Build your website before you install wordpress.

Build
Your
Site Before you INSTALL……

I Apologize
To Everyone
I was not in the Navy, But I could have been.
For those you attending the live speaking of this presentation,
Or reading the slideshow version, I have a tendency to swear
in the process. It’s because I am so passionate about
WordPress, and what I do for a living.
Everything in this Presentation is of my Own Opinion and I
apologize for offending anyone, or making the assumption
that some people are just…..
YOU HAVE
BEEN
WARNED!
BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP

If there is one
point here…
It’s this. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.
That is the main focus
of this presentation!

How the
Process Works
These items will help you explain to the client, some things are not possible.
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Outline
/ Plan
Development Function Success
There are very simple formulas to every great website. All you need is an idea. That’s
the easy part. From building a couponing site to a mirror image of Facebook. That hard
part is understanding how everything works. I have four processes that I always
complete before I even think about installing WordPress.

Having A
Plan of Attack
Its like building a….well… Website.. Or a house!
When a person has an idea for a website, they can see the
website in their head. But do they have it written down?
Having anything written down is a huge step of the building
process. That’s because it also creates the project syllabus or
“Outline”.
If someone were to walk into a developers office and say
“This is what I want, now build it”, a few things could
happen. Well two actually. It’s either going to be their dream
website, or the website works perfectly, but it’s a website
that does not capture the imagination of the person funding
the project. The second item is usually the outcome, as most
developers know.
After I sit down with the client, I take their idea’s and write
them down on a post it notes and stick them to a wall. One
process to a post it note. Meaning the home page is note one.
From there, the user can either be logged in or out. Those are
2A and 2B. From there I start building out the steps each user
can make.
When you build the site out on a wall, or a board,
you can see the website take some kind of shape.
From there, you can fill the gaps that the client
might of forgot to include. Or you can correct your
mistakes before installing 45 different plugins.
After all the notes are up, I create the projects
outline. WAY COOL RIGHT?
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Outline
/ Plan

Educate the
Client. Always
You do not need to give away your tricks… You just have to inform the client.
Clients tend to see websites on the internet, and want to
duplicate them. Basically they just want to add their own flare
to someone else’s work, calling it original. As developers, we
know that we can just submit a patch, or create a plugin to
modify that site. We don’t need to rebuild a copy.
Your clients on the other hand, think that this is a great idea.
Not only is their version of Facebook going to kick major ass,
but because the site is already built, the timeline should be
with in a month.
What clients do not know is that there are probably
1000000’s of lines of code that need to be written to get the
job done.
So when you hand over the project outline to a client, you need
to be sure that you inform them of the plugins and themes
you might be using on this project, and list their roles /
capabilities. Once the client knows what is possible, they can
ask the right questions.
Of course, some clients are going to ask every
question under the sun. But it’s better to be clear on
things now, instead of later when they might
become super confused.
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Outline
/ Plan

Before you pick
out some things
Some themes or plugins do some awesome stuff. But what does your site need?
If a client is told that WordPress is the best solution to their
site needs, someone is probably going to tell them that there
are things called Themes and Plugins. Holy Eff, does this turn
into a nightmare.
I personally had a client’s nephew tell me that, under no
circumstances, will the site have this theme installed or
these (15) plugins running on the site. I asked why. It was
because the kid watched a YOUTUBE video once, explaining
that these plugins slow down the site. Sometimes that is a
fair enough assumption.
It just so happened, that the plugins and theme mentioned,
were literally the exact ones that need to be used. I found out
that the kid tried to build the site, and was very unsuccessful
in producing the finished site. He was convinced that these
plugins were rubbish. Yes, I said RUBBISH!
I’ll take it a step farther. Since the plugins did not
work for him, he wanted this site to not use any
plugins at all. Yep, he wanted me to insert Gravity
Forms into the theme, and have no plugins running.
My point is this, before you research themes and
plugins, have a plan. Then you know what you are
looking for. Got it champ? That’s the email I
responded back with. True Story.
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Outline
/ Plan

You get what
you get.
We are specialists but things still need to be built.
6 of 13
Development
Chances are that the nephew went right to Themeforest,
started researching things and hoped for the best. In reality, if
you do not have a plan, how do you know what sounds right
for your project. With out that plan, they all sound like highly
possible candidates.
There are some themes and plugins that will get the
job done for you. Like Gravity forms. Then there are
themes and plugins that only accomplish 33-54% of
the job. So if you have a plan of attack, you can pick
out the right one, the first time.

Let’s not
forget the rule
Anything is possible. But the smaller details matter more sometimes.
7 of 13
Development
Clients usually run to you with their idea’s, logos and color
schemes for the site. And that’s great. But in the beginning,
those things do not matter. Let me explain:
Websites need to have that AUTOMATTIC…(see
what I did there?) approval from the audience. But
more is said about your website from the
functionality, than the sex appeal. Nothing goes
unseen. Your site might scream AMAZING, but the
way people interact with the site whispers SUB
PAR, and a whisper is louder than a scream.

Let’s use this in
an example.
There is this theme, and it does this cool thing. But I’m not sure how it works.
Themeforest is a very popular place for new users to research
themes and plugin candidates for their up and coming
projects. But as developers know, sometimes the theme turns
out to be complete BS!
WooCommerce is a great example of what I am talking
about here. There are many themes on Themeforest that are
using this plugin to accomplish the over all function of the
site. There is a simple log in and log out feature wrapped in
some jQuery that creates a pop up box. That’s really cool.
But if you are not planning on selling items online, why are
you using the E-Commerce plugin?
Demonstrations, or examples, of WordPress themes can be
misleading. We have no idea if the home page is being
populated by post types, or manually entering in the
information inside a page template. Clients tend to choose
things off looks, and not function.
So now the client is basing their website off of the
capabilities of their themes or plugins they have
chosen. While this is not a 100% horrible idea, there
is a current trend going around with new users.
They want a Brochure website, while using a
Magazine theme and E-Commerce Plugins. WHY?
Because they were mislead by something,
somewhere.
8 of13
Outline
/ Plan

I call this move….
Whiskey Di-K.
Can some one say….. EPIC FAILURE? SHIT, I’ll SAY IT. I’ll SAY IT LOUDER!!
9of 13
Function
Many times, when I am building a clients site or providing
support, I’ll start seeing patterns in their flaws. Man do I enjoy
telling people how wrong they are. Seriously.
Think about this for a minute. New websites are so
much easier to build vs. already existing sites that
were built on WP 2.3 and using plugins that have
never been updated. There are some amazing
plugins that are being built right now as we speak.
Memberships plugins come to mind here. S2
Member was the Holy Grail when it came to
Membership Plugins. It was the only option at one
point. While it is an amazing plugin, there are more
efficient plugins out there that will allow you to do
more. So it’s important to pick themes and plugins
that are going to be compatible. Like Gravity Forms
and Jet Pack. Let them do the heavy lifting.

Functions Rule In
Our World
When someone does this…. I want that to happen.
10 of 13
Function
So you have a client, and their grand idea is all about making
something work more efficiently. That’s awesome by the way.
But they have little to no clue on how they are to get it from
step one to step 329.
You might be able to re-write a function, or change
some css really easy. But sometimes clients lack the
vocabulary, or terms we use, so they really meant to
say register form instead of sign up to my newsletter
form. It’s important to know what needs to happen
when buttons are clicked. That’s why we have post it
notes on the wall. They explain the story of how
things are going to work.

Functioning is as
functioning does.
Some ideas are so amazing, that they have not been thought up. SARCASM HERE
11 of 13
Function
Getting back to the post it notes on the wall Idea. Lets think
about the process in general. How do we get from A to Z? 1 to
329? Well there are steps involved. These steps might need to
be worked out several times before something else can be
done. Even then, we might need to go back for corrections
That’s why I put everything on the wall. I can break
things down to the client. I can show them what
might take some time vs. using a plugin like Gravity
Forms to handle the task. Depending on their
requests, and stuborness, sometimes the best
plugins are scrapped because they do not like the
LOOK of something. My theory is that: If it
functions, style can be corrected.

What is Really Happening.
What are the main components of the site.
12 of 13
WordPress 1
Theme 2
Plugins 3
U I 4

Accomplishing your
clients dreams
It’s harder than it seems. That’s what she said. SARCASM HERE
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Success
Now that you know that writing everything down is so
important, you can start using this process in your own
designs or company. Success is measured differently by each
individual. On a serious note, this is a fact.
All of your clients who are building their first
website have the priorities out of whack. The things
that are important to them, are not important to
you. When you educate the client, they can see how
you do work and adapt. Maybe it’s your creative
genius that will help them improve the outcome of
their project.

Part
TWO
Client, Developer Relations….

Tools I Use Every
Freaking Day
I can have my own separate account, but I can share information with clients.
1 of 5
ASANA TRACKY
BASE
CAMP
Word
Press
It’s very important to break things down, or separate things from others. At the same
time, it totally sucks having to remember what site I need to visit to update something
as simple as a milestone or project details. So I have some awesome tools to share with
everyone. These all offer some great features.

Asana is the
Awful Awful.
Well worth the money, This app keeps me focused.
Asana is a Web Based Application that handles more than just
task management. From simple to-do lists to complex
projects, Asana is one tool for many purposes. What’s more,
you can adapt your own workflow to Asana. Until now, I was
truly lost.
I use Asana to keep all of my employees inline, and
informed. With this app, I can keep track of my whole team.
Each team member can only see what I have assigned to
them, or what they have added. Each member can write
something up, and share it with who ever. This is great
because it keeps a detailed log of all dialogs we have.
Members can check their work online, or via mobile device.
That really came in handy for us, since we are all living in
different cities.
It’s important for me to inform you that I only use Asana with
my team members. This is how we communicate daily. This
way, we can keep our own notes on a separate service, off our
server. Talk about saving some space. Plus, its so UI friendly,
why would we use anything else.
I used to think that I had to do everything inside of
one platform, or what was the point of paying for
multiple things? I love WordPress, but even
multisite networks can become complicated and
stressed on band width.
2 of5

Tracky.
Enough said.
A Las Vegas Startup, That is saving time, everywhere.
Tracky is an online enterprise social collaboration platform
that encompasses to-do lists, live chat, calendars, task
management, people and project discovery, social
accountability, cloud-based storage and more.
I use Tracky for several things. Mostly because they are
super involved with every single person and company that
uses their platform. They have numerous integrations with
WordPress and provide code for you to use if you are using
any kind of programming language. The coolest part about
Tracky for me personally is the simple fact, that anytime I
need help, their staff is online and ready to help. Talk about
a cool Las Vegas Start Up.
Tracky allows us to keep a journal of projects we are currently
working on, and share them with Social Networks. So Most of
our Press Releases are done using a Track on Tracky. We also
use Tracky with out Meet Up Groups and Developer groups we
communicate with. I have met some awesome developers, just
by adding them on Tracky.
It’s totally free, a start up ran by the same people
since day one, and taking over social collaboration
day by day. The team members can even Skype with
us if we need help using their system, or even just to
bounce some idea’s off of. We do have to schedule
that time with them though.
2 of5

Base Camp,
You’re Drunk.
There will always be love for the original.
Everyone uses Base Camp, or has used Base Camp if they have
decided to get serious about project management. This tool is
a really amazing starting point, if you need something
affordable (Cheap), and easy to use after reading instructions.
There are so many apps, and plugins for Base Camp, it’s not
even funny. Since it is one of the most popular project
management tools out there, many developers build apps off
of their API tools. Bonfire, is a Campfire application for
Android that doesn't suck.
How many people have heard of CLOUD SNAP? Yeah, a lot of
people here in RENO know COLIN LORETZ, the CEO AND
FOUNDER. His software is super compatible with Basecamp,
Sales Force and even EVERNOTE. So While Base Camp is very
basic to most developers, It’s truly impressive.
3 of 5

WP Project
Management Unlimited
Simply, the Best We’ve Seen.
GeekStreetWP.com is the service that I founded in October
2012. It doubles as a Support Service for new and advanced
users who own a WordPress site, and as a design shop that can
help you create something new for your site.
We have two very ways we handle business. One side is the
Support. We use a theme from WooThemes called Support
Press. It allows us to create a knowledge base, while letting
clients create support tickets to get the help that they need.
Now when we have clients who use our services for Design
only, we create a subdomain for that client on our multisite
network, we use the Support Press theme, and we use WP
Project Management Unlimited.
When we build out a site for a client, they get their own
support subdomain where they can view their own
knowledgebase articles that we specifically write for them.
They can create tickets as well. With the Projects Plugin, we
also keep a communication going with the clients on a custom
post type called Projects. Here, we can assign specific users to
a project. They can see the outline of the project, as well as
comment and upload files as they like.
The only way this plugin gets any better, is if it had some kind
of invoicing options. But that’s what other plugins are for.
4 of 5

In Conclusion,
or THE END!
Remember what the point of this presentation was?
Writing information down is super awesome. It helps all
parties involved, keeps a proper timeline and logs all of the
communications between users and developers alike.
We write everything down on post it notes. Then we stick
them to the wall in order of how the site will work. Then we
create the outline. We begin development and install the
functionality of the site. From there, our team stays in
contact with each other, and our clients using some really
cool apps, software and plugins.
I really hoped that you enjoyed the presentation.
Building your site before you install WordPress is more than
likely not for everyone. But I hope that it helps at least some
developers and clients understand that figuring out what your
site will do on paper is far more important that wasting time
installing plugins and themes, and ripping them down
Screaming “I HATE YOU…..” really loudly from a roof top that
you want to jump off.
5 of 5

ANY QUESTIONS?Now is the F*CKING TIME, As Lucy LU says in Kill Bill Vol. 1
Come On Down, You’re the next contestant on the Price Is
Right.
URL: GEEKSTREETWP.COM
Email: SALES@GEEKSTREETWP.COM

THANKS FOR
WATCHING
SEACREST, OUT!

Build your website before you install wordpress.

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