The WordCamp Report

Lloyd Budd and Mark Jaquith are two Open Source veterans who will be covering how you can pitch in with various aspects of WordPress.org whether or not you can spell PHP. WordPress is a product of the hundreds of people who have pitched in before you, so if you’ve considered giving back to the community this session is for you.

The session started with Matt giving out some freebies. And Lloyd shared ways anyone with an interest in WordPress, regardless of expertise, could get involved in reporting bugs, documentation, helping newer users and generally supporting their fellow WordPressers. Although his reasons for getting involved were dead-on accurate and occasionally humorous, his participation in the session would have been much improved if he’d chosen to look up from his prepared text occasionally and just “wing it.”

Mark Jaquith then detailed his history with WordPress and blogging, starting in 2001 when he had no clue what a blog was, though his use of Movable Type and later his involvement with commit access to the WordPress core. The following is taken from his presentation:

Why Contribute?

• Improve the software
• Influence something
• Become part of a community
• Give back

Jump In!

• Report
• Fix
• Document
• Discuss
• Break it.

Report

• trac.wordpress.org
• wordpress.org/support

How to write a BAD bug report

• Make the title of the report uninformative
• Bonus points
• Keep it interesting keep the WP version secret
• Be Firm demand an immediate solution
• Be descriptive: less is more
• Close: wontfix should be a personal insult, and declaration of war

How to write a GOOD report

• Descriptive title
• Easy reproducible steps to encounter the isue
• WP version the bug is in
• Cogent argument

Fix

• trac.wordpress.org/report
• svn co http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/
• cd trunk
• svn up
• make a patch

• coding standards
• responsible security disclosure security@wordpress.org
• ask to be mentored
• don’t be discouraged - grab some easy stuff
• “Fix the thing-a-whatsist props JSmith”

Document

• codex.wordpress.org
• user/pass from wordpress.org/support

Discuss

• lists.automattic.com
  • WP-hackers
  • WP-Testers
  • more…
• #wordpress on Freenode
• wordpress.org/support/

Make a difference

• Use your natural talent
• Contribute because you want to contribute
• Take Vacations
• Be friendly WordPress Ambassador
• Communicate as you contribute

Questions:

• Q: Plugins when upgrading?
• A: Chaged way of releasing Wordpress, plus adding support to allow for informing when there are new plugins.

Plus some other random stuff like if WordPress would have specif help sections for different hosters… um no.

—

Finding money (if you want it!) buried in your blog

b5media is a VC backed company, a blog network.

A quick story about his bow chacka bow wow situation, and how his twitter was misinturpreted.

A quick look at blog advertising.

He started blogging at 2003 and advertising is evil.

In 2004 advertising was Direct Ads. Was making

2005 Opportunities grew with Adsense, BlogAds and AdBrite.

2006 Real Money

Making Money with blogging

There’s a lot of money around! Over a Billion dollar market.

Making money is a lot of work, even though its entirly doabble. Full time income from blogging requires morthen full time effort.

If you don’t want to sully your blog with advertising then actually blog for money. The actual writing can make you more then the ads.

—

Volunteers show what they currently do advertising wise.

Panel is:

ICANHAZCHEESBURGER

FottNoted - http://www.footnoted.com

CottageDaily - http://www.cottagedaily.com

Some discussion areas:

• How to grow your traffic?
• Is AdSense evil?
• Text Links: good or bad?
• Working with networks
• Can feed be monetized (and should they)?

Focus on what you love, if you try blogging with highest CPM then you’ll fail.

Cheezburger guy wants ads that sell techy pet stuff. He uses a servie that he can focus the actual ads he can get.

footnoted woman is focused on hedge fund managers. And she gets crappy adsense ads like pay day loans (her readers are worth millions) and some turtle thing.

b5media gets vertical blogs. For the general network he gets like family related ads.

Google does page scraping to serve the ads. And they do an ok ad. BUT sometimes they aren’t targeted very well.

What ads work for you? How much do you need?

If you are a new blog, how do you drive traffic, so advertisers want you.

If you want to make money, then choose a subject you love. And post a couple times a day on it. And drive traffic.

“Would you read your own blog, if you came across your blog.”

Those that can benefit more, are service professionals. They have leads to begin with.

The Future of Advertising

• More video ads
• More multimedia Ads

But in the blog ad market, but the ads won’t change too much. He really had no thoughts.

Blogging is an active conversation and the advertising will follow. Bloggers see what is really awesome, and talk about it.

Its coming to viral marketing?

10 tips for making money

1. Have lots of valuable content
2. Host the blog yourself, on your own domain
3. AdSense is the crack cocaine of blog advertising - DON’T GET HOOKED
4. Do 2-3 things really well instead of 10-15 poorly
5. CPA / CPL typically performks poorly outside of product blos
6. Consider syndicating your content (Newstex, etc.)
7. Pertner with someone who is doing it well (netwroks, bloggers, whatever)
8. Be smart about text links (Especially with Google cracking down with them)
9. Don’t sell out (post about celebs just to get traffic)
10. If your audience supports you, Review-Me can work

Best b5 sources:

• www.problogger.net
• www.copyblogger.com

His favorite b5 suggestions

• Fail every day
• Go for extremes
• Leave money on the table
• Blog what you’re thinking about, what you’re trying. not just what’s done
• Let experts make decisions
• Be a part of the community
• Never lose your passion

—-

John Pozadzides of One Man Blog has posted this video of the session.

9 months, 4 weeks ago Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pm.
Filed under 2007, Day 1, Presentation, WordCamp Live.
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