In this blog post, we’ll cover the latest WordCamps we’ve attended and those we’re going to, as well as a new site launch, a podcast featuring our CEO, and articles highlighting our work. Keep reading because there’s a lot of thrilling news to share.

JewelStaite.net Launch

We are very proud to announce the launch of the WordPress website for actor and foodie Jewel Staite! JewelStaite.net was built with the WordPress Block Editor, using Block Patterns and our very own block theme—WDS BT.

Jewel announced the launch on her social media and released a sizzle reel to highlight her new branding, website redesign, and all of the lovely elements that make her website unique, bespoke, warm, and inviting. Watch the reel below, and go to JewelStaite.net to see the website for yourself.

Full Site Editing in the Real World

Is no one truly using Full Site Editing and block themes? Fränk Klein, engineer and the person behind WP Development Courses, answered this question by presenting seven websites built using block themes. One of the examples included was Felicia.day, which WebDevStudios (WDS) built for the actor, activist, and streamer.

See all seven websites Fränk presented in his article and better understand the importance of learning block theme development. Read “Full-Site Editing in The Real World: 7 Websites Built Using Block Themes” now.

The Inside Track

Another podcast episode of “Scaling Enterprise, WordPress and Open Source Software” has dropped. Hosted by WDS CEO Brad Williams and Human Made CEO Tom Willmot, this latest installment is part of “The Inside Track,” which explores the world of enterprise WordPress and how the platform scales to meet the needs of large organizations.

In this episode, Brad and Tom teamed up to interview Mario Peshev, CEO of DevriX. The group shared their extensive experiences running their own agencies and the importance of contributing to open-source technology. Listen to the entire podcast episode at Do the Woo.

WP Weekly Inclusion

Thanks to WP Weekly for highlighting one of our recent blog posts, “Making the Switch from Webflow to WordPress,” in its weekly newsletter. A project by Davinder Singh Kainth, a creative professional who loves creating online spaces powered by WordPress, the WP Weekly brings the best bits from the WordPress ecosystem in a short and concise newsletter that should not take more than 10 minutes of reading time. Learn more about WP Weekly at thewpweekly.com.

WordCamps

The WordCamp fun continues! We recently attended one in Minnesota and have another coming up this weekend in the Philippines. Plus, we can’t forget about WordCamp US happening next month. Keep reading for all the details.

WordCamp Minneapolis / St. Paul

WordCamp Minneapolis / St. Paul (WCMSP) was a blast! Two WDS teammates—Engineering Manager John Heimkes and Marketing Manager Laura Coronado—got to meet for the first time ever while also connecting with former staff members, including WCMSP speaker Gary Kovar, who presented a talk on how NASA’s website was built on WordPress.

WordCamp Cebu

WordCamp Cebu, happening this weekend (August 24th) in Cebu City, Philippines, offers opportunities to learn, connect, and grow. Engineering Manager JC Palmes is speaking at this WordPress event.

JC’s talk is titled “Embrace the Blocks: Why Block Themes Are a Developer’s Friend.” It will cover the world of Block Themes, explore the tools and concepts, and demonstrate why Block Themes are not just user-friendly but a powerful new addition to a developer’s toolkit.

Next Month: WordCamp US

WordCamp US is the premiere WordCamp event in North America. It will take place in Portland, Oregon, from September 17-20. The event features a Contributor Day and a Showcase Day.

Five members of the WDS team will be in attendance: CEO Brad Williams, Director of Accounts Jen Miller, Account Manager Laura Byrne, Senior Frontend Engineer Marty O’Connor, and Senior Frontend Engineer Alfredo Navas.

Interested in meeting with our team in person at WordCamp US to discuss your next big WordPress project? Use this link to book an appointment. Our team would love to chat about your website needs.

The post Company News – August appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Additionally, sharing company news fuels our collective momentum. It serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come and ignites a sense of excitement for what lies ahead. Whether on a podcast, involvement with a WordCamp, or a byline on a partner’s blog, each piece of news propels us forward, inspiring us to reach greater heights and pursue new opportunities with renewed vigor.

One of the most rewarding aspects of sharing company news is witnessing the ripple effect it creates. As we unveil our achievements, innovations, and milestones, we see the impact radiate outward, touching our immediate team and our partners, clients, and stakeholders. Seeing how our news resonates with others is immensely fulfilling, sparking conversations, generating enthusiasm, and fostering a sense of pride in what we’ve accomplished together.

So let’s uncover together what WebDevStudios (WDS) achieved in March. Thank you for being a part of our story.

Plugin Madness

Plugin Madness is an exhilarating bracket-style competition that captivates the online world by pitting 64 plugins against one another to determine the crème de la crème. With the WordPress repository boasting an extensive array of plugins alongside numerous premium options, Plugin Madness serves as a beacon, spotlighting the most innovative and invaluable WordPress plugins out there.

Plugin Madness isn’t just about showcasing plugins. It’s about honoring the ingenious developers and authors behind them and recognizing their contributions to the WordPress community. Much like its March counterpart, this competition commenced with a thrilling lineup of 64 WordPress plugins, carefully selected through a nomination process that spanned from February 12 to February 26, with the final contenders unveiled on March 4. Among them is our very own Custom Post Type UI (CPTUI).

At the time of publication of this blog post, Plugin Madness is in Round 4 of its contest. CPTUI has made it so far and is currently pitted against Advanced Custom Fields. We can make it to next week’s finals if you vote for CPTUI daily. Here’s how.

Just go to the Plugin Madness landing page at the Torque Mag website. You may have to register, but remember, you can vote daily. Thank you to everyone who has been voting and keeping CPTUI in the race!

Guest Post on the WP Engine Blog

Since we released the video demonstrating how WebDevStudios developed a specialized framework that fixes errors after migrating your website from Elementor to WordPress Blocks, the buzz around this solution has grown. In fact, WP Engine invited WDS Director of Accounts Jen Miller to guest post about it on their blog.

In “How WebDevStudios Saves Time and Simplifies Elementor Migrations for Enterprise Clients,” Jen reports that websites created with page builders, such as Elementor, score lower on Google’s PageSpeed Insights than those built in the WordPress block editor. She continues to explain how errors can occur when moving from Elementor to the WordPress Block Editor and how WDS can help.

Visit the WP Engine blog to read the full article.

Amazing Teams Podcast

For many years, WebDevStudios has relied on HeyTaco for employee rewards. Here’s how it works.

HeyTaco operates as a dynamic platform fostering positivity and camaraderie within teams worldwide. The concept is refreshingly simple yet profoundly effective: spread cheer and gratitude by sending taco emojis as tokens of appreciation.

Each day, users are granted a bounty of five virtual tacos, which they can bestow upon colleagues for various reasons. These taco tokens serve as more than just playful symbols. They symbolize genuine recognition and encouragement, creating an atmosphere where acknowledgment and support flourish. Best of all, they can be accumulated and redeemed for things like gift cards, actual tacos, or a paid day off!

HeyTaco produces a podcast called “Amazing Teams.” Recently, WDS CEO Brad Williams was a featured guest, and he discussed how to establish a company culture within a remote work environment, engage with a distributed team, and build an amazing team.

“Culture, I think, at all levels, is super important, but especially distributed because it is so much harder when you’re not face-to-face,” Brad says during his interview. “You don’t get these random interactions at a water cooler. I don’t get to stop by your desk and ask, ‘Hey, how was your weekend? What’d you do?’ For just that five-minute little sync, you don’t get that in remote unless you intentionally make it happen.”

Listen to the full episode featuring Brad on the “Amazing Teams Podcast.”

WordCamp Asia

WordCamp Asia is one of the most popular and attended WordCamps around the globe, selling out quickly each year. This year’s event occurred March 7-9 in Taipei, Taiwan.

WDS Engineering Manager JC Palmes is always involved in one way or another. This year, JC was the Lead Organizer of Contributor Day, which is a day dedicated to fostering collaboration and contribution to the WordPress project.

During WordCamp Contributor Day, attendees come together to work on various aspects of WordPress, such as core development, design, documentation, translation, support, and more. Participants can join teams based on their interests and skill sets, collaborating with other community members and experienced contributors to improve WordPress in different ways. Without organizers and volunteers, Contributor Day could never happen.

“Leading Contributor Day was fulfilling,” says JC. “Overall, my experience at WordCamp Asia 2024 in Taipei was fantastic, despite the stress of keeping the next host city under wraps. I’m excited for WordCamp Asia 2025 in Manila!”

Invite WebDevStudios to Guest Blog or Be on Your Podcast!

Our team likes to get involved and give back. Would you like a member of our team to be on your podcast or write a contributing article for your blog? We’ll consider it. Pitch your idea to us at marketing@webdevstudios.com. If it sounds like a fit, we’ll get back to you.

The post Company News – March appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Still, WebDevStudios (WDS) continues to make time for any activities that allow us to get involved with the tech and WordPress communities, especially if that means attending events or being on podcasts. We love those!

So, take a look at the latest news coming from our website agency. And, if you happen to run into us at any event, don’t hesitate to say hi. We’ll even take a selfie with you.

Upcoming Events

Now that in-person events are happening again, WDS is happy to sign up to speak, volunteer, organize, and attend them. Here are the upcoming events where you will find one or two of our teammates.

WordCamp Kathmandu, September 3-4, 2022

You read that right. WordPress Katmandu is happening this weekend!

WDS Backend Developer, Lax Mariappan, is a speaker. His talk, “Accelerate Your Migration Process with WP CLI,” covers the migration process and how WP CLI plays a helpful role.

Follow WordPress Nepal and the hashtag #WCKTM2022 on Twitter to keep up with all the action.

WordCamp US, September 9-11, 2022

A week after WordCamp Kathmandu, WordCamp US (WCUS) happens in San Diego, CA. This is the first in-person WCUS since 2019. As such, tickets sold out quickly. While the quick sellout may be partially due to the limited quantity, as a cautious response to the ongoing pandemic, it remains one hot ticket.

No one from WDS is speaking at this WordCamp, be we do have two folks volunteering (Laura Byrne, Account Manager and Autry Reeves, Delivery Manager) and three attending (Brad Williams, CEO; Justin Foell, Engineering Manager; and Laura Coronado, Marketing Strategist).

Follow WordCamp US and the hashtag #WCUS on Twitter. As we said earlier, if you run into us at an event, such as WCUS, please stop to say hello.

Totally Unoriginal Random Show

There’s this totally random podcast where two internet entrepreneurs meet at totally random moments throughout the year. One of them is named Matt Medeiros. The other is Brad. Together, in this episode, they talk about a whole lot of WordPress. Click the play button to listen.

WP Owls Mention

One of our favorite WordPress newsletters is WP Owls. That’s because it’s always chockful of the latest information and WordPress-related articles. Also, and we’re being biased here, they consistently feature blog posts from WDS.

WP Owls did exactly that last week when they included Lax’s blog post “How to Migrate Subsite Content to a Multisite Network” in the 99th edition of their newsletter. Thanks, WP Owls!

WDS Is Hiring!

We love to mention it—WebDevStudios is hiring. Currently, we have open positions for engineers and a UX designer. Please visit our Careers page to learn more and apply online.

The post Company News – August appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Free WordPress Support

The WordPress maintenance and support arm of our company, Maintainn, is offering its most popular seasonal deal. Purchase five hours of WordPress support, get one free! The Giving Thanks special offer is just a way for WDS and Maintainn to let you know how grateful we are for the client relationships that have been established this year and the many years past.

Giving Thanks expires December 4th. So, hurry! Get all the details on this promotional offer at Maintainn’s blog.

CPTUI Milestone

It feels like just yesterday when our most popular plugin, Custom Post Type UI (CPTUI), hit 800,000+ active installations. Today, we are proud to announce that we’ve now hit 900,000+. Incredible!

The world’s favorite plugin for managing custom post types and taxonomies for your WordPress website wouldn’t be what it is today without the ongoing support and development of WDS Support Engineer, Michael Beckwith. In this blog post, Michael shares what a day of his life is life, including the time he spends supporting and developing CPTUI. Give it a read today.

Take a look at what CPTUI can do for your WordPress site. Visit the plugin’s page in the WordPress repository.

New Teammate!

We have a new employee to introduce. Meet Tanner Record. Tanner has joined our support team at Maintainn as a Support Engineer. You will learn more about him in an upcoming blog post, but here’s your chance to say hello to his friendly face now.

In the Press

WDS loves to get around, drop some knowledge, and spread some good cheer. CEO and Co-Founder, Brad Williams, was recently the featured guest on “Torque Social Hour,” where he chatted with the hosts about current WordPress news, his book, Professional WordPress Plugin Development, 2nd Edition, and our remote work culture. If you missed the live streaming event, you can watch it now below.

Brad was also interviewed at StartUp.info. In this article, Brad addresses how to make difficult decisions and use compassion and flexibility as a pathway to success. Read his interview now.

Director of Business Development, Jodie Riccelli, was interviewed by the WordPress video podcast, “Women in WP.” In her interview, Jodie discusses her history in WordPress and her obsession with plants. It’s an entertaining and enlightening interview. You can watch it below.

Upcoming Events

Now that Brad has been on “Torque Social Hour,” it’s Lisa Sabin-Wilson‘s, turn! Lisa is our WDS COO and Co-Founder, and chances are that not only is she going to talk about WordPress, as well as her upcoming edition of WordPress for Dummies, but she’ll probably get some Packers commentary in there, too. Don’t miss this live streaming event happening on December 16th.

Also happening December 16th, Jodie will be presenting a social-meetup webinar on sales tips and tricks. Register for this free event right now.

The post Company News – November appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Panels and Podcasts

Often referred to internally as our media darling, WDS CEO and Co-Founder, Brad Williams, was recently featured on a panel of experts and a podcast. On May 21st, MalCare, BlogVault, and WP Remote hosted a live panel discussion called “Managing the Current Uncertainty – Hear from the Best in WordPress.” Brad was among those “best,” sharing his ideas and insight for managing a business during these current times, as well as providing commentary on how consumer evolution has affected eCommerce. If you missed the event, you can watch it below.

Remote Work Leadership

We never tire saying it: WebDevStudios knows remote work. Operating as a 100% distributed company since it launched, WDS is well-versed in the practice of working from home. As such, Brad was invited to the Start Local podcast, a show hosted by Joe Casabona and Liam Dempsey, which focuses on businesses in Chester County, PA, and the greater Philly area as they try to navigate through the COVID-19 economy. In this episode, Brad highlights the advantages of working remotely and offer recommendations for structuring remote work. Click here to tune in now.

How to Make Customers Happy – Q&A with Greg

“At WebDevStudios, we only want to build and ship fast websites,” WDS Director of Engineering, Greg Rickaby, explains to WP Rocket in his interview on their blog. Read the full interview to find out how this dependable caching plugin helps us build successful websites for our clients.

New Employees

Help us welcome two new additions to our growing team. First, we have Senior Backend Engineer, Ashar Irfan, who describes himself as, “…the magician behind the curtain who makes WordPress websites work perfectly and ensures nothing is broken.” Ashar contributes to the WordPress core and is a big JavaScript and Node.js enthusiast.

Next, meet Bret Phillips, our new Digital Strategist. In this role, Bret is responsible for bridging the gap between sales and project operations by focusing on client needs analysis, requirements gathering, and project planning. Having worked in various professions, such as a developer, sales, project management, accounting, strategy, etc., gives Bret a unique perspective and makes him a great fit for WebDevStudios.

We’re Hiring!

Even with new faces added to our virtual hallways, WDS is still growing and hiring. We’re currently on the hunt for Lead, Backend, and Frontend Engineers, as well as a Sales Manager. Do any of these career opportunities appeal to you? Please visit our Careers page to learn more about working at WebDevStudios.

Note: studies show that minorities are less likely to apply if they do not meet 100% of the qualifications but we would love to hear from you even if you feel like you don’t meet every single qualification. We are open to training the right person who has the right attitude and fit.

The post Company News – June appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Tune in!  We have a feeling this is going to be a great show!

If you’re not familiar with DradCast, here is what it’s all about:

The DradCast is a weekly podcast covering all things WordPress. Hosted by Dre Armeda, Brad Williams (DRAD), and a special guest host each week.

The post Lisa Sabin-Wilson Guests Hosts DradCast! appeared first on WebDevStudios.

WP Late Night is certainly not your average tech podcast. The hosts say that WP Late Night is the closest you can get to a WordCamp after party, in handy podcast form and this is no exaggeration. Along with normal WordPress chat there are plenty of beers, sound effects, costume changes and all around tomfoolery.

Get in on the WP Late Night action by joining in the live interactive chat. Find out about upcoming episodes on Facebook or at WPLateNight.com and listen in live on the WP Candy livestream.

Missed out on the live recording? Tune in to the latest episode (or any past episode) on YouTube, iTunes, or download the MP3 file.

WP Late Night airs live every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. Tune in tonight!

The post Have you Tuned into WP Late Night? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

These special live airings of the SitePoint podcast promise to have many special guests and cover many of the great topics being discussed and happenings of BlogWorld Expo.

For more information on the SitePoint podcast please visit http://sitepoint.com/podcast/.

The post The SitePoint Podcast, Live from BlogWorld Expo 2010 appeared first on WebDevStudios.

WordPress Weekly is the number one podcast dedicated entirely to WordPress. Hosted by Jeff Chandler and David Peralty, WP Weekly has become a “must listen” podcast since its launch in early 2008. (which I was a part of!)

With various guests including Matt Mullenweg, Alex King, and Lorelle Van Fossen, WordPress Weekly is listened to by WP enthusiasts all over the globe and it’s easy to see why.

WebDevStudios.com is proud to sponsor the open source efforts of the WP Weekly Podcast and community members like Jeff and David who help push this great platform to exciting new limits!

The post Official Sponsor of the WordPress Weekly Podcast appeared first on WebDevStudios.