WPCP 014: How Big is Your Brave, WordPress Business Challenges and Upgrading

There’s a lot going on with WordPress this week, so I’ll do what I can not go too deep into the question in this post title, but I can’t make any promises.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to music I have pretty eclectic taste (and a 16 yr. old daughter who introduces me to new music, which is great). I listen to music based on my mood and the lyrics. Because I’m also such a geek about ‘quotes’ this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. So when I heard this song a couple of weeks ago I was hooked, then when I saw the video I thought it would perfect to bring up in relation to blogging.

The song I’m referring to is “Brave” by Sara Bareilles and it’s speaking to everyone who has ever held their tongue or held back from being who they are (I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this pretty much includes everyone at some point in their lives).

Chris Brogan wrote an awesome book called “It’s Not About The Tights: An Owner’s Manual on Bravery”, which I LOVED ( I think I’ve referred to this book in a previous post) and is a great read for anyone who feels the need to be a little different, do things there own way or step outside of the box.

Bravery is something you don’t see mentioned very often when it comes to blogging, writing or building an online business.

Which is a bummer.

Because it is VERY BRAVE to step into this space and really put yourself out there.

I think the key thing to remember is that if you feel a little uncomfortable it’s not a bad thing. It probably just means that you’re on the right track. You can’t get to where you want to go by doing the same things you’ve always done.

I think I’ll save the rest of my discussion on bravery for another individual post, so stay tuned for that because I’d love to get a discussion going about it.

Last week I hosted a free webinar to subscribers of my list who have WordPress businesses (primarily design /website businesses). The common challenges and questions everyone had are the same issues I faced in the first few years of my business and to some extent am addressing as I grow my business and shift my role in what I do.

Here’s what we talked about:

• Building your business under your own name vs. a business name
• Having a ‘team’ (support when you get stuck or need help)
• Business plans
• Process flows
• Finding a niche
• Getting clients
• Pricing & fees
• Diversifying (ebooks, classes, etc.)

It was a very informal webinar with lots of questions, which was great. I also asked people if they would be interested in a Mastermind, coaching and a couple of other classes (WooCommerce got a BIG yes!). I’m not exactly sure what is going to come first, but a Mastermind is definitely in the works as well as the WooCommerce class!

Upgrading to WordPress 3.6 and Genesis 2.0

If you follow WordPress at all I’m sure by now you know that one of the big features that was supposed to come with WordPress 3.6 was Post Format UI was removed so the release wasn’t delayed any longer. If you don’t know what post formats are, no worries. I’ve been meaning to do a post on post formats and custom post types for a while now, so that should be coming in August.

When you see that WordPress 3.6 is released (in your dashboard you’ll see the yellow notification bar to upgrade) you’ll definitely want to go ahead and update. I always recommend doing a full backup before you upgrade (even if you have automatic backups being done, better safe than sorry). Once you’ve done your backup go ahead and upgrade. If you don’t keep your WordPress install up to date you create vulnerabilities and expose yourself to easier access for hackers.

Upgrading to Genesis 2.0

It looks like this isn’t going to be a difficult process, which is awesome for anyone who has zero desire to muck with any type of code. I thought the easiest thing to do would be to list some references you can peek at and people who can help you IF you don’t want to do this upgrade yourself.

The biggest changes to Genesis 2.0 are support for HTML5 and CSS3. Again, if you’re not sure what either of those mean, just know that HTML5 is the latest markup for the web and CSS3 is the latest version of CSS, which controls the style of your site.

What you do need to know about this update:

Once you update to Genesis 2.0 your site will still output the current markup which is XHTML.

In order to update to HTML 5 you simply add one single line of code to your child theme (this via an email from Brian Gardner this morning). I’m sure that info. will be coming as soon as Genesis 2.0 is officially released (this week I believe, but they’re waiting on the official release of WordPress 3.6). Brian also mentioned in the email this morning that once Genesis 2.0 is released they’ll be releasing FIVE, yes, count them FIVE brand new child themes all built with HTML5! BAM! They’ve also updated 10 of the most popular child themes with more on the way (getting new themes always makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning, even if I can’t play with them right away!).

On that same note (email from Brian Gardner this morning), StudioPress will be increasing the price of the Pro Plus Package from $349.95 to $399.95 (which is still a HUGE deal!) in the fall. Through this Friday (July 26th) you can get the Pro Plus Package for $299.95! SO… if you’ve been on the fence about purchasing the Pro Plus Package now’s the time to jump on this deal (fyi.. these are aff. links).

Resources to upgrade to Genesis 2.0

Here’s a list of resources / sites that will do the conversion for you (effective July 22nd – I’ll add more as I find them):

Genesis Update (This is Ozzy Rodriguez of OzzyRodriguez.com & Robert Neu of FATmedia.com … gotta give him an extra shout out, he’s from the Bay Area too! We’ll be hanging after WordCamp SF this Friday night)

Genesis Conversion

Post on StudioPress explaining the upgrade

Post on StudioPress with 11 Essential Resources about Genesis 2.0 (this is for the really technical people out there, ie, programmers, coders)

Links from this episode

Sara Bareilles – Brave (you really need to listen to this song!)

Chris Brogan’s book: It’s Not About The Tights: An Owner’s Manual on Bravery

All the Genesis links are right above, so no point in being redundant. 😉