Anatomy of a WordPress Hack
This is a beginner’s guide to the different ways hackers can exploit WordPress. We will exploit WordPress core itself and explain how every exploit works. We’ll go back in time (it will really feel like the early 2000s when we break out the old WordPress themes) and take the audience through 3 different vulnerabilities in WordPress 2.2, 3.1.3, and 3.5; use each one to wreak havoc, and then show how core contributors fixed them. Finally, we’ll look at how what we’ve learned from the past can better prepare us to secure our sites in the future.
Hackathon
WordCamp Albuquerque 2013 is hosting our 2nd annual WordCamp Hackathon. True to our programs’ missions we are looking for local creative organizations that contribute to the Albuquerque community. This could be a business, artist, musician, start-up or any type of business that benefits Albuquerque. We will select one organization and enlist a team of WordPress content producers, designers, and developers to create a website in approximately 4 hours. More info.
Organizing the WordPress Backoffice: Eight Plugins that Help!
Internal link maintenance on those 500 posts and pages becoming a chore? Using the same snippets of text in your posts and pages all the time, but storing, copying and pasting them is a pain? Need a better way to organize those 500 posts and pages? Want to make changes to stylesheets or use a cool snippet of code but modifying theme files or writing plugins is scary? Want to get to specific sections of a site within your multisite with fewer clicks? Need better control over plugin management in your multisite? Have a hard time figuring out which sites in your multisite are using a plugin or theme?
No problem! There’s a plugin for that! Bob De Young, from Blue Lotus Works, LLC, will present eight plugins solutions that help keep your site’s backoffice (admin area and code) organized.
Hacked! How they hack it and how you clean it
Oban will walk you through the life-cycle of a real WordPress hack; From how the vulnerability is identified and the site is compromised by the bad guy, to how you detect it, clean it, and re-secure the site before the client calls you in a panic. Real-life code, log files, and tools will be shown and discussed. At the end of this session you’ll no longer feel that massive sense of dread if a WP site under your care is comprised.
Think Before You Install – A Call to Action
This presentation will feature the spotlight on first time website owners and the mistakes they make when starting out. We will go over how to create your outline for a project, discuss function vs features, and success measured in two ways.
WordPress for Kids
Back by popular demand for a third year! Who likes this session better, the kids or the parents? We’re not quite sure 🙂
What’s WordPress for Kids? Kids are hungry to participate online and not just sit back, observe and wait their turn to be a blog-writing, site-building, individual with an online space to call their own. They’re aching to get their hands dirty and have their voices heard. With WordPress, the sky is the limit! Its streamlined and simplified user interface is so easy to learn, your child can set up a site and be blogging in no time.
Having this knowledge not only opens up an instant online home for them to enjoy right away, it sets them up for a lifetime of being ahead of the curve and could even result in a career in web design.
We’ll start the session by walking through setting up a basic WordPress.com site and then break into smaller groups. Have your child come in with a basic game plan in mind. If your child wants to blog but aren’t sure what they want to blog about, here are some ideas to get them started!
- School projects
- Photos of LEGO creations
- Short stories or poems
- Book reviews or a book club
- Host a fundraiser or support a charity
- Recipes
- Photography
- Pets
- Career ideas
- Homework help
- Babysitting tips
- Music
- And much more!
Clean eCommerce Solutions for the Responsive Web
Kevin and Chad will present a comparison of shopping cart options for designers looking to add secure payments to non-traditional eCommerce sites.
In the age of the responsive web, HTML 5,and device independence, traditional eCommerce plugins are failing designers and their customers. Taking payments on your WordPress site shouldn’t require design compromises or heavy development work. Likewise, your customers shouldn’t be asked to wade through an excessive number of checkout barriers to make simple purchases. Choosing the right plugin will make the difference between 80%+ cart abandonment and effective online sales.
We will present a comparison of off-the-shelf plugins that are design-forward and mobile friendly. Participants will learn the benefits and pitfalls of popular cart plugins, with a focus on the mobile consumer and user-centered design.
Happiness Bar
You’ve got WordPress problems? We’ve got WordPress answers. At a WordCamp Happiness Bar you can bring your issues to WordPress experts and get help.
- Having trouble figuring out how to upload an image?
- Developing a plugin and having a little trouble with some of the code?
- Trying to figure out a tricky bit of CSS?
- Other? Bring it to us, we’ll help.
Staffed by Daryl L. Houston, Elizabeth Urello, Karen Arnold, and others.
Online Newsletters: Benefits and Challenges
You have decided to build a beautiful website to market and sell your wonderful creations, or your insightful consulting practice.
“Build it and they will come.” Right? Wrong! Once it is built, you will need to let people know about it. A form of news letter is, by far, the most efficient manner in which to announce to the world that you are ready for them to make you a millionaire.
In this discussion the instructor will provide insight and information based on creating enewsletters for almost ten years. You will learn:
- A very short historical/future perspective about e-newsletters
- What WordPress has to offer you
- The first and best step to take in order to create a successful e-newsletter
- Tools to assist you in carrying out your decision
- Paid versus Free services
- Myths and mistakes in e-newsletter marketing
- Anatomy of successful e-newsletters
- Which statistics really matter
- Resources and references
Making the Leap from Designer to Designer/Developer
As a designer, there is a lot you can do to customize the look and feel of WordPress themes. But to really customize a website so it suits the needs of the site owner and site visitors often requires customizing some code: really it’s just an extension of the design process. We’ll look at some common situations that a designer/developer (aka “coder lite”) should be able to customize. More oriented toward business sites (WordPress as CMS), as opposed to blogs.
Choose and Modify a Theme with the End User in Mind
Basics+ of website design elements (discuss visual hierarchy, font choices for readability, color choices for readibility, general layout elements, html tags, css basics and how to use to your advantage). How to choose a theme with the end user in mind. What to tweak when it comes to fonts, colors, images, navigation experience to ensure the visitor stays on the site as long as possible.
SEO for WordPress Sites: How To Find and Implement a Sweet Strategy for Getting Noticed
Sometimes it seems like every word in the English language is already taken and you can’t find an open keyword to save your life, let alone optimize your website for.
Using paid and free keyword tool examples, along with some creative thinking techniques, Melissa will showcase SEO successes and failures, and discuss where to put your keywords on your site so searchers can find you.
Absolute Beginner’s Intro to WordPress
“Someone told me to use WordPress. Now what?”
This is a hands-on introduction to WordPress. This session is intended for people who are interested in WordPress but haven’t yet created a WordPress site. Pages, posts, categories, tags, widgets, and plugins will be explained and you’ll get a chance to play with a WordPress site to help the concepts sink in. WordPress is user-friendly, but there is a learning curve of terminology that we’ll help you master.
Limited to 20 people and you’ll need to bring a laptop!
WordPress and Mapping
Geodata’s popularity and use is rising. If you can’t find your way with your smartphone, does the location exist?
We’ll cover WordPress and responsive design with Google Maps app integration, as well as learn why people are switching to the open source option with OpenStreetMap.
You’ll also learn about basic mapping constructs as well as the rising importance of geometa tagging in websites. See how WordPress and geodata can work together to help you find your way.
Avoiding Scope Creep by Writing a Proper Statement of Work
Your statement of work should contain a line-by-line itemization of all tasks that are outside the native functionality of WordPress, without using plugins. By thoroughly documenting the features and functionality of your site up front and getting this signed off by the client, expectations will be set at a level that will bring easy success to the project and avoid simple miscommunications. When defining this before you start working, you are helping to facilitate an open and pleasant working relationship with your client while avoiding possible scope creep, and outlining who is responsible for what and by when. This session will walk you through the steps you should take when starting a new project to protect yourself using good documentation practices, while meeting the requirements set by your client.
Strategy for Traffic Building for Beginning Bloggers (How to Win Friends and Avoid Making Enemies)
I’d like to discuss how to build traffic for beginning bloggers. I’ll cover how to find other blogs in your area, and how to leave interesting, engaging comments on those sites to build blogging relationships. I’ll talk about regularly publishing creative or informative posts and using keywords intelligently without keyword stuffing. I’ll mention how to promote your blog through your social media networks without becoming repetitive. I’ll also touch on SEO best practices and how WordPress and WordPress.com can take care of most of the work of SEO for you.
You, Too, Can Write a Plugin
Whether you’re a newbie developer or a seasoned PHP wizard, writing your first WordPress plugin can be intimidating. Fear not! Plugins are a piece of cake. By the time you’re done with this session, you’ll feel the same way. I’ll cover the technical details of making a functional WordPress plugin and go over some best practices. I’ll even write a plugin from scratch, right in front of your eyes!
There’s a Filter for That
There are a myriad of filter hooks available to developers looking to extend WordPress. Filter hooks can be used for everything from manipulating content and saving data, to enabling or disabling features and changing how we interact with WordPress.
Blast Off Your Blog with Social Media!
Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus are the best ways to boost your SEO and get more traffic to your site. Learn some good tips and tricks to get more traction from your social media and your WordPress blog.
DNS and WordPress Website Migration
Web designers often need to move a site from one host to another. Some poorly-understood aspects of DNS, such as TTLs and caches, can have a big impact on how smooth (or rocky) a website migration goes.
We’ll discuss Registrars, the different record types (esp. NS, A, MX), TTLs, who caches what, and specific advice for an order of events that will give the smoothest results with no downtime.
Anatomy of a VIP Code Review
The VIP division of Automattic (makers of WordPress.com) works with large content publishers to deploy and scale custom code on a high performance web environment.
I’ll cover some of the challenges that developers for VIP clients face and how we help them mitigate the challenges. Even though most developers out there aren’t developing sites for WordPress.com, many of the problems VIPs face are transferrable to other environments.
I’ll also cover some best practices that we encourage — tips, tricks, and tools we share with VIP developers that you can use to become a better WordPress developer no matter your skill level (though chances are that much of this will be beyond the reach of beginner developers).
Integrating Online Communications with WordPress
As an Online Account Executive for The Garrity Group PR, I work with multiple industries on their digital communication strategies and tactics. WordPress has become the best CMS to seamlessly integrate tactics, including social media, email marketing, blogging and audio/visual content. Finding the right plugins to make this all happen is key.
In my presentation, I take a look at multiple industries (tourism, entertainment, business services, and more) and show how WordPress helps communication people do what they need to do: communicate well online.