Christina Dulude

This past weekend, I attended WordCampRDU, a one-day grassroots conference on topics relating to WordPress, at North Carolina Central University. WordPress is a popular content management system on which we build many websites at work (and also this seldom-updated blog!)

I attended talks on plugins, ecommerce, video blogging, SEO and WordPress MU. WordCamp was a wonderful experience — and a bargain at $25 for the day. Thanks to the organizers for putting it together, and to NCCU for hosting.

WordPress as a Factory: The Fundamentals of Plugin Development

Glenn Ansley gave an overview of Wordpress using the metaphor of a factory. The product is the data hosted on the website, and it is served up by a belt that cycles through all the different components that make up the blog. In other words, WordPress functions like a loop comprised of smaller loops, rather than a tree with branches.

The machines in our factory metaphor are the PHP functions, and plugins serve to modify our production center. Developers can do this by using the hooks in the WordPress codex in conjunction with the add_action and add_filter functions. Filters and actions behave similarly, but action functions do not necessarily expect a return while filters do.

Someone in the audience asked when you should create a plugin for a function, versus simply putting it in the functions.php template file. Glenn gave some good rules of thumb: 1. Will you use the function again? 2. Is the code for the function very long and complicated? If so, writing a plugin would be the way to go.

More information on writing plugins is available on the WordPress codex.

WordPress & eCommerce: What You Need to Know

Shayne Sanderson demonstrated how to install and configure the WP e-Commerce plugin. WP e-Commerce is a shopping cart application for selling products online. It is very customizable, both in terms of the appearance of the shopping cart, but also in handling payment options (PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.)

Video Blogging with WordPress

This presentation by Hal Goodtree focused primarily on video production. In fact, Hal summed up the WordPress component within the first two minutes: Create video -> Upload to YouTube -> Embed in WordPress post. Why YouTube? It gives your video a wider audience than posting only to your own website. YouTube videos also tend to show up high in Google search results.

Editing your videos prior to posting them online is crucial. Web videos should generally last no more than 2-3 minutes. You should start with an intro, say what you’re going to say, and then get out.

It’s important for editing to separate sound from picture when recording, and you should plan the order and direction of your shots beforehand. It’s good to get the same shot from multiple angles, so you can pick and choose what works best later. Music, titles and transitions are important too — just don’t make them tacky. Your video will be more interesting if you don’t just use one long take. Instead, intersperse cutaways, b-roll, illustrations, and/or different camera angles.

When composing shots, there is no need to move the camera or zoom in and out. Web video is a closeup medium, so you should get as close to your subject as possible. The rule up upper-thirds also applies — keep the subject’s eye’s in the upper third portion of the shot.

SEO for WordPress

Andy Beal (who had an awesome accent) presented on search engine optimization, and specifically how you can use Wordpress to boost search rankings for your website. Effective structure and content are primarily what matters; the days of little tricks to boost rankings are long over. Luckily, WordPress produces search engine-friendly websites out of the box.

It’s most important to give your website a descriptive title (for the website and individual posts) and post slugs. Also, if your site has both “www” and non-”www” URLs, it can help to redirect one to the other (it doesn’t matter which). Of course, if a page moves, it’s a good idea to set up a redirect there, too. All redirects should be “301: Moved Permanently.”

By default, WordPress creates post slugs (i.e., permalinks) depending on the post’s title. However, you should change the slug to include post keywords only — having a “killer slug” can really help. It’s also a good idea to link related posts to one another.

WordPress MU: Installation, Plug-in Management, and Features

Lew Ayotte gave an overview and demo of WordPress MU, which we found out during the keynote can be pronounced “M-U”, “Myu,” but most definitely not “Moo.” MU can be set up either as vhosts (foo.bar.com) or not (bar.com/foo). Depending on your server access, global variables can be set either in the php.ini file or .htaccess.

To set up MU, first create a MySQL database user with full access. Then, download MU from http://mu.wordpress.org/download/. Decompress the file, upload it to your server, and install it at root level. When you first go to that URL, you’ll be presented with options to specify database fields and host info.

Plugins can be installed globally for all your MU sites, or on a site-by-site basis.

Keynote Session with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg

Matt gave an informal (and entertaining) history of WordPress. He then told us about some new developments. The first is P2, a WordPress theme for microblogging, much like Twitter. Another is VideoPress, a WordPress upgrade that makes it easy to upload, embed, and share video, even in HD. Another project is BuddyPress, a suite of plugins and themes which add social networking functionality to a WordPress MU site.

Speaking of MU, the multi-blogging platform will be merging with “regular” WordPress in an upcoming release. Then, whenever WordPress is installed, the user will have the option to set it up as single- or multi-blog.

Someone in the audience asked what WordPress’s business model is, since the software is free. Matt says that WordPress makes money from the hosted blog product WordPress.com; advertisements on WordPress.com, which appear for first-time site visitors who are not using Firefox(!); comment-spam blocker Akismet for commercial use; and premium upgrades such as additional storage space for multimedia.

Lunch was included in the conference, and there was even a special WordPress cake!

Crossposted to the Blackwell Interactive blog.