Category: General

1. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
2. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should
3.When you fire up your computer fire up your common sense too
4. Why you should visit your website every day
5. Google is not your friend … it owes you nothing

• Stuart Livesey

  

  I'm a grumpy old sod who: 1. Built his first website in 1996 2. Became involved in SEO, affiliate marketing and eCommerce in 1998 3. Began doing it full time in 2001 4. Began using WordPress in 2004. Over the years, together with my partner Toni, I've build websites for a wide variety of businesses. …

Having built hundreds of websites for clients over the past 11 years I see some things that work exceptionally well every time and other things that are invariably almost always failures.

Putting a website together is a science but not rocket science, and I will show you how we do it with our clients.

Simple things like …

– how big to make the logo and were to place it
– whether to use a background image or plain background
– why you should never use stock images
– the most important element to put in the top right that results in an insane amount of inquiries
– why the worst place to start is to replicate competitors websites
– how to automate your marketing and qualifying your leads before they pick up the phone (all in the website)

to …

– the most effective call to action
– the highest converting instruction on a contact form
– optimal layout of the header, sidebar, footer, body
– quick hacks to getting high converting copy
– effective use of proof and credibility elements
– how and why you should use your highest revenue products and services on the home page

None of this is about the visual design (that comes next), but about the functional design to achieve the purpose of the website.

Asking the question at the very start “What is the real job of the website?” is absolutely critical to the success of it. Hint what most people think is the purpose is usually wrong … it is something else so simple (and the same for 98% of the businesses we work with) – get this right and the rest of building a website just falls into place, almost!

If you buy a nice looking template then add your logo, content and branding, you are doing it all wrong. Why? Because most theme authors make their templates Pop and Wow, but don’t know build with the end in mind for business nor do they know where to place each element on the site to optimise the real purpose giving you the result you need. Every single element, image, text, block of colour and visual element should ‘earn’ it’s way onto the page, not be there just because it looks great.

For example, beautiful full width, image rich sliders look fantastic but hardly ever add any value to the visitor experience, often harming conversions of visitors to enquire rather than assist them.

As a web developer our purpose over the past 8 years has been to create websites that help businesses get more leads and enquiries, make more sales (in a way that is surprisingly simple), and recover the cost of the website in one to five transactions. A local Burleigh pest control business said recently that he has “…never had so much cash” since his site was made over – his words. And just one of the simple changes we made to his website accounts for a jump in his enquiries (you don’t need to be a developer to do this).

Another client, a book and manuscript editor, resisted using this element for a couple of years, and just this week said she relented and added it to here website. That one change she said, now accounts for 50% of all her enquiries.

If you are building a website (or need to give it a makeover), this session will reveal from the past 8 years in the trenches working with a wide range of businesses, what works and what doesn’t to create a high converting effective tool for a profitable business website.

• Nik Cree

  

  I run a successful Online Marketing Agency that works with business to create websites that work… meaning they get leads and enquiries to turn into customers. Throughout my career I discovered some pretty cool tools and apps that helped in my business and now work with clients as well. I also run the "Business Owners …

WordCamp is a wonderful experience whether it be your first or fiftieth but can be a little overwhelming for first-timers and introverts. Here we look at some self-care tips and how to make the most of this great learning and networking opportunity.

• Sally Eberhardt

  

  Sally is an author, writer, erratic blogger and small business owner who advocates for connection, communication and collaboration. Sharing about networking is my passion.

Hosting is essential to every web site in the world, and getting the right fit for your needs can be daunting with all the options available out there. In this presentation, Ricky will take you through how hosting has changed over time, what is available now to help with your WordPress site, how to get the most from your hosting, and what you should be looking for in choosing the right provider.

• Ricky Blacker

  

  Ricky is a self taught web professional who found and fell in love with WordPress, and the community behind it while looking for a CMS platform to build websites for clients. He originally started his own web design business after being made redundant from a factory job in 2013, but now works for WP Engine as a Pre Sales Engineer, providing a Digital Experience Platform for WordPress user around the world.

  He is a Co-Organizer for the Sunshine Coast & Brisbane WordPress Meetup Groups, as well as the Brisbane Web Design Meetup group, and was one of the amazing team who put together the Sunshine Coast WordCamp in 2016 and WordCamp Brisbane in 2017/18/19, and has spoken at WordCamps in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Ricky is very passionate about building the WordPress community and helping others to learn how to use WordPress and what it can do.

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With the plethora of WordPress plugins available to download, it can be difficult to filter out the good from the bad. While there are many excellent plugins out there for many different needs each website has, there are a handful that I’ve found to be indispensable from my websites no matter what purpose it serves. Here you will learn the essential plugins that every website needs.

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• Cameron Jones

  

  Cameron Jones is the founder of the premium plugin store Mongoose Marketplace, best known for the Mongoose Page Plugin used by more than 30,000 WordPress websites. He lives on the Gold Coast, plays for AFL and cricket clubs and takes care of a very hungry teenager.