


<h2 id="h-building-plugins-and-a-theme">Building plugins and a theme</h2>



<p>I started developing WordPress plugins in 2005. My first plugin was Bad Behavior Stats, which displayed the number of blocked access attempts by the Bad Behavior plugin. WordPress plugin development was still new back then and Bad Behavior Stats soon became obsolete. I also created a theme called Connections Reloaded, based on the original Connections theme. I maintained it until 2009, when I decided to focus on plugins instead of themes.</p>



<p>Since 2005, I have authored more than 15 WordPress plugins!</p>



<h2 id="h-a-full-time-wordpress-blogger">A full-time WordPress blogger&#8230;</h2>



<p>I began blogging professionally about WordPress in November 2005, thanks to Mark Ghosh who ran <strong>Weblog Tools Collection</strong>. This gave me an opportunity to stay updated with new plugins and themes and share the latest news of the fast-growing WordPress world. I left my engineering job in mid-2006 and blogging for Mark helped me financially while I pursued my MBA.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 id="h-and-a-part-time-wordpress-developer">&#8230;and a part-time WordPress developer</h2>



<p>In 2009, I completed my MBA and joined the finance sector as my day job. This reduced my time for blogging and coding. However, I did not want to let go of my WordPress passion. I had already created <a href="https://webberzone.com/plugins/contextual-related-posts/">Contextual Related Posts</a> and <a href="https://webberzone.com/plugins/top-10/">Top 10</a>, two popular plugins with loyal users. I continued to develop them and launched a few more plugins over the years.</p>



<h2 id="h-the-professional-rebrand">The professional rebrand</h2>



<p>I moved my plugins to <a href="https://webberzone.com/">WebberZone</a> in 2015. This became my professional brand for my existing and new plugins. It also allowed me to create a knowledge base, which I am still working on.</p>



<p>WebberZone allowed me to split my personal blog from my WordPress development. It has also given me the possibility of premium plugins, should that be a path I pursue in the future.</p>



<h2 id="h-the-challenges-with-wordpress-development-today">The challenges with WordPress development today</h2>



<p>WordPress development has changed a lot in recent years, especially with the launch of the block editor. To be a developer today, you need to learn not only PHP and MySQL, but also JavaScript and React. You also need to use build tools before you can start coding.</p>



<p>This has been challenging, but fortunately, there are several online tutorials to help. I spent months learning how to add blocks to my plugins and I finally have a working repository on Github of these.</p>



<h2 id="h-what-have-i-learned">What have I learned?</h2>



<p>I have learned some valuable lessons from my WordPress journey. Here are some of them:</p>



<ul>
<li><strong>Persist.</strong> Not everyone will appreciate your work, but some will. Focus on them and ignore the rest.</li>



<li><strong>Code. A lot.</strong> Reading tutorials is not enough. You need to practise, make mistakes and fix them.</li>



<li><strong>Learn from others.</strong> The WordPress community has many amazing people who create great plugins and themes. Study their code, read their tutorials and follow their best practices.</li>



<li><strong>Contribute.</strong> There are many ways to contribute to WordPress besides core development. You can also contribute by creating plugins, themes, documentation, marketing, tutorials, etc.</li>



<li><strong>Don&#8217;t be afraid to say NO.</strong> This is very hard to do, but sometimes necessary. I recently decided to limit support for my free plugins because it was taking too much time from development.</li>



<li><strong>Take time off.</strong> It could be a night, a day, a week or more. Working when exhausted is not productive or healthy. Spend some time with your family.</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-how-does-wordpress-help-me-unwind">How does WordPress help me unwind?</h2>



<p>WordPress is my way of relaxing. My job demands long hours and constant availability. I love what I do, but I need a break sometimes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That’s why I enjoy coding plugins for WordPress in my spare time. It makes me happy to create something useful and share it with others.</p>



<h2 id="h-my-wordpress-future">My WordPress Future</h2>



<p>My goals for 2023 and beyond are:</p>



<ul>
<li>Redesign WebberZone, my website where I showcase my WordPress plugins and tutorials.</li>



<li>Be more active on Twitter and network with other WordPress enthusiasts.</li>



<li>Improve and update my existing plugins and maybe launch a pro version.</li>



<li>Learn new skills and keep up with the latest WordPress trends and developments.</li>



<li>Share my WordPress knowledge through tutorials on WebberZone.</li>
</ul>



<p>WordPress has given me a creative outlet for my ideas and skills. As a blogger, it has allowed me to share my stories and experiences. As a developer, it has challenged me to build many things that are useful that I can be proud of. As a community member, it has connected me to amazing people and opportunities.</p>



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<p>We asked Ajay for a view into his development life and this is what he sent! He doesn&#8217;t use a desk, he codes his WordPress material in bed on just his laptop.</p>




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<p class="kt-adv-heading_b9c76c-f5 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading has-theme-palette-9-background-color has-background">HeroPress would like to thank <a href="https://wpdrawattention.com/">Draw Attention</a> for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!</p>
</div></div>

</div></div>


<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-helps-me-unwind-story-of-a-part-time-developer/">WordPress helps me unwind &#8211; story of a part-time developer</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:32:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Ajay D&#8217;Souza";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"Do The Woo Community: Thanks to These Supporters of Do the Woo";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74575";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"https://dothewoo.io/thanks-to-these-supporters-of-do-the-woo/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:359:"<p>A huge shoutout to these sponsors who have supported us over the last 12 months. </p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/thanks-to-these-supporters-of-do-the-woo/">Thanks to These Supporters of Do the Woo</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:21:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"Post Status: WordPress 6.2 Beta 4 &amp; Live Demo • Performance Roadmap • Static vs Dynamic";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=147763";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-6-2-beta-4-live-demo-performance-roadmap-static-vs-dynamic/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21720:"<h2 id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-february-27-2023">This Week at WordPress.org (February 27, 2023)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">WordPress 6.2 is just a few weeks away. It's time to get testing with Beta 4.  Core Performance team has announced the roadmap for this year, including Gutenberg Phase 3 work and more. Do you know the difference between static vs dynamic blocks?  </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-infobox kt-info-box_94d1bd-77"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-link-wrap kt-blocks-info-box-media-align-left kt-info-halign-left"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media-container"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media kt-info-media-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-container kt-info-icon-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-inner-container"><span class="kb-svg-icon-wrap kb-svg-icon-fe_arrowRightCircle kt-info-svg-icon"></span></div></div></div></div><div class="kt-infobox-textcontent"><h2 class="kt-blocks-info-box-title">WP 6.2 Beta 4 & Demo, Performance Roadmap, Static vs Dynamic Blocks</h2><p class="kt-blocks-info-box-text">β  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/01/wordpress-6-2-beta-4/">WordPress 6.2 Beta 4</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f5d3.png" alt="🗓" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/21/6-2-live-product-demo/">6.2 Live Product Demo</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64b-1f3fe.png" alt="🙋🏾" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/07/help-test-wordpress-6-2/">Help Test WordPress 6.2</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f503.png" alt="🔃" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/18/proposal-updates-to-the-wordpress-release-cycle/">Proposal: Updates to the WordPress Release Cycle</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f5fa.png" alt="🗺" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/27/core-performance-team-roadmap-published/">Core Performance Team Roadmap Published</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2753.png" alt="❓" class="wp-smiley" /><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/static-vs-dynamic-blocks-whats-the-difference/">Static vs. dynamic blocks: What’s the difference?</a><br /><br /></p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_b57166-6e"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2 id="h-news"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/the-month-in-wordpress-february-2023/">The Month in WordPress – February 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/lets-party-organize-your-wp20-celebration/">Let’s Party: Organize your WP20 Celebration!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/02/people-of-wordpress-hauwa-abashiya/">People of WordPress: Hauwa Abashiya</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/02/episode-50-3-interesting-trends-from-wordcamp-asia/">WP Briefing: Episode 50: 3 Interesting Trends from WordCamp Asia</a></li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_8f6276-eb"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-43 wp-block-columns">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-accessibility"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/02/28/accessibility-team-meeting-agenda-march-3-2023/">Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: March 3, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-central"><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org">Central</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2023/02/get-your-tickets-for-wordcamp-kerala-2023-on-march-25th/">Get your tickets for WordCamp Kerala 2023 on March 25th!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2023/02/woocommerce-sponsors-wordpress-community-events-worldwide/">WooCommerce sponsors WordPress community events across the globe</a></li>



<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2023/02/bluehost-supports-wordpress-community-events-worldwide-3/">Bluehost supports WordPress community events worldwide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2023/02/thanks-to-automattic-for-sponsoring-community-events-worldwide/">Thanks to Automattic for sponsoring community events worldwide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2023/02/godaddy-joins-the-wordpress-global-community-sponsorship-program-in-2023/">GoDaddy joins the WordPress global community sponsorship program in 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-community"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community">Community</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/01/community-team-meeting-agenda-for-2-march-2023/">​​Community Team Meeting Agenda for 2 March 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/01/wordcamp-mentors-march-check-in/">WordCamp Mentors’ March check-in!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/02/27/proposal-modify-the-events-and-news-widget-to-show-topic-based-meetups-worldwide/">Proposal: Modify the Events and News widget to show topic-based meetups worldwide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/02/27/suggested-update-to-events-code-of-conduct/">Suggested update to Events Code of Conduct</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/02/23/recap-of-the-diverse-speaker-training-group-wpdiversity-amer-emea-on-february-22-2023/">Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on February 22, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/01/a-week-in-core-february-27-2023/">A Week in Core – February 27, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-2-22-february/">What’s new in Gutenberg 15.2? (22 February)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/18/proposal-updates-to-the-wordpress-release-cycle/">Proposal: Updates to the WordPress Release Cycle</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-wordpress-6-2">WordPress 6.2</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/02/wordpress-6-2-accessibility-improvements/">WordPress 6.2 Accessibility Improvements</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/wordpress-6-2-beta-4-postponed/">WordPress 6.2 Beta 4 Postponed</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/21/wordpress-6-2-beta-3/">WordPress 6.2 Beta 3</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/21/6-2-live-product-demo/">6.2 Live Product Demo</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/04/phase-2-finale/">Phase 2, Finale</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/03/hallway-hangout-performance-improvements-for-wordpress-6-2/">Hallway Hangout: Performance Improvements for WordPress 6.2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/06/roadmap-to-6-2/">Roadmap to 6.2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/18/bug-scrub-schedule-for-6-2/">Bug Scrub Schedule for 6.2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/11/early-bug-scrub-schedule-for-wp-6-2/">Early bug scrub schedule for WP&nbsp;6.2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/17/wordpress-6-2-planning-roundup/">WordPress 6.2 Planning Roundup</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/01/dev-chat-summary-march-1-2023/">Dev Chat Summary, March 1, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/01/editor-chat-summary-wednesday-1st-march-2023/">Editor chat summary: Wednesday, 1st March 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/27/editor-chat-summary-wednesday-22nd-february-2023/">Editor chat summary: Wednesday, 22nd February 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-developer-blog">Developer Blog</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/creating-a-custom-block-that-stores-post-meta/">Creating a custom block that stores post meta</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/static-vs-dynamic-blocks-whats-the-difference/">Static vs. dynamic blocks: What’s the difference?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/intrinsic-design-theming-and-rethinking-how-to-design-with-wordpress/">Intrinsic design, theming, and rethinking how to design with WordPress</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-docs"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Docs</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/02/21/xpost-helphub-and-devdocs-redesign-request/">HelpHub and DevDocs redesign request</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-hosting"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting">Hosting</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2023/02/28/hosting-team-meeting-agenda-2023-03-01/">Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-03-01</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-marketing"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/03/01/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-21-february-2023/">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, 21 February 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/03/01/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-14-february-2023/">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, 14 February 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-meta"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/02/10/theme-directory-redesign-update/">Theme Directory redesign update</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/02/22/openverse-is-now-a-monorepo/">Openverse is now a monorepo</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/02/28/community-meeting-recap-28-february-2023/">Community Meeting Recap (28 February 2023)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/03/01/concurrency-resource-issues-on-monthly-runs/">Concurrency/resource issues on monthly runs</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-performance"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/">Performance</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/27/core-performance-team-roadmap-published/">Core Performance Team Roadmap Published</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/performance-chat-summary-28-february-2023/">Performance Chat Summary: 28 February 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/02/28/core-performance-team-update-february-28-2023/">Core Performance Team Update – February 28, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-plugins"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins">Plugins</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/03/01/plugin-review-team-27-feb-2023/">Plugin Review Team: 27 Feb 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-polyglots"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots">Polyglots</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/01/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-march-1-2023-1300-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat – March 1, 2023 (13:00 UTC)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/02/21/xpost-helphub-and-devdocs-redesign-request/">HelpHub and DevDocs redesign request</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-project">Project</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/02/06/proposal-creating-a-wordpress-contributor-mentorship-program/">Proposal: Creating a WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/01/27/discussion-ending-the-eternal-september/">Discussion: Ending the Eternal September</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-support"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/03/support-ticket-triage-session-march-8th-2023-at-1600-utc/">Support ticket triage session – March 8th 2023 at 16:00 UTC</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/03/agenda-for-march-2nd-support-meeting-2/">Agenda for March 2nd Support Meeting</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/02/summary-for-february-23rd-support-meeting/">Summary for February 23rd Support Meeting</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-theme">Theme</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/03/hallway-hangout-community-themes-initiative/">Hallway Hangout: Community Themes Initiative</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/01/themes-team-meeting-notes-february-28-2023/">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;February 28, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/02/28/themes-team-update-february-28-2023/">Themes team update February 28, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-test"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test">Test</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/21/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-using-replay-io-in-the-fse-outreach-program/">Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about using Replay.io in the FSE Outreach Program</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/07/help-test-wordpress-6-2/">Help Test WordPress 6.2</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-training"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">Training</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/learn-wordpress-march-newsletter/">Learn WordPress March Newslette</a>r</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/03/recap-wordpress-6-2-beta-4-release-party-ride-along/">Recap: WordPress 6.2 Beta 4 Release Party Ride Along</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/03/recap-sensei-pro-lms-demo-for-learn-wordpress/">Recap: Sensei Pro LMS Demo for Learn WordPress</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/03/become-a-welcome-committee-member-today/">Become a Welcome Committee member today!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/02/training-team-goals-for-2023/">Training Team Goals for 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/01/training-team-meeting-recap-for-february-28th-2023/">Training Team Meeting Recap for February 28th, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/02/10/training-teams-new-onboarding-program-is-now-live/">Training Team’s new onboarding program is now live!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/02/08/video-conferencing-options-for-online-workshops/">Video conferencing options for Online Workshops</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/02/06/training-team-2023-goals-setting/">Training Team 2023 Goals Setting</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/03/01/whats-new-on-learnwp-in-february-2023/">What’s new on LearnWP in February 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-lesson-plans"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans">Lesson Plans</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/ta-dashboard-overview/">டாஷ்போர்டு மேலோட்டம்</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/ta-difference-between-reusable-blocks-block-pattern-templates-template-parts/">மீண்டும் பயன்படுத்தக்கூடிய தொகுதிகள், பிளாக் பேட்டர்ன், டெம்ப்ளேட்க</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=block-themes-and-wordpress-live-stream-10">Block Themes and WordPress: Live Stream</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=block-themes-and-wordpress-live-stream-9">Block Themes and WordPress: Live Stream</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=hallway-hangout-community-themes-initiative">Hallway Hangout: Community Themes Initiative</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=live-stream-reviewing-developer-focused-features-in-gutenberg-15-1-and-15-2">Live stream: Reviewing developer-focused features in Gutenberg 15.1 and 15.2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=updating-a-blogs-design-informal-live-stream-part-2-2">Updating a blog’s design (Informal live stream) – Part 2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=lets-code-preventing-common-security-vulnerabilities">Let’s code: Preventing Common Security Vulnerabilities</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wp-dev-livestream-building-a-react-app-utilising-the-wp-rest-api-3">WP dev livestream: Building a React app utilising the WP REST API</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=how-to-create-a-website-on-mobile-part-1">How to create a website on mobile (Part 1)</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-tutorials"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials">Tutorials</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/how-to-add-and-remove-a-logo-and-site-icon-in-a-wordpress-block-theme/">How to add and remove a logo and site icon in a WordPress block theme</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-courses"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/courses">Courses</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/develop-your-first-low-code-block-theme/">Develop Your First Low-Code Block Theme</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<h2 id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-02-14-2">PHP 8.2.3 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-02-14-3">PHP 8.1.16 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://262.ecma-international.org/13.0/">TC39</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases/tag/2.5.4">Composer 2.5.4</a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status' <a href="https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It's also available in <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter">our newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f48c.png" alt="💌" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



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<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://poststatus.com/"><img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/vertical-post-status-logo-250.png" alt="Post Status" class="wp-image-85823 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work">You — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/#Agency">your whole team</a> can <a href="https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left has-small-font-size"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2709.png" alt="✉" class="wp-smiley" /> Listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcasts/">podcasts</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/">@Post_Status</a> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/post-status-llc/">LinkedIn</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4bc.png" alt="💼" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
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<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:28:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"WPTavern: #65 – Bob Dunn on Building a WooCommerce Community";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=142333";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/65-bob-dunn-on-building-a-woocommerce-community";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40419:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox has a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case building a WooCommerce community.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the show, I&#8217;m very keen to hear from you, and hopefully get you all your idea on as soon as possible. Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Bob Dunn. If you&#8217;ve been using WordPress for any length of time, and you&#8217;ve been consuming content in the ecosystem, it&#8217;s highly likely that you&#8217;ve come across Bob before. He&#8217;s been using WordPress since 2006, WooCommerce since 2011, and has been podcasting since 2014. In another life before he discovered WordPress, Bob ran a marketing company, but now his endeavors are all about WordPress.</p>



<p>We talk about how Bob found WordPress back in the day, when he was creating websites with HTML and Flash. Bob branded himself as BobWP, and has never looked back. After several years of running an agency alongside his content creation, in 2014 Bob decided to go all in on his content and building a community around it.</p>



<p>As you&#8217;ll hear, he tried a variety of different formats, some of which worked, and others which fell by the wayside. But it was all a journey to where he is now.</p>



<p>Given the size of the WordPress community, Bob was able to discover his niche within the greater whole and concentrate upon WoCommerce. His popular Do the Woo podcast was born, and he&#8217;s been working on it ever since.</p>



<p>We talk about how Bob has managed to keep the momentum going, and what he thinks are unique about his podcast and community. It&#8217;s not about growing a group or worrying about the number of listeners. For Bob, it&#8217;s about creating meaningful connections and working to make his community a worthwhile place to be for himself, his cohosts and consumers of his content.</p>



<p>We talk about how growing a community such as this can be financed, as well as the ways that Bob is trying to innovate in the near future to give value back to the WordPress project more generally.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s an interesting conversation about how content creators can find a place in the WordPress ecosystem, and what impact they can have.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all the links in the show notes by heading to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast. Where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p>And so, without further delay, I bring you Bob Dunn.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Bob Dunn. Hello, Bob.</p>



<p>[00:04:05] Bob Dunn: Hey Nathan, thanks for having me on. I&#8217;m pretty excited to be here.</p>



<p>[00:04:08] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, you&#8217;re very welcome. Thank you. Bob is known to me because we&#8217;ve met in the real world, and I&#8217;ve been following his podcast for many, many years. But if you don&#8217;t know Bob, let&#8217;s give you the opportunity to introduce yourself. So it&#8217;s a fairly bland question. I&#8217;m sorry about that. But it&#8217;s the one that we usually start with. Just give us a bit of background, tell us who you are, what your relationship is with WordPress and so on.</p>



<p>[00:04:32] Bob Dunn: Okay. Before WordPress, before I even got into WordPress, I ran a marketing company. My wife and I ran a marketing company, and these were the days of print design. So that&#8217;s kind of was my background for, for many, many years. And eventually moved into WordPress, which is another little story in itself, but was just looking for something simple and easy to segue into the web as far as our business.</p>



<p>And in 2006, I started playing with WordPress. Got into it more and more. My wife was blogging on Typepad, I believe, at the time. So I was thinking, well, maybe we should check out this blogging thing on WordPress. Got into that. That was what appealed to me first off.</p>



<p>And then secondly was the fact that I had spent, in my other business doing these horrible HTML websites with Flash, and they were just atrociously, they were a horror. And I thought, I&#8217;ve got to find something simpler that I can make a nice, clean website for clients. I don&#8217;t need anything fancy, and I found that with WordPress and actually did in, I think, 2018, my first WordPress site for our business. And from there it was history. In 2010, I branded BobWP. I&#8217;ve been training, I&#8217;ve done just about everything in WordPress, or at least tried everything except development. And I&#8217;m, where I&#8217;m at today with, Do The Woo, which is a WooCommerce builder community site. But yeah, it&#8217;s been an interesting and fun journey.</p>



<p>[00:06:06] Nathan Wrigley: How did you decide that you were going to turn your attention to what it is that you now do mostly, which is community building and podcasting? Was there a moment in time where you thought, I no longer wish to actually build sites and deal with clients? I want to concentrate on the content creation and the community building.</p>



<p>[00:06:25] Bob Dunn: Yeah, around 2014 was when I stopped doing service work, designing sites specifically. I just was burned out. It was to the point where I would almost dread if somebody contacted me to put a site together, and I think it&#8217;s just because I&#8217;d been doing, at that point, between that and our other business, I&#8217;ve been doing client services for a good, probably 23 years or 24 years.</p>



<p>And I thought, man, this isn&#8217;t the way to work with clients. I&#8217;m not giving them what they deserve. If I have that kind of attitude and I&#8217;m just dreading the next project. Ever since the beginning of my involvement with WordPress, the community always played a part. That was a part that really, was always there and always moved me forward.</p>



<p>Back in 2007, 2008, I was on another online community, and it was very unique. I&#8217;m not going to get into the explanation of it, take a little bit too long, but that got me more involved in community, online and both in person. And that stuck with me, the community all the way through.</p>



<p>And now the podcasting came along. I was a content maker. In 2007 I went to a workshop with some colleagues of mine, and it was on podcasting and they really wanted me to start a podcast. And I thought, well, this is very intriguing. I was looking at what I was doing. Uh, I don&#8217;t have the bandwidth for this. So I told them maybe someday, and that someday came like, I don&#8217;t know how many years later. 2014 is when I started the first podcast, and Matt Madeiros, which many of your listeners know from Matt Report and WP Minute. He was doing podcasting way back then too, and he kept poking at me.</p>



<p>And we had a pretty good relationship, we talked a lot. And again, since we were both content makers, he said, come on Bob, you got to try podcasting. So he was never like, down my throat, but every once in a while we&#8217;d be talking and he&#8217;d go, oh, when you going to start that podcast? So between his less than annoying poking at me, and then having waited, I thought this is prime time.</p>



<p>So in 2014, I said, I got to try this podcasting thing. And I did one for about a year and I called it WP Breakdown. And I thought it was very clever because I was essentially repeating what I did with tutorials and stuff. I was writing, breaking down WordPress. But then I also thought of the frustration of WordPress, somebody having a breakdown with WordPress. So I thought it was clever. I don&#8217;t know if anybody ever really got that from the title.</p>



<p>But they were 10, 15 minute monologue podcasts that I did. And I wasn&#8217;t really thrilled with it. I think it was a format I had. So after a little over a year I said, I got to quit this. This is just me rambling, regurgitating what I&#8217;m writing down somewhere else. I need to wait till something hits me and then I&#8217;ll start up again.</p>



<p>[00:09:38] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s nice. I confess that I don&#8217;t think in all the years that I&#8217;ve been podcasting, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve had the courage to do any monologue kind of thing. It&#8217;s always been an interview. So either with one person or multiple people. I don&#8217;t quite know why that is, but I&#8217;ve always found it much more easy to get conversation going, than to persuade myself to sit there and write something that I assume people would want to listen to.</p>



<p>[00:10:05] Bob Dunn: Yeah, and I&#8217;d always been told, even in the early days of my other career, people always told me, you got to do something Bob. You either need to go into being a DJ or a minister, because of your voice. And I thought, well, you know, you don&#8217;t go into something just because of your voice. And that&#8217;s where a few people started poking me at podcasting.</p>



<p>Oh, you have a voice for podcasting. I said, well, that&#8217;s nice, but it would be better if I had the time and the resources and everything else that comes along with it. The voice alone isn&#8217;t going to do it. And I&#8217;ve had a, I&#8217;ve had a few monologue ones. I&#8217;ve had a few interview. I&#8217;ve actually done seven podcasts since 2014.</p>



<p>[00:10:44] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s really rather a lot. It always amazes me that the community surrounding the WordPress project is big enough that it can have so many little niches. So, you know, if you&#8217;ve got a plugin that does one particular thing, that may well afford you a lifestyle, if you can sell it and upsell it and shift some licenses, then you can have a lifestyle there.</p>



<p>But also that extends to things like you and I both do. It&#8217;s amazing to me that there are enough people out there who are into WordPress that it can support multiple different podcast channels and YouTube channels and all sorts of content creation, tutorials, but also podcasts like you&#8217;re listening to now. I find that extraordinary.</p>



<p>[00:11:29] Bob Dunn: Yeah, it is amazing. And I think when I was doing it by myself, I realized that no, this isn&#8217;t right. This isn&#8217;t meant to be me just being here by myself doing some monologue. I&#8217;m not really enjoying it. And I think that was a community part of it, nagging at me, because when I started Do the Woo, I think I did one or two episodes and I said basically, screw this, I&#8217;ve got to get a co-host at least.</p>



<p>And I reached out to Brad Williams from WebDevStudios. He said, would love to do it. We did a few by ourselves and then I thought even two people week after week or whatever the cadence was back then. Is it really what I want to do? Is it really what the listeners want to hear? The two of us talking week after week. So shortly after that we started bringing in guests.</p>



<p>[00:12:26] Nathan Wrigley: I&#8217;ve tried my hand at community building with things like Facebook groups and so on. Various different ways of getting the community going, but that feels like an area where you are really concentrating. So it&#8217;s not true to say that you do the podcast. You do the podcast plus you have these endeavors to build community. You&#8217;ve got a variety of different people helping you create the podcast, but also you are trying to create a community around the podcast. How&#8217;s that going and what&#8217;s the intention there?</p>



<p>[00:13:00] Bob Dunn: I think that, I started with building community around BobWP. So the brand in 2010 that I started, that helped make the way for building other communities, because it&#8217;s real hard to build, have these other grandeur ideas and not have built your own community yourself. So I did that, and when I really sat down and started looking at building community and I read books and I listened to the people that were experts in building community and I saw a lot of things and I thought, this just doesn&#8217;t, there&#8217;s something that doesn&#8217;t jive with what I want to do.</p>



<p>And what I discovered was two things that I was looking at building a community. I call it without the noise and without the metrics. And what I mean by that is without the noise, when I first started the idea of Do the Woo and building a community for the WooCommerce builder. Everybody would ask me the question, so are you doing a Slack channel? Are you doing a Facebook group? Is this like a Discord? Where are you building this community? I said, I&#8217;m not doing any of those. And they were just kind of pause.</p>



<p>My idea was that, and as painful as it sounds, that I would need to build community, basically one person at a time. That I didn&#8217;t need to prove that I have a community of thousands of people, or I have this group that has 10,000 people in it. Because the impact was more important to me than the number. Because as all of us know, you can have 20,000 followers on Twitter, and you engage with maybe 2% of them if you&#8217;re lucky.</p>



<p>So there&#8217;s that metric that doesn&#8217;t mean that your community&#8217;s successful or not, I really feel that way. The metric is the communication you&#8217;re having with individuals. How you&#8217;re connecting people. And that tied into less noise.</p>



<p>I didn&#8217;t need a bunch of people in a group on Discord and have them all talking away to each other. We have plenty of opportunities to do that, and I didn&#8217;t need to add something to that pile. So taking that in mind and moving ahead with those two, I call them my goals or my mantras, I guess. It&#8217;s gone very well because, what I see is, when I have people on the podcast, I have a certain amount of hosts, and our podcast is a little unique to the space because I have like, I believe, nine or 10 co-hosts now that do the different shows.</p>



<p>I kind of mix them up. They all have their different personalities. They bring in a different perspective. And the connections that have been made between hosts and guests and guests and guests and hosts and hosts has been amazing. And it&#8217;s not this, like I said, huge number that I&#8217;m going to just worry about achieving and saying, join this community of 10,000 people, 20,000. Whatever I want it. Join this community where people are connecting with each other in different ways. And that&#8217;s what I think the podcasting has really brought to it.</p>



<p>And you, you have your weekly Monday podcast where you bring in three different people. With you, I&#8217;m sure that same thing is happening. You&#8217;re building the WP Builds community that way because they&#8217;re all connecting. You have the people that come in and listen to the chat. You have guests that maybe have listened to other guests, who knows, they may have reached out to each other. Sometimes we hear about those stories, sometimes we don&#8217;t.</p>



<p>And those are the things that are impactful to me. And I think that&#8217;s a way to really build community versus these steps that people go through. And there&#8217;s nothing wrong with having Facebook groups. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with having Discord groups. They all have their place. But personally for me, I knew the direction I needed to go.</p>



<p>[00:17:05] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. In order to allow yourself the time to put into this project. Whatever it is given the time that this podcast is released, wherever you&#8217;ve got to. But in order to give yourself the time, you obviously need to finance that. And I&#8217;m wondering how that works for you. Do you have relationships with companies? Are you sponsored in certain ways? How do you deal with paying the bills essentially?</p>



<p>[00:17:34] Bob Dunn: Yeah, it&#8217;s old sponsorships and it&#8217;s a tough row. You can get sponsors, no problem. You can get sponsors if you don&#8217;t have listeners. They put out all these things that maybe have worked for them. A lot of it is who you know. A lot of it is your own community build up. And a lot of it is luck, I think. So yes, I have currently 12 pod friends that are my major sponsors, and then I have some spots for smaller sponsors.</p>



<p>When I started my first podcast or one of my first, it was, Do the Woo actually, in the early years, changed to a podcast called WPeCommerce. When I started that podcast, out of the gate, I started with sponsors and I was able to get some people to come in and support me. Now, easier said than done. I had a lot of, as you mentioned, a lot of connections in the space. I had already built up a lot of relationships. I built up a brand, whatever that brand may convey, but it obviously was something that sponsors found value in.</p>



<p>Now, you can only carry that so far. You have to really start delivering and you have to, you have to be honest with your sponsors. And how I do it is, a lot of times you will, how do I want to say this? Sponsors will have expectations, and those expectations might be metrics. How many listeners do you have? How many click-throughs am I going to have?</p>



<p>Now, if you don&#8217;t have that or that isn&#8217;t your main goal, as I said before, with my community, I&#8217;m not looking at so much the metrics. I&#8217;m looking at the impact it has. Then you&#8217;ve got to turn around, sell that. And that&#8217;s what I do is I sell the impact of what my sponsors are doing for the community.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s not an easy sell, let me tell you. And not everybody has a budget to spend the money on that. So I&#8217;m fortunate. It&#8217;s something that when time comes around to get sponsors, it&#8217;s not like I just sit back and send out 12 emails and I get 12 yeses. It does take work and it&#8217;s not something I recommend for everyone.</p>



<p>You know, there&#8217;s a lot of other ways you can fund your efforts. But if you really are able to do it full-time and put into it all your blood, sweat, and tears. And also decide what else you can provide through those sponsorships. Let me kinda step back. I&#8217;m kind of going off on a weird tangent.</p>



<p>One of the biggest things I can ask anybody if you&#8217;re going to do a sponsorship, whether it&#8217;s for a podcast for a community, is two things. Be creative and be flexible. If you send out and you say, hey, this is what you get, case closed, we&#8217;re done. Great. If that&#8217;s it, and it works, fine. But the only way you can grow a sponsorship, grow trust from sponsors is to throw in some creativity to really basically give them a little bit more of an open book than saying this is what we deliver during this period of time, and that&#8217;s it.</p>



<p>And that is what&#8217;s going to help you. And it helps them to understand more of what you&#8217;re actually doing with the podcast or the community, whatever it may be. Versus just saying, you get this and that&#8217;s it. If that makes sense. I kind of went off on a little tangent there and kind of got a little away from community, but the sponsorship is a real, I wish it was cut and dry is what I wish it was.</p>



<p>And I could say, hey, you know, just do this and you&#8217;ll be happy, and life will go on and you can go out and smell the roses and live your life. But it can be frustrating, can be challenging, but if you work on it hard enough, you&#8217;ll find that sweet spot.</p>



<p>[00:21:31] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, you only have to go to events like WordCamps to see that WordPress has this giant commercial bit to it. There&#8217;s hundreds of companies at those events vying for your attention, and they may have booths, they may have great big areas of the exhibition hall if you like, devoted to their product or service. Or it may just be that they turn up and walk the halls and try to meet new people and forge relationships, set up meetings and what have you. So there&#8217;s a very large proportion of people in the WordPress space who want to sell into that space. And then along comes somebody like you who is directly talking to those people.</p>



<p>And so I can see that the match is really good. You are essentially a conduit. You&#8217;re a short circuit between people who&#8217;ve got a product that they wish to sell, and trying to find that audience and it&#8217;s hard to build that audience. And I would imagine in many cases, those companies, they really don&#8217;t have the resources to build their own independent audience.</p>



<p>So the idea of piggybacking of the hard work that you&#8217;ve done over many years must seem very appealing. But also, yeah, I guess they&#8217;ve got their constraints in terms of whether they&#8217;ve got the budget, what their success criteria are and so on. But do you see yourself as that middle man, if you like? The person that sits between the community who want to listen to authentic people talking in authentic ways, and the companies who want to get their product and service to that audience, but possibly don&#8217;t know quite how to do it.</p>



<p>[00:23:08] Bob Dunn: That&#8217;s exactly how I sell my sponsorships. I&#8217;m there to be an advisor. I&#8217;m there to be somebody that a sponsor can throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. I can give them my impressions of what&#8217;s going on in the community. For our new year with our sponsors, a big part of that is me being a conduit. I mean it&#8217;s like, I tell my sponsors it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s a horrible way to say this, but use and abuse me. I&#8217;m here to help you make connections. If you want to talk to somebody, if you want to meet somebody. If I see a potential conversation that I feel would be valuable to whoever and the sponsor, and neither one of them have had any inclination about this may be happening.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ll come right to them and say, hey, I&#8217;ve talked to so-and-so and I really think you should connect with this person. And at the same time, connecting with the different guests we have, I&#8217;ve had some sponsors that have actually connected with guests. In the next 12 months, as a group, what our sponsors are doing as part of their sponsorships now, and this kind of brings a other piece of the community back in, certain percentage of their sponsorship will go right back in to fund some of the things that we&#8217;re seeing and doing in the space right now as far as sending people to WordCamps, sending contributors to contributor days.</p>



<p>Helping contributors basically finance all the hours and efforts they&#8217;re putting into things. So I thought, what better way, especially for sponsors that may not know where to put that money, where they&#8217;ll get the most value for it, putting it back into the community. I want to be that conduit.</p>



<p>[00:25:04] Nathan Wrigley: So some of the sponsorship money that you&#8217;re receiving in this particular year, you are turning that round and recycling it back to people in your community to help them, as you described, get to WordCamp events. But also I would imagine there&#8217;s other things. But that&#8217;s the intention is to siphon off a certain proportion of your sponsorship revenue and repurpose it to help community members.</p>



<p>[00:25:28] Bob Dunn: Right. And that&#8217;s one of the things, I did it as, I increased my sponsorship and as a added benefit that yes, let&#8217;s put this pocket of money together. Again, you may not know where to put it. But I can find the best places. I can talk to the right people. I can make sure that I&#8217;m not reinventing the wheel because there&#8217;s several organizations being put together, the WP Community Collective, all these other ones that will be able to help with this, and I can partner with them.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m real big with partnerships, finding the right place to put the money. I&#8217;m just not going to put some form on my site and say, okay, apply to be sent here, or to fund your project or whatever. I want to strategically make sure the sponsors monies are going to the right place.</p>



<p>[00:26:19] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. That&#8217;s really interesting. So there&#8217;s that as part of your community, but I know you&#8217;ve got quite a few irons in the fire and ideas circulating around. Depending on the time that this podcast is released, maybe those ideas will have changed. But right now, as of when we&#8217;re recording this, what are the goals, if you like for Bob and Do the Woo and the community around that for this coming year.</p>



<p>[00:26:43] Bob Dunn: I really want to get even more people involved, reach more of the underrepresented globally. One big thing is that we want to reach out a lot more global and some of the pockets, especially in the Woo Builder. And it&#8217;ll be WooCommerce, I mean WordPress as well. But, it&#8217;s getting into those communities and elevating their voices.</p>



<p>Essentially that is what my whole podcast is about. No matter how I do it. I&#8217;ve got several different ideas aside from having somebody come in as a guest, I&#8217;m going to be doing some panels, some live feeds, and I&#8217;d like to define it as a podcast for the community by the community.</p>



<p>So there&#8217;s some real interesting pieces we&#8217;re looking at. We&#8217;re looking at bringing in a few podcasts that will be in native languages, because a lot of my guests, English is not their first language. I feel they struggle a little bit with really expressing themselves, like they would want to express themselves. And I can&#8217;t do this a lot, but I thought how great would that be to have, let&#8217;s say I&#8217;m just going to pick out a country in Europe, France.</p>



<p>I get a couple guests, host. We get a couple guests for them and I basically give them a little bit of direction of what they want to talk about. Probably something WooCommerce, and let them do it in French, and go at it. And this is something that I want to do to give back to those little communities in all these different countries. At least saying, hey, you&#8217;re at least special enough and you&#8217;re part of this community that we want to at least give you this almost as a gift, and give you the opportunity to raise your voice, but in your own language.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m doing a Friday show that I call WooBits, and I&#8217;m going to open it up and have a guest co-host come in with me each week and I&#8217;ll pick out a topic or two and we&#8217;ll just have a conversation. Again, this will be very open. It&#8217;s just somebody that wants the opportunity to kind of talk on the level as a co-host, but not have the commitment of doing this on a regular basis or starting their own podcast.</p>



<p>And again, all around elevating their voices. Yeah, there&#8217;s several things I&#8217;m trying to think of what else is coming to mind, but I&#8217;m somebody that likes to think I have these things in place and these ideas in place, but I&#8217;m sure organically over the next however many months, other ideas will come and in other great possibilities. And a lot of those do come through the sponsors too. I constantly talk to them and say, do you have some unique idea you wanted to do with the community? Let&#8217;s see if we can do something under the guise that Do the Woo and make it happen.</p>



<p>[00:29:42] Nathan Wrigley: Given that you are now doing the Do the Woo podcast, and you&#8217;ve gone down the rabbit hole of WooCommerce exclusively really. Why did you decide to do that and not focus on WordPress as a whole? Because, obviously WordPress as a whole is much bigger. So why the fascination with Woo was it that you were just more interested in that when you began this journey, or did it just seem like a nice niche to be involved in? What was the thinking there?</p>



<p>[00:30:12] Bob Dunn: Boy, that&#8217;s a, that&#8217;s a good question. I wish I could say it&#8217;s as easy as I was drinking one night and decided to do it. But that would be too simple. The whole journey to Woo, I mean, I&#8217;ve been involved with WooCommerce since the beginning. I used to use their themes in their early days when their were WooThemes, so I knew them as a company.</p>



<p>I knew, I&#8217;ve known a lot of the people there. It was a product that just always impressed me from the time it was released. During my sprint of doing more tutorials and stuff on bobwp.com, a few years back, I decided to focus on WooCommerce only because I knew there was a market, because I was into affiliate marketing at that time. And I knew there was a need.</p>



<p>So that was just general topics, writing about plugins, extensions, things like that. But then the more I got into it, and the more I talked to people at WooCommerce, and the more I talked to people involved with WooCommerce, I felt like the community was of builders who were a little fragmented. And I took upon myself, I thought, what if I was able to actually start bringing them together? Start raising their voices.</p>



<p>And, I realized that the Woo Builder community was very fragmented and they were all doing their own thing. And I, I just thought, okay, with as much experience that I&#8217;ve put into WooCommerce, and it just was a natural segue for me. Something just told me along the way to get into it more and more. I felt here&#8217;s an opportunity to do something more than just a podcast. Do something community wise. So I, I actually talked to a lot of people over a period of about seven or eight months before I even kicked off Do the Woo, to really get a feel of if this is something that is viable. And everything led me that way.</p>



<p>So, there was that initial interest always using WooCommerce, and it just built on it over the years. And the interesting thing about it is that as much as we talk about WooCommerce, I&#8217;m finding I talk just as much about WordPress, in conversations on the podcast and stuff, because obviously WooCommerce is built on top of WordPress. So it&#8217;s a slash, you know, Do the Woo, do the WordPress type of thing. Except that that&#8217;d be really cumbersome to call it that.</p>



<p>But the two overlap so much that the love and the interests I&#8217;ve had in WordPress for so many years fits in. And WooCommerce is a large, large piece of software. A lot of sites out there. And I was hoping by talking especially to people in other countries and their challenges and how they have built these little Woo communities, other places that none of us know about.</p>



<p>I thought, well, it was sure it&#8217;d be nice to get them a little bit more noticed and hopefully active and do that in any way I can through the site. I&#8217;m kind of going back into community, but something that just grew over time and I just decided to run with it because I really knew that, I just saw the potential for that community. And just a side fact, when I started Do the Woo, I did several episodes of it and I actually flipped over then to a podcast called WPeCommerce Show. And I did that for almost two years, four years I think. And there was probably well over 2, 300 episodes. And that was a more generalized WordPress and e-commerce.</p>



<p>And towards the end of it, I was having this nagging feeling. I wanted to kick Do the Woo back into things. So I actually started to Do the Woo up again. Did both of them at the same time, and eventually decided to end the WPeCommerce and focus on WooCommerce.</p>



<p>[00:34:17] Nathan Wrigley: Do you, given that you are really keen on e-commerce and WooCommerce in particular, and probably keep your eye very closely on how it&#8217;s being developed. What&#8217;s your feelings for 2023, or indeed the last year? What have you enjoyed in the space? So I&#8217;m thinking particularly not about the community there, but some of the bits and pieces that have rolled out into WooCommerce. What&#8217;s been exciting, what&#8217;s been interesting? What products or services have you seen which you thought, ah, that&#8217;s one to watch, or that&#8217;s been good to see?</p>



<p>[00:34:49] Bob Dunn: You know, I hate to admit this, but I&#8217;ve gotten to a point in the last two, three years that I keep on top of WooCommerce by proxy. Because I feel like I&#8217;ve been put in a position to put all these other people on, a lot smarter than me, and get the people that really know what they&#8217;re talking about to talk about WooCommerce.</p>



<p>I think what I&#8217;ve noticed most about WooCommerce, and this is maybe, I&#8217;m not a developer, I don&#8217;t build sites anymore, so sometimes my attention kind of weighs away from some of that stuff, and I get too maybe focused on the people. But I like the growth they&#8217;ve been doing. I feel like they&#8217;re not just going, you know, crazy. They&#8217;re not this like bam, bam, bam. Tons of features, tons of features, flipping this, flipping that. Adding stuff all the time. They, they are taking their time and they&#8217;re doing it right, even with blocks.</p>



<p>How long that they&#8217;ve taken to bring in Woo Blocks and the discussion around the product page and will the product page stay as it is, or will it become entirely block based? They don&#8217;t rush into anything. And sometimes I know maybe for some people that&#8217;s frustrating, but for myself as a business person and somebody that&#8217;s been in tech for a while, and just having talked to a lot of people. I think the thing that I&#8217;ve noticed. Even though the progress is moving fast in a lot of ways, they keep up with the right things, but they don&#8217;t push the envelope so much that they overdo it.</p>



<p>And I think that&#8217;s the thing I&#8217;ve seen the most. And when I have people talk about WooCommerce, I&#8217;ve recognized the most is that they&#8217;re doing it at a pace that&#8217;s good and they&#8217;re doing it right, and that&#8217;s, my takeaway is. And even when I listen to them talk about what they have in the future, it&#8217;s not like this, we have dozens of things we want to do. It&#8217;s more of a logical, step by step versus just piling it on. So I think that&#8217;s probably my biggest takeaway. And, it is from a bigger, maybe a more bird&#8217;s eye view.</p>



<p>[00:37:10] Nathan Wrigley: Given that you&#8217;ve changed your career several times, you&#8217;ve flipped between different jobs. If we cast your eye into the crystal ball over the next few years, do you see yourself still doing this? Do you have as much energy and passion for it now as you did, and do you intend to keep doing Do the Woo? Or do you suspect that the future might offer something else?</p>



<p>[00:37:37] Bob Dunn: Well, if anybody wants to buy Do the Woo, I&#8217;m always. No, I&#8217;m just kidding. We&#8217;re in the, age of acquisitions, no. Seriously, I&#8217;m at an age, I started WordPress at the age of, right before my 50th birthday, I started diving into WordPress. So I&#8217;m at an age where I&#8217;m not looking to come up with the next big and new thing for myself.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m really content with what I&#8217;m doing right now. So I&#8217;m think I&#8217;m in it for the long haul, because I think it&#8217;s going to be around. I don&#8217;t know how it will mold itself over the years. But my pivots that I&#8217;ve had over the years, and I&#8217;ve had several of them. They will be smaller pivots, but they&#8217;d still probably be within the realm of what I&#8217;m doing, versus just doing another whole swing. Now, I&#8217;m also somebody that says never say never, and you don&#8217;t know what the future holds. So don&#8217;t hold me to it. But I don&#8217;t have any, I have too many ideas for this still, and I think there&#8217;s still so much potential. I think I&#8217;m locked in for a while.</p>



<p>[00:38:48] Nathan Wrigley: If anybody&#8217;s listening to this Bob, and they&#8217;re keen on e-commerce and WooCommerce in particular, and they never knew that you were trying to grow communities and connect people and all of that. Whether they&#8217;re from a company that might like to be on the one hand or the community member on the other. Where do they find you? Where&#8217;s the best places to get in touch with you and what you do?</p>



<p>[00:39:09] Bob Dunn: Best place of course, you can always visit site, dothewoo.io. I do have a bobwp.com site. It&#8217;s a little bit lean right now. I&#8217;m kind of rebranding that. But dothewoo.io. And then on Twitter, I&#8217;m still hanging on Twitter. I mean, I&#8217;ll be there till they throw me off or something. You can find me @dothewoo, @bobwp. But basically look for BobWP on Mastodon, LinkedIn, all that stuff. You&#8217;ll find me there and that&#8217;ll connect you with Do the Woo.</p>



<p>[00:39:43] Nathan Wrigley: Bob Dunn, thank you for chatting to me on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:39:47] Bob Dunn: Thank you, Nathan. It was a true pleasure.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today, we have <a href="https://twitter.com/BobWP">Bob Dunn</a>.</p>



<p>If you’ve been using WordPress for any length of time, and you’ve been consuming content in the ecosystem, it’s highly likely that you’ve come across Bob before. He’s been using WordPress since 2006, WooCommerce since 2011, and has been podcasting since 2014. In another life before he discovered WordPress, Bob ran a marketing company, but now his endeavours are all about WordPress.</p>



<p>We talk about how Bob found WordPress back in the day when he was creating websites with HTML and Flash. Bob branded himself as <a href="https://bobwp.com/">BobWP</a> and has never looked back.</p>



<p>After several years of running an agency alongside his content creation, in 2014 Bob decided to go all-in on his content and building a community around it. As you’ll hear, he tried a variety of different formats, some of which worked, and others which fell by the wayside, but it was all a journey to where he is now.</p>



<p>Given the size of the WordPress community, Bob was able to discover his niche within the greater whole and concentrate on WooCommerce. His popular <a href="https://dothewoo.io/">Do the Woo podcast</a> was born, and he’s been working on it ever since.</p>



<p>We talk about how Bob has managed to keep the momentum going, and what he thinks are unique about his podcast and community. It’s not about growing a group or worrying about the number of listeners. For Bob, it’s about creating meaningful connections and working to make his community a worthwhile place to be for himself, his co-hosts and consumers of the content.</p>



<p>We talk about how growing a community such as this can be financed, as well as the ways Bob is trying to innovate in the near future to give value back to the WordPress project more generally.</p>



<p>It’s an interesting conversation about how content creators can find a place in the WordPress ecosystem and what impact they can have.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://dothewoo.io/">Do the Woo</a></p>



<p><a href="https://mattreport.com/">Matt Report</a></p>



<p><a href="https://thewpminute.com/">WP Minute</a></p>



<p><a href="https://strangework.com/">Brad Williams&#8217; website</a></p>



<p><a href="https://woocommerce.com/">WooCommerce</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.thewpcommunitycollective.com/">WP Community Collective</a></p>



<p><a href="https://dothewoo.io/woo-bits-moving-forward/">WooBits</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/DotheWoo">@dothewoo Twitter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bobwp">@bobwp Twitter</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"WPTavern: All In One SEO Patches Multiple Stored XSS Vulnerabilities in Version 4.3.0 ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=142373";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://wptavern.com/all-in-one-seo-patches-multiple-stored-xss-vulnerabilities-in-version-4-3-0";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2307:"<p>Wordfence has <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/02/all-in-one-seo-pack-vulnerabilities-impacting-3-million-sites-patched/#:~:text=The%20All%20in%20One%20SEO,input%20sanitization%20and%20output%20escaping.">published</a> the details of two stored XSS vulnerabilities the company responsibly disclosed to the developers of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/">All In One SEO plugin</a> in January 2023. The vulnerabilities potentially impacted more than 3 million users on versions 4.2.9 and earlier.</p>



<p>One vulnerability, which received a 6.4 (Medium) CVSS score, Wordfence attributes to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. Researchers found that this &#8220;makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.&#8221;</p>



<p>The second vulnerability was given a 4.4 (Medium) CVSS score and requires an authenticated attacker to have Administrator-level privileges. Wordfence outlined how attackers might exploit these vulnerabilities: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Unfortunately, vulnerable versions of this plugin fail to escape submitted site titles, meta descriptions and other elements during post and page creation, and when changing plugin settings. This made it possible for users with access to the post editor, such as contributors, to insert malicious JavaScript into those fields, which would execute in the browser of any authenticated user, such as a site’s administrator, editing such a post or page.</p>



<p>This is a likely scenario to occur as posts written by contributors have to be reviewed and moderated prior to publication.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>All In One SEO has patched both vulnerabilities in version 4.3.0 but so far only 25.5% of the plugins 3+ million user base has updated to the latest version, leaving approximately 3/4 of the plugin&#8217;s users still vulnerable.</p>



<img />



<p>The plugin&#8217;s changelog for version 4.3.0 includes a brief, vague note on the security fix included: &#8220;Updated: Additional security hardening.&#8221; There have been two more releases of the plugin since the vulnerabilities were patched in 4.3.0.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 28 Feb 2023 23:15:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"WordPress.org blog: People of WordPress: Hauwa Abashiya";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=14450";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/02/people-of-wordpress-hauwa-abashiya/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17524:"<p><strong>This month we feature Hauwa Abashiya, a project manager in Nigeria and the UK, whose passion for community support led her to an adventure in open source.</strong></p>



<p><strong>The&nbsp;<em>People of WordPress</em>&nbsp;series features inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors.</strong></p>



<img width="1014" height="627" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/feature-img-for-hauwa-powp.jpg?resize=1014%2C627&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa portrait picture " class="wp-image-14437" />



<p>As we travel through life, sometimes we are drawn to a particular cause, one to which we can get behind and join in. This cause, in whatever field it may be, can help lift us beyond our everyday lives and can help us take stock. This is the journey that depicts Hauwa’s finding a global sense of place and a way to re-look at her life and plans.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That change agent was discovering and becoming part of open source through WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Learning development and WordPress</h2>



<p>In 2017, Hauwa was working full time as an experienced and successful project manager, but was becoming increasingly aware that she did not feel the same excitement for projects as she once had. She was starting to feel bored. “I knew I still loved working with and in project management, but I needed to do something different.” she said.</p>



<p>Hauwa enrolled in a web development course and studied HTML, CSS and some JavaScript. One of the course options was WordPress, which she elected to take. It was then that a course tutor encouraged her to attend a WordCamp, an event focused on the open source software and its global community.</p>



<p>She felt that she needed to have a basic knowledge of the software before she arrived at the event, so started to learn WordPress. The first WordCamp she attended was in the seaside town of Brighton on the south coast of England. There she met people who would be friends and mentors for years to come. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>&#8220;I was inspired by meeting people in the WordPress community.&#8221;</p>
<cite>Hauwa Abashiya</cite></blockquote>



<p>She said: “I was inspired by meeting people in the WordPress community. My life and my wish to support communities have been shaped for the better by some of the people I met, and I continue to be grateful for knowing them.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Global WordPress community: from Germany to Nigeria</h2>



<p>After discovering a WordPress community in the UK, Hauwa wanted to see first hand just what a global connection it had. She had heard that WordCamp Europe was a flagship event and brought thousands from across the world together. She wanted to be part of this, and its organization appealed to her project management training. She applied to be a volunteer at the three day conference, which in 2019 was held in Berlin, Germany. At this event, Hauwa discovered both a global movement and an active local WordPress community in her home country of Nigeria. She was able to connect with all the different parts of this vast community from wherever she was working through an instant messaging tool.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Inspired by people she met who were using WordPress to help improve people’s lives in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, Hauwa started to delve further into how this open source software and its global community could provide opportunities and improve understanding across cultures and continents.</p>



<img width="700" height="937" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/hauwa-and-her-mom.jpg?resize=700%2C937&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa and her mother" class="wp-image-14438" /><em>Rosalind and Hauwa</em> <em>at an event in Nigeria.</em>



<p>Hauwa’s father, Dr Audu Kwasau Abashiya and her mother Rosalind Zulai Abashiya, were both well known for their philanthropy, especially in giving practical support to people in Kaduna, in the north of Nigeria and Abuja in the center of the country. Hauwa explained: “My mum comes from a family who give and share their skills to give practical help. From friends I had got to know in WordPress, I saw that there were parts of the community that had this same ethos. This could be something I could be part of, and also take back to Nigeria in the future.”</p>



<p>Her parents had established a charitable foundation focused on helping widows, orphans and children get access to education skills, from finance to music. It connects those who need help and those who can give support. </p>



<p>Hauwa said: “Teaching people practical skills which can be used to raise an income or be re-shared with family and others in their local area is so important. Projects like this can help grow a community and keep it strong. Skills such as sewing and cookery are not just ones that can put clothing and food on the table, but also are about gaining independence and pride. They are examples of how micro-economies can grow and inspire others to have dreams that they can see becoming real. <br /><br />&#8220;I had seen through my work and studies that technology used with care and an understanding of different needs can make a difference in local communities too. Projects like WordPress can be part of this empowerment through localized translations and software which can give a way to share ideas.”</p>



<img width="675" height="900" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/hauwa-in-2022.jpg?resize=675%2C900&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa in Nigeria" class="wp-image-14442" />



<p>With her project management and IT background, Hauwa is getting more involved with how IT skills can be used for not just instilling a sense of community belonging, but also the practical longer term input into the local infrastructure and introduction of fast changing technology.</p>



<p>She said: “I would love to see many of the people who have been helped by the foundation my parents started be able to share their ideas and their achievements to encourage others. One of the routes could be through open source software that is free to access and can work on mobile phones.  </p>



<p>&#8220;As a previous volunteer team rep in the WordPress Training Team, I saw first-hand just how important it is for a non-technical end user to be able to use software to share their ideas, without having to become a developer. We can all help give people a voice, and if we are working in technology, we have a role to play in creating and pushing for genuine access of tools.”</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>&#8220;If we are working in technology, we have a role to play in creating access to tools.&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>On Hauwa’s future wish list is to help African countries access software and technology in their local languages. She said: “This is part of identity, and respecting and valuing different cultures, and not expecting everything to be translated from the English as it is read. It makes it possible for older people to use the software or read content that&#8217;s published.”</p>



<p>Hauwa learned Hausa (a language spoken across several African countries) and English at the same time as she grew up in Nigeria. She had a multi-location education, like her parents, studying and going on to work in different countries. At 16, she first studied computer science on what she describes as a ‘whim,’ not knowing it would be a significant part of her working life in the future.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="700" height="974" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/hauwa-in-2015.jpg?resize=700%2C974&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa in a cafe in 2015" class="wp-image-14441" />



<p>She intended to go to university to study finance and sociology. When she went to say goodbye to her computer studies class, the teacher asked what she was going to study. On hearing it was finance and sociology, the teacher said: “You don’t want to be doing that, you want to be doing something in computing.” This conversation proved to be a turning point for Hauwa. She went on to study Computing and Information Systems and Object Oriented Information Systems for her Master’s degree in the UK.</p>



<p>During her second year of university, she also worked with data entry and related areas as she was determined to learn as much as she could about the moving parts of a project. After she completed her master’s, she chose jobs that enabled her to work on systems, out of hours support, project management, supply chain, and procurement. She is an advocate for learning as many aspects of your subject as you can to give you as many tools to really understand what both clients need and how to help them reach workable and timely solutions. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>&#8220;By contributing to community projects you can share your skills and keep them fresh.&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>These skills proved to be transferable in later years to give her time to support WordCamps, meetups, and the Training Team. She said: “Contributors to open source come from so many different professional and cultural backgrounds. Contributing is a great way to share your skills and keep them fresh and open to new learning opportunities.”</p>



<p>Hauwa fascination for project management and learning continued, and she gained qualifications in the field, including Prince 2 and PMP. She continues her commitment to ongoing learning in her work today with Agile and other methodologies and draws parallels with this and her interest in community learning. </p>



<img width="724" height="399" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/hauwa-at-wc-london-2019-2.jpg?resize=724%2C399&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa at the reception desk at WordCamp London 2019" class="wp-image-14440" /><em>Hauwa welcomes attendees at WordCamp London in 2019</em>



<p>Committed to supporting her local community in the UK too, Hauwa joined the London WordPress Meetup and in 2019 became an organizer for <a href="https://london.wordcamp.org/2019/">WordCamp London</a> where she was able to use some of her project management expertise. During these events, she had many conversations to encourage others to develop their IT skills and share her own experiences.</p>



<p>This interest in driving up the skills levels of others naturally led her to become further involved in the Contributor Teams. Inspired to share her skills by another contributor to the project, she joined the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">Training Team</a> at a WordCamp Contributor Day. In this team, Hauwa found in it a group collaborating on easier online ways for people to keep up with the software, its features, and how they could grow the community in their own local area. </p>



<p>At the heart of this, Hauwa felt accessibility should be key, and she gave time to better understand documentation. She felt this was essential to give people genuine access and identify where more work was needed. Her belief in this grew when she joined the WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/accessibility/">Accessibility Team</a> for release 5.6, and she continued to contribute to the team in the area of documentation and training.</p>



<p>Hauwa devoted many hours to supporting the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">Training Team</a> for a number of years as part of her conviction that the right resources can really help communities globally use open source software. She also stressed the importance of materials being user-friendly and easy to translate as WordPress has such a large international usage.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Volunteering in open source can re-energize you </h2>



<p>Through the combination of volunteering efforts in UK and Nigeria, and supporting contributors globally, Hauwa began to re-find her love for helping people with their planning and to achieve their goals. She was able to share her 15 years of project management experience in her volunteering role and encouraged others to consider it as a career.</p>



<img width="500" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/02/Hauwa-WC-Europe-2019.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1" alt="Hauwa at WordCamp Europe 2019" class="wp-image-14443" />



<p>She said: “Through volunteering you work alongside people. Project management is about people. It is about helping people achieve. This can be the same through volunteering, and you can learn much through meeting people from different places.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“One of my drivers is using technology to solve problems. As a project manager, it is a privilege to help guide people and organizations to identify and reach goals. It is helping them gain that value. This is one of the reasons I was drawn to finding out tech communities and contributing to them. If this is something that drives people reading about my experience, there are vast opportunities to to share your skills. Find something that fits you for where you are now.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Hauwa encourages anyone working in technology to further their understanding of managing projects and working with different teams. “Project management skills are so important in whatever kind of project you are in. With long working hours over many years, I felt I had lost the connection with the people element. I was stuck in what seemed to be a repeat cycle. With the people I met in the WordPress community and my professional skills being used, I was reminded of my own values and how as a project manager I can support help others reach new heights or make something of value and quality that others can benefit from and use.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>&#8220;Find an area that fits you and where you can make a difference.&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>In 2022, Hauwa returned to working full time for both national and international, medium and&nbsp; large scale projects. Though her volunteering time to global community building initiatives has reduced accordingly, she focuses on encouraging skills learning and on the community cultural side.</p>



<p>“I will keep my interest in how open source like WordPress, working alongside other solutions, can help not-for-profit ground level and community building. For me, if there are technology-based solutions out there, we can all play some part in helping them grow and making a difference,&#8221; she said. </p>



<p>&#8220;How we give to wider communities does not have to be the same throughout time. It is important to keep relooking at what is needed and the difference it can make.&#8221;<br /><br />She added: &#8220;Find your central wish for the communities you are connected with, and there may be technologies that can support them. I am glad I started my journey.&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Share the stories</h2>



<p>Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community.&nbsp;Meet more WordPressers in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/newsletter/interviews/">People of WordPress series</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Contributors</h2>



<p>Thanks to Hauwa Abashiya (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azhiyadev/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>azhiyadev</a>)&nbsp;for sharing her adventures in open source.</p>



<p>Thank you to Abha Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a>) for interviews and writing the feature, and to Meher Bala (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>meher</a>), Chloe Bringmann (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>), Mary Baum (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>marybaum</a>), Nalini Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nalininonstopnewsuk/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>nalininonstopnewsuk</a>) and Maja Loncar (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/majaloncar/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>majaloncar</a>) for work on photographs and review.</p>



<p>The&nbsp;<em>People of WordPress</em>&nbsp;series thanks Josepha Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>) and Topher DeRosia (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/topher1kenobe/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>topher1kenobe</a>) for their support.</p>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-center"><img width="180" height="135" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2020/03/heropress_logo_180.png?resize=180%2C135&ssl=1" alt="HeroPress logo" class="wp-image-8409 size-full" /><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-small-font-size"><em>This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on </em><a href="https://heropress.com/"><em>HeroPress.com</em></a><em>, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. </em>#HeroPress </p>
</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:30:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Abha Thakor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: WordPress 6.2 Openverse Integration Updated to Upload Inserted Images";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=142353";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-2-openverse-integration-updated-to-upload-inserted-images";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4184:"<p>WordPress 6.2&#8217;s Openverse integration is getting some last minute changes after contributors expressed concerns about it <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-2-openverse-integration-hotlinks-images-contributors-propose-uploading-to-media-library-as-a-better-default">hotlinking images by default</a>. The new feature allows users to quickly insert free, openly-licensed media into their content. It also allows users to upload external images through a button in the block toolbar, but this creates an extra step in the process and is easy to miss in the UI.</p>



<p>Several contributors cited GDPR and privacy concerns in the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/48394">ticket</a> that called for uploading the images by default. They also noted that hotlinked images can pose problems for users who want further manipulate the images by cropping, rotating, and filtering, and for developers managing site migrations. Some went as far as to say the feature belongs in a canonical plugin, which would likely have had a less rushed implementation and better testing prior to landing in core.</p>



<p>&#8220;I am deeply uncomfortable with any integration of Openverse into core,&#8221; WordPress contributor Peter Shaw <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/48394#issuecomment-1445151654">said</a>. &#8220;Philosophically WordPress is a personal publishing platform so it should be avoiding external APIs and dependencies. The only external calls it should make (by default) is to check for updates.</p>



<p>&#8220;No issue with the service itself though (I like it) but it should be a canonical plugin that site owners consciously install. Either way images must be on the local server though.&#8221;</p>



<p>As the hotlinking drew more attention, WordPress contributors chimed in on the ticket to call for the feature not to be shipped in its current implementation.</p>



<p>&#8220;This cannot ship this way, or it will get unknowing users sued,&#8221; Yoast founder Joost de Valk said. &#8220;Next to that it has negative performance implications, as you can&#8217;t do <code>srcset</code> or <code>loading</code> attributes on images loaded from remote. Sideload <em>really</em> should be the default, and in fact IMHO, only way.&#8221;</p>



<p>Gutenberg contributor Nik Tsekouras jumped in with a quick PR that changes the implementation to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/48501">upload the Openverse images when they are inserted</a>, wherever possible.</p>



<p>&#8220;We definitely want to upload to the site library for this flow and should treat this as a bug,&#8221; Gutenberg Lead Architect Matias Ventura <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/48394#issuecomment-1446883555">said</a>. &#8220;There&#8217;s work going on in parallel to upload by default on other actions (like pasting) that are not as straightforward or general enough (hence the need for something like <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/46014">#46014</a>) but this one should be straightforward.&#8221;</p>



<p>Tsekouras&#8217; PR ensures that any images inserted from Openverse are uploaded. If they cannot be uploaded to media library due to <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS">CORS issues</a>, WordPress inserts the Image block with the external URL and a warning about legal compliance and privacy issues. Here&#8217;s an example of a successful upload:</p>



video credit: James Koster in <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/48501#pullrequestreview-1317206726">PR #48501</a>



<p>WordPress 6.2 Beta 4 was <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/wordpress-6-2-beta-4-postponed/">delayed</a> this morning until March 1, due to an unrelated <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7/p1677581267400419">regression introduced in 6.2</a>. Tsekouras <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commit/fac5049a0b2544b27f4a3a1b29a4ae817ce9eaac">cherry-picked the Openverse PR to the wp/6.2 branch</a> to get it included in the next release, so the next beta should ship with the updated implementation.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:16:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:36:00 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:15:28 GMT";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20211221090300";}