WordPress Education is a big topic for me. Mostly because I offer WordPress Support and I speak at WordCamp events and Local WordPress Meet Up Groups. It’s really important to me. I want everyone to learn as much as they can from WordPress. What’s funny is, if people would just ask me, I would do this all for free. Because helping someone solve their problems is a truly awesome thing to do. Have you ever seen someone’s face light up because you were the person to get them back on track? If not, take a day next week and offer to help someone. For free and with no expectations. It’s a wonderful thing.
That’s not what I’m here to talk about, though. I’m here today to talk about WordPress Education. It’s something that you have to learn on your own. It’s something that is free and I recommend it to everyone. It’s important to understand how things work. If you don’t there is a chance you can be tricked into thinking one thing, and really getting something else. If you knew how cars work and you take your car to a shop, you’d be more than likely to spot a lying mechanic. The same thing can go for WordPress. But that’s not really the point I’m trying to make here either. The point I’m trying to make is simple. When you educate your clients on what’s possible, they forget about the impossible.
I haven’t built a site for a client in a long time. I’m way past client work as I have moved on to building plugins and maintaining a site for a Mortgage Company in Las Vegas. I do answer a lot of questions that are asked in the Advanced WordPress Group, on Facebook. We usually get one or two questions a month asking about the best practices to remedy a problem between a client asking for more work and an angry developer. It happens a lot and it’s happened to me. You’re not the first, not the last.
First Steps in WordPress Education
Before you being to build a site for a client, you need to agree on a scope of work. Clearly state what you are going to do and a brief summary of how you attend to accomplish the task. It’s very important that you specify where you are going to place any code you write. If your contract says that you only put code into a plugin, the client can’t refuse to pay you because they wanted it all in a theme. See where I’m going here? If you give your client some WordPress Education, your life is going to be so much easier. Inform them that you are going to use other people’s code. That way, it’s not on you to fix a bug inside of Gravity Forms. Educate your client and tell them that you are not a / the top Security expert, but you’re going to help them and if anything happens, here’s who you should contact.
You see, when you give your client some WordPress Education, your inbox will become less cluttered. You won’t be dealing with angry clients and you won’t be dealing with plugins that are wrong for the project. I use to always tell my clients what plugins I’m using. That way they can research the plugins and see how other people are using them. Then they see the possibilities instead of the wonder of their imagination. How many times have you had a client suggest a horrible idea? A lot right? Those idea’s would go out the window if you told your client what problems Gravity Forms Solves and how to utilize the plugin to their advantage.
Remember, WordPress Eduction exists because the world of WordPress is forever changing. Today we do something and it may change tomorrow. Keep your clients informed and you’ll be doing less work. I promise. Seacrest, OUT!