1. Introduction
The reason for this online essay is to realize additional awareness on what PHP-based application can bring to the Internet, what you can do with it, and how to start. The essay focuses on the features of the service, giving advice and opinion on it, and giving a service to readers undecided on which scripting language to learn or use next, and aims to provide Aphexia – a fictitious web design company with the information it is needing to make the transition into using PHP, and the closing of its Java-based application. During the course of the essay, we shall explore and get you to the bottom of the facts and features of PHP, compare and analyze Java to PHP, and finally help guide you to what we think is the correct decision, and what PHP can do for you. Before we get much further, there are a number of requirements for PHP and setting up a server environment which are publicly available and can be read from the PHP manual.
2. Benefits of Hiring WordPress Wizards
This in and of itself is a great boost for many small site owners. With a professional worker, they are able to free up some of their own time and place it back into other important business matters. Whether the site owner is someone who is trying to run a successful business or a blogger who is trying to get word out about some important cause, increased productivity is always a good thing. With a skilled worker, there is also the increased chance that tasks will get done right the first time, which can save a lot of trial and error time.
Owners of WordPress sites often find themselves strapped for time. There are only so many hours in the day to accomplish the tasks that need to be done. Often times, owners find they are spreading themselves too thin and that nothing is getting done, at least not getting done well. By hiring a WordPress wizard, site owners can greatly increase their productivity.
3. Essential Skills of WordPress Wizards
The second skill a WordPress wizard must have is dependability. Since the nature of working on the internet means people are scattered throughout the world, it is possible that something can be going wrong with your site while you are sleeping or on vacation. You will want to have a developer who is willing and able to get on the project right away and fix what is wrong. A good WordPress wizard will have enough clients to stay busy, but not so many that he or she cannot take on emergency work.
The first skill they must have is experience. You will want to hire a WordPress wizard who knows what they are doing. The best way to determine if a person has experience is to ask for sample work and to get references. Take the time to talk to the references and ask them if the person you are thinking about hiring did indeed have the skills they claim to have. Some good questions to ask are how you know the person and what type of work did they do for you.
4. How to Find WordPress Wizards
A more precise solution to finding a WordPress professional is to post on a WordPress development forum. With a direct line to the WordPress community, there is sure to be someone who can help. Oftentimes, forums will enable the project owner to seek someone who is more experienced, while others may be looking for a WordPress professional who is still learning, but at a cheaper cost to get some experience. Either way, there is no shortage of results, but take the time to screen the candidate to make sure they are a good fit.
Another way to find a WordPress professional is to do a simple Google search. With a multitude of results, there is no shortage of finding a WordPress professional. More often than not, there are a plethora of sites like oDesk, Elance, and online classifieds that can yield results. Post what you are looking to have done, and wait for the results to come flooding in. Usually, there is no shortage of an offer, so take the time to sift through to find the right person.
First and foremost, the best way to find a WordPress professional is to use the built-in feature on the WordPress Admin panel that helps detail why you need a WordPress professional, and for how long. After answering a few questions, WordPress will automatically search for a professional that fits your description. While many people may not like the first person that contacts them, it still opens up a line of communication that can allow the project owner to detail what they are looking for. This can lead to being directed to someone else who is a better fit for the project.
There are many ways to go about finding a WordPress professional for your project. Whether a simple site that needs to be updated, or a new site needs to be built from scratch, these steps will ensure a smooth process in finding the right person for the job.
5. Freelance Platforms for Hiring WordPress Wizards
– Guru: One of the older and more established freelance marketplaces on the internet. They have a large amount of talent located all over the world. If you’re looking to hire overseas, many professionals located in areas such as Asia may be cheaper than hiring a professional locally. This can be an advantage and a disadvantage for different reasons, but it’s nice to have an option. Guru has a large selection of WordPress professionals who are at your disposal.
When searching for local or global work, freelance platforms are an excellent place to begin. Many of these websites allow you to post a job or project and have WordPress professionals come to you. Freelance websites are especially helpful if you have a budget, as there are professionals from all over the world with different rates. Here is a list of some of the most popular freelance sites currently on the internet:
6. WordPress Development Agencies
The fact that many businesses and site owners search for assistance in finding WordPress support is a strong argument for purchasing WordPress service, but it’s one that lacks the details numerous companies need to make educated decisions. Prior to any of the support provided in that article, a business must determine what type of WordPress support is required.
At one end of the scale is support for those who already have their site implemented and simply need ongoing a la carte guidance concerning various issues. This can be particularly useful when a brand new to news sites know that they will not have to understand every time they need to alter the appearance or functionality of their site.
At the other extreme you have the idea of unlimited support. If you are happy with your initial web grant and wish to hand over the responsibilities of future development to a trusted professional, or you are looking for out an agency to implement a new theme with detailed specification. If you are still looking for a new agency some time after reading this article, it is likely that unlimited support with a WordPress development agency is right for you.
7. Online Communities and Forums for WordPress Wizards
Your quest for WordPress wisdom may be best launched from the comfort of your favorite reading spot. Take a peek at WordPress news and tutorial sites to see what you’re missing. And when something puzzles you, don’t overlook the informative posts published by various WordPress professionals at their own blogs.
For those willing to assist others with their WordPress knowledge, there are extensive opportunities. The WordPress.org forums are a primary location to volunteer your services. The WordPress Stack Exchange allows you to jump right to the question and answer, and is a growing platform for WordPress users. Beyond these locations there are uncountable forums dedicated to WordPress, ranging in focus from general use to specialized topics such as theme and plugin development.
The global interconnectedness of the internet has resulted in the development of communities organized around common interests. WordPress users and developers are no exception. From the casual user to the core developer, everyone may find a home at WordPress-focused online communities and forums.
8. Networking Events for WordPress Professionals
Networking events are only going to be as successful as you are prepared. If you are not able to effectively articulate your business and project goals, your success will be limited. If you are socially anxious, you may want to work on that issue separately so that it does not impede your ability to promote your business. Lastly, regardless of your reasons for networking remember that a solid business is built on solid relationships. Take time to get to know people and understand their business. Follow up with those people individually after the event. Offer to help them and provide information or assistance related to their business. If you build a good rapport with another professional, they are much more likely to refer clients to you.
Networking events can be a very powerful tool in building and nurturing your professional network. Many different types of events exist, so let’s discuss options that are particularly good for finding WordPress professionals. The Post Status WordPress Club on Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with fellow professionals, but you can also meet many of the same individuals at a local WordPress Meetup group – often with some of the same discussions but a little bit more intimate setting. Pressnomics is a premiere conference dedicated to the business of WordPress. Even though the price of admission is quite steep, attendees can network with a very high concentration of company owners and decision makers. If you do business locally, your regional Chamber of Commerce is a great way to meet local business owners – many of them potential clients. Don’t forget about industry agnostic events; many web developers and designers use their local BarCamp or WordCamp as networking opportunities and they offer a diverse range of presentations on varying topics.
9. Evaluating the Skills and Experience of WordPress Wizards
This process will be quite time-consuming and could be billed, but it is necessary to ensure that the project is a success. It also has the added advantage of allowing you to understand the requirements better and work out any problems in the project plan. A suitable developer will also be forthcoming with any problems or extra requirements that they see the project will entail.
The first step in this process is to provide the developer with a written project overview and document detailing the site objectives, the desired features, functionality, and design, and specific information on the site architecture. Ask the developer whether they have any experience with similar projects and ask them to explain how they would tackle various aspects of the project. An experienced developer should be able to suggest a variety of solutions for a given problem and should be able to argue the relative merits of each.
Once you have gained a broad understanding of the skills and experiences that are available in the market, you need to begin to evaluate the WP wizards based on their understanding of your project requirements and their understanding of the WordPress platform. The aim of this process is to ensure that the chosen developer has the skills and experience required to carry out the WordPress project successfully.
10. Interviewing WordPress Wizards
If you are looking at hiring a WordPress wizard from another country, then you may need to conduct an interview over the phone or through an online voice call program such as Skype. You want to take extra care preparing a good set of questions to ask in this situation. The most important thing is to ensure that the person has good English. Try to prepare a few questions that are typical problems that you’ve had with WordPress in the past and get the person to explain how they would fix that problem. This method isn’t very far off from a coding test and you can ask for these to be done and sent to you via email. With it being on the fly, spoken, you will get an indication of how quickly the person can come up with solutions. It will also be easy to tell if they are looking up the problem on the web and finding the answer for you.
Ask for referrals and references, and then call them. Some people include testimonials and references on their resume but often times they don’t provide phone numbers. Most people don’t like to be asked for references but it’s a common practice when hiring for any job. It’s also important to call those referrals and references. When you check references, you ask them a series of questions and judge the responses. In the end, you decide if you are going to hire this person based on what those people said about him/her. This process will be pretty much bog standard since you are just hiring somebody and traditional hiring practices have proven to be effective. Phone the referee and ask them questions. E.g. “How do you know so and so?” “What kind of work did he do for you?” “Would you recommend him?”
The interview process is the same as the process you use to hire any professional. Some things you should keep in mind when conducting an interview with a WordPress wizard are:
11. Negotiating Rates and Contracts
This stage can be a slippery slope. You want to get the best value for your money and the developer wants to get the most value for his/her time. First and foremost, it’s important to consider that it is simply not practical for a professional to accept small assignments at a very low hourly rate. Obtaining a good developer for a small assignment can be much more cost-effective by taking the assignment to fix a bug or make some enhancements to the functionality of the site, then using it as a platform to ensure the same developer does the main project when the time comes. With this in mind, there are a few main lines of thought you should consider when it comes to the actual negotiations.
The most important thing to consider when negotiating rates is the quality of the developer. There is a substantial variance between what developers will charge to do the same job, simply because they believe their service to be worth that much more. If quality is not an issue to you, the best choice would often be to choose the cheapest rate, as mentioned before, even try to get a student looking to make some extra pocket money. If, however, you are set on a high-quality result, it’s often best to go with the middle to high end of the price spectrum, and sometimes it’s worth hiring a developer from a Western country, as quite simply, they need more money to live.
12. Managing WordPress Projects with Wizards
After completion of the project, you have to do a code review for the finished work. Also, do the testing and bug fixing on the closed beta release. Then you will have the final release of your software. Always seek continuous improvement for this makes you stand out from the crowd. Last but not least, letting go is more important than security. If your developer is not resource-ready for your future projects, then simply accept his work, give him feedback, pay him the deserved praise, and look for the next developer to hire.
Setting timesheets, requirements to meet milestones, and deadlines makes good management for any task. You can get more information on how to make a good task planning for software development. Always monitor the work of your developer in his test environment. Be in touch with him and check his work at regular intervals. It increases the transparency between the developer and you, and the mission will go as you have planned.
So you have decided on a proper professional for PHP development. We also recommend hiring the developer for a short-term test mission of 2-3 weeks. If you like the work of the developer during this phase, then hire him for the main mission. This is a little expensive, but everyone knows that understanding money is well-known and you can’t make a good software until you have a proper programmer for that. This exercise will help because the developer will also get to know what is expected from him and his prospects of giving the best product.
Customers can get the capability to check the encounter, internet site, previous paintings, opinions and ranks of every available professional WordPress programmer instantly from the website. This helps consumers to make a quick initial screening for choosing the right developer using data before requesting a quote. This reduces the time for choosing the right developer and potential quotes of the mission by the client.
13. Collaboration and Communication Tools for WordPress Projects
Another good tool is Simple Intranet. This plugin creates a simple and easy-to-use intranet for WordPress. With this tool, you can build a private and secure portal for your team to share internal information and resources. It also includes a great web-based employee directory. And if you just need a simple-to-use to-do list for you and your team, the best choice is CollabPress. This plugin is a powerful and simple tool for project management and team collaboration. With this tool, you can divide a project into several tasks and assign them to your teammates and see the progress on one page.
Mainly WordPress projects are not only an individual task, a complete project for a client may include different individuals with different skills. As a first-class developer, you should be able to handle it too. In fact, it will become a big plus if you have the ability to organize a small team for a big project. A good plugin to handle this situation is WP Project Manager. With this plugin, you can add your co-worker into a project and manage your project with specific tasks, deadlines, messages, and files. This is the most full-featured project managing tool for WordPress.
14. Best Practices for Working with WordPress Wizards
If you are engaging your WordPress wizard for custom development work, it is a good idea to set up a separate development environment for them to do work in. Custom development can sometimes have unforeseen consequences, and it is much better to find them on a development site rather than your live site. If the work is being done on a theme or plugin, a local development setup is perfectly adequate. There are also some plugins available which allow you to mirror a live site in a development area. For example, WordPress MU is able to do this. If the work is for custom scripting on an existing site, a development copy of the site can be set up in a sub-directory of your current hosting space.
The scope of work for a WordPress project can be huge, ranging from setting up a new blog, customizing a theme and plugin, to developing a fully-fledged WordPress site to act as a CMS. Your typical WordPress wizard will be an expert in one or two of these areas and may have little experience in others. For example, you may find a developer who is great with plugins and can accomplish almost anything using only the plugin API, but doesn’t know much about CSS or layout techniques. It is important to recognize what your WordPress wizard is and isn’t capable of and not push them into doing work they aren’t experienced in.
15. Case Studies: Successful Projects with WordPress Wizards
The directors for the show “Hair” wanted to make the 2009 production of this classic rock musical a dynamic experience for the audience. They sought to heighten the enjoyment of their audience members by giving them the option to pick and choose scenes from the musical and watch them out of chronological order, as per the Ragni and Rado script. Madison Avenue Literary Society wanted to build DVDs to be sold as memorabilia from the musical that contained different versions of the musical. So they came to a decision to hire a wizard that would help them develop a menu system that navigated through the musical scenes. This, in turn, made the play a dynamic experience for both the audience and the actors, as actors had to be offstage ready to play out-of-sequence scenes, and audience members had to attend multiple performances to piece together the storyline. With proper execution, visitors would have to purchase more than one DVD to collect all renditions of the musical. Such an impressive, profitable, and memorable way to support a live show has likely not been seen before in creating a DVD. This sounds like a pretty interesting strategy, so I’m eager to hear how this project turned out.
Hair is a raw, energetic rock musical written by Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt MacDermot. It is the story of a tribe of young hippies who rebel against mainstream society and the conservative lives their parents are imposing in the post-war era.
Madison Avenue Literary Society is a not-for-profit performing arts organization dedicated to creating exciting new theatrical works in order to reunite the American audience with the theatre through the development of innovative ideas, new technology, and multimedia integration. They employ a sophisticated, well-rounded sense of art and intellect to ignite the spirit of the theatre. Their talented wizard had a pleasant experience with a head full of hair.
16. Conclusion
The demand for WordPress professionals has been increasing with every passing moment. The reputation of small businesses has been built efficiently and with lower costs. WordPress has won hearts around the world as an effective Content Management System, ensuring an innumerable amount of highly skilled professionals looking to establish teams or work as freelancers. Being one step ahead ensures your WordPress professionals have ample knowledge regarding the numerous features that are being endowed. High quality work can only be expected from them when they know how to execute the task at hand most efficiently. The interviews will be much more beneficial, allowing you to throw scenarios at your candidates and understand how they would tackle the task. In conclusion, this topic is of critical importance and is a very effective hire strategy that can help you in the long run when building a WordPress project or team. Using this guide, you will not be disappointed with your professionals and could also apply these tactics in other hire scenarios. Always remember to expect quality.
