plugin” event.

Our members will have five to ten minutes to share a WordPress tip or plugin that’s made it easier for them to manage or add content to their site.

Have a new plugin you installed last week that solved a problem for you?

Or did you find an easier way to update a post? Share your discoveries with your fellow members!

Whatever the topic, here’s your chance to share what you’ve learned and find out ways you can improve your site.

I love these types of meetup events since they:

  1. Give members a chance to talk about their sites
  2. Are short, informal talks
  3. Only last five to ten minutes
  4. Give all of us an opportunity to get to know each other

Meetup Details and Location

We’ll be meeting at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. in Plymouth at 41640 Ann Arbor Road, on Tuesday evening, March 20 from 6:30pm until they close at 8:00pm.

When you arrive, look for a bunch of tables that have been pushed together, with a sign on the table that says “West Metro Detroit WordPress.”

Cost is $4.00 (we’ll be providing pie!). Register for the meetup on Eventbrite.

Bring Your Favorite Tip or Plugin – February Meeting of West Metro Detroit WP

We’re getting back together for our second meeting on Feb. 20, 2018. We meet the third Tuesday evening of the month in the western suburbs of Detroit.

We’ll be meeting at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. in Plymouth at 41640 Ann Arbor Rd. , Plymouth, MI 48170, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 20 from 6:30pm till they close at 8:00pm.

This month, we’ll each be sharing a favorite plugin or tip for using WordPress.  Come and learn great ideas for how to improve your WordPress site or solve a problem.

When you arrive, look for a bunch of tables that have been pushed together, with a sign on the table that says “West Metro Detroit WordPress.”

To register, please see our Eventbrite site.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/west-metro-detroit-wordpress-share-a-tip-or-plugin-tickets-42202087580

 

Recap of Our January 2018 Kickoff Meetup

It was exciting to meet people tonight at our inaugural West Metro Detroit WordPress meetup.

Great start to launching our meetup group! Thanks to Jim, Deborah, George, and RJ for coming out to Grand Traverse Pie.

We enjoyed learning more about each other, how we use WordPress, chatted about this weekend’s Plymouth Ice Festival, and, of course, two of us took home pie!

Highlights from Our Meetup

Here’s a quick summary of what we discussed:

Day change: move meetup day to third Tuesday evening of the month, so we won’t have two WordPress meetups in the same week (Metro Detroit WordPress meets the second Monday evening of the month)

Venue: looking into local businesses who might offer conference space, checking with local colleges to see if space is available.

Also, we’ll notify the local Chamber of Commerce about our meetup to get the word out to businesses who use WordPress.

If we’re not able to find anything for the February meetup, we’ll continue to meet at Grand Traverse Pie in Plymouth, Michigan.

Communication: use this site to share upcoming meetups, news, recaps. Consider P2 theme for discussion, sharing tips, Q&A. Maybe another WordPress.com site using P2 theme that we could link to from this site?

Format: Open to various meeting formats, including

  • Showcase website
  • Presentations
  • Share your favorite plugin
  • Share tips
  • Theme documentation
  • Q&A

What will keep you coming to meetups?

  • Nearby location
  • Learn more about WordPress
  • Meet people in our communities who are using WordPress
  • Mixture of topics / meeting formats

What will keep you away from meetups?

  • Travel, work, school
  • Discussions only focused on a specific area, whether that’s design, development, SEO
  • Becomes too technical, over your head

We’re all looking forward to our February 2018 meetup!