Tim: What’s your WordPress “orgin” story?
I began using WordPress several years ago as an affiliate. Because of the ease of publishing new content, it allowed me to deploy site quite rapidly. Until a few years ago when I published WordPress Through The Ages, I was a mere casual user of WordPress. Fortunately, that article broke me into the community quite rapidly. I then founded a late night private hangout group called WP After Hours where I further developed various relationships, and soon began speaking at various WordCamps.
Fast forward to today. I am now working at Rocketgenius, helping change the world with Gravity Forms and rapidly developing my WordPress knowledge.
Tim: Whats your top 3 WordPress plugins? Why?
- Gravity Forms – Besides paying the bills for me, it is built on a “”functionality first”” approach. It is built in a way that it makes the lives of developers much easier, and also is quite simple for a beginner to use. Everything from a simple contact form to the purchasing of an advanced product with various custom options can be completed with Gravity Forms.
- Heartbeat Control – I’m a little fond of this one, mainly because I built it. It was initially created to serve a specific purpose in manipulation the WordPress heartbeat on a few edge cases, but is now used on over 10,000 active sites for both increased performance, as well as better code debugging.
- SearchWP – Incredibly useful for better control of search functionality, especially with a large amount of content. Let’s face it, WordPress’ default search functionality sucks. SearchWP solves that problem with better algorithms and fine tuning.
- Yeah, I know. You said 3. But, I have a new plugin coming soon that just might blow your mind. Ask me about it at the WordCamp and I’ll show you a demo. 😉
Tim: Whats your most proud achievement around WordPress?
“Building a successful plugin. Heartbeat Control took off rather quickly and while I haven’t devoted as much time to it as I would like, has become quite a staple in many sites. Rapidly approaching 20k active installs, I feel great knowing that many people find my plugin useful.
Tim: What do you want our readers to know about you?
I’m that guy who will never approach you, but loves having conversations. Find me, chat with me, and teach me something.
Tim: Define yourself with one word.
onewordistooshorttodescribeme
Jeff is dropping his knowledge on finding the right webhost at 2pm. If you need to find a host, or want to know what to look for in one, you surely don’t want to miss him speaking.