WordPress Rockstar: Lisa Sabin-Wilson

I had the privilege of meeting Lisa Sabin-Wilson at WordCamp Chicago 2009. She is the author of WordPress for Dummies and BuddPress for Dummies. I found her quite friendly and just a real inspiration. The other day I sent her a message asking for an interview and she graciously allowed me to. This comes as a real treat for the Holidays! If you are into WordPress, Lisa is a person that you MUST know.

Here was my interview with her.

Me: When did you decide to use WordPress for the first time? (or were you a b2 user like myself)

LISA: I was not a b2 user, though I wish I could say I was just for the sheer novelty of it. In reality, at the time you were using b2 – I was using Movable Type. A good friend of mine introduced me to WordPress, after I was complaining about the whole rebuilding process that I had to do with MT every time I wanted to make any changes to my theme – the whole site (including all the archives) needed to be rebuilt every time, it was insane! I switched from MT to WordPress in 2003 (on version 0.9-something (I think) and never looked back and have not ever considered using another platform for my own sites. By the way, not to knock Movable Type or SixApart – I think they’ve greatly improved since then and it’s not quite as painful as it used to be – but it certainly was enough to force a switch with me, which speaks a bit to how important user experience is when choosing a publishing platform.

ME: What is so appealing about WordPress versus other CMS, or even other basic blog scripts/platforms?

LISA: Where to begin? Ease of use. Flexibility. Intuitiveness. Community. Extensibility. Did I mention ease of use?

When I choose applications – it does not matter if it’s for blogging, designing, accounting, project management, etc… The first question that needs to be answered to my satisfaction is: Does it do what I need it to do in the most efficient way possible? WordPress does, and then some. I’ve worked with various CMS platforms, and while there are some really fantastic apps for blogging and content management, none of them meet that ‘efficient’ need of mine the way WordPress does.

Plus – I learn new stuff using WordPress all the time, which is exciting and (mostly) keeps me out of trouble.

ME: Did anyone inspire you to take up writing “WordPress for Dummies” or “BuddyPress for Dummies”? Who?

LISA: Having been an early-adopter of WordPress, I’ve been fortunate enough to really witness it’s organic growth over the years and the development community full of people who, each doing their own part, are the reason why WordPress is so very successful and the most widely used platform on the web today. I was not inspired by any one person, in particular, but rather an entire community of people.

I have been supporting WordPress users since 2004 – day in, and day out. Helping people discover the platform and watching the light bulb go off when they realize how extremely easy it is now to control, manage and maintain their own content is really quite fun. When I was approached to write WordPress For Dummies in 2006, there was no question on whether or not I would do it. It seemed a natural next step for me to take, and I’m still having great fun doing it. The first edition of WordPress For Dummies was published in November 2007, and I wrote a second edition that was published in March 2009. With lots of exciting development coming out of the WordPress development community, you can expect the third edition to hit the shelves sometime during the summer 2010.

BuddyPress For Dummies came about earlier this year (2009) during a conversation I was having with my editor on social media and online communities. She said (something like), “You sound really excited about this BuddyPress thing – do you think it’s book worthy?” Obviously, with the book being published in early 2010 (and currently BuddyPress For Dummies available for pre-order on Amazon) – we decided it was absolutely book worthy – no question. There is great excitement surrounding the BuddyPress project, and it’s a growing buzz that will hit new highs in 2010, and beyond.

ME: How long did it take to write both books and did you have assistance?

LISA: For the actual writing of the content, it took me 3-4 months for each book, followed by a month of copy editing, proof reading and technical editing before the books get sent to the printer and out to the book stores. Those months are pretty packed with lots of research, deadlines and some very, very late nights (LOTS of coffee!). My biggest challenge with both titles was keeping up with the latest development. It’s hard for all of us to keep up with all the great stuff that comes out day to day, but trying to keep up with it in a the static environment of print publishing is an extreme challenge.

As the sole author of both books, I didn’t have anyone else helping me research and write the content. However, I do have a great many people to thank for their help with technical editing of both books – and folks I used as resources who helped me stay as up to date as possible on what was coming in the next version. The folks over at Automattic were extremely helpful – in particular Matt Mullenweg and Jane Wells, especially with the second edition of WordPress For Dummies. I started writing that one in version 2.5 and ended up rewriting a lot of it in a mad rush at the end to make sure it was relevant up to 2.7 and Jane Wells was an integral part of helping me accomplish that, as she made sure I was kept in the loop with the new Dashboard design and user interface that was introduced with 2.7. I literally was updating screenshots and changing content for the book just days before it was due to hit the printer.

For my BuddyPress For Dummies book that’s coming out shortly, Andy Peatling was my technical editor. A Technical Editor is the person who reads every word I wrote and then edits it for technical accuracy, and having Andy doing it gave me supreme peace of mind because he is, after all, the guy who wrote the program. Because BuddyPress is so new, there isn’t a whole lot of user documentation out there about it – so I really had to rip that program apart and spend a lot of time digging around in it in order to write about it – – Andy was extremely helpful with a few corrections, some suggestions and lots of insight on what users can expect with the highly anticipated release of BuddyPress 1.2 later this year. It was a super learning experience for me, and I hope the readers of the book benefit from that experience, as well.

ME: I know by your profile at E.Webscapes that you know other blog and CMS platforms, but do you focus a lot in E.Webscapes around designing with WordPress? / Do you try to encourage clients to use WordPress over other CMS?

LISA: About 95% of the work we do at E.Webscapes is with WordPress – and that is, by and large, a reflection of client request. I do not try to sway my clients one way or another – mostly, they already know they want to use WordPress before they contact me. However; for those clients who are looking to me for a CMS recommendation – I take into consideration their requirements and help them make a choice based on their, individual, needs. I can say that, for the most part, WordPress is the CMS I am recommending 99.9% of the time and that is because there most things can be accomplished with WordPress. Additionally, WordPress has such a friendly user experience – it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the mix for the end user. The other 5% of the work that we do is done in TypePad, Movable Type or (very rarely) Expression Engine – and, most often, those clients are already using the platform and aren’t interested in making the switch.

ME: What is the most unique job you have done using WordPress?

LISA: Lately, I am really digging BuddyPress – which fits well because it seems I am getting more and more requests for it. People are really excited about the idea of having their own niche community on their web site, so while I’ve done a fair amount of WordPress work over the years that have been unique projects – what is really sticking out in my brain right now is the work I’ve been doing lately with BuddyPress, mostly because it’s so new, the excitement surrounding it is so awesome and, at the moment, seeing a nicely customized BuddyPress site is a fresh experience for everyone (because it’s so new). Some work I’ve done very recently includes: NourishNetwork.com, SportsGrants.Org, WeEarth.com, WeHeartThis.com – and I have a handful of other BuddyPress sites I’ll be launching for clients over the next month, or three.

ME: What kind of features would you like to see WordPress have in the future?

LISA: Perhaps with the whole mash up of BuddyPress, WPMU and WordPress.Org – this may already be taken care of at some point, but I have always wanted to see a better User Profile engine. Right now, we’re limited (unless we know how to alter it) on what user information can be captured in the Profile area. Wouldn’t it be great if we, as users, were able to add new fields through a field manager type of set up? If I wanted to capture Twitter or Facebook URLs of my registered users in order to display them in their comments, or user/author pages and feeds – – or if a business site wanted to capture other user data for sales leads. There are a few plugins that are headed in the right direction for this.

Right now, as a project management/help desk solution – I’m working with an application called Kayako. Within that app, I can customize user ticket fields – – basically, that is the fields the users fill out when they submit a new order, or a new request for support. The Field Manager is great because I’m able to add new Field Groups, new Fields and ask the user all sorts of questions that, when answered, helps me determine the best way to approach their new request.

I don’t know how many times clients ask me to make sure they are able to capture specific user data upon registration/sign up. With BuddyPress, this is possible within the Extended Profiles component. But with regular old WordPress.Org software – – it’s possible, but maybe not as easy and intuitive as it could be for users who aren’t so familiar with code mucking.

That, and if WordPress could do my dishes, laundry, vacuuming and feed my fish – that’d be cool, ok Matt?

Lisa Sabin-Wilson is a creative designer and the owner of E.Webscapes with over 12 years of graphic and web design, expertise in CSS and has been developing sites, large and small, in various content management systems like WordPress, Expression Engine and Movable Type. Lisa is the author of the popular WordPress For Dummies and BuddyPress For Dummies, both published by Wiley Publishing. Follow @EWebscapes and @LisaSabinWilson on Twitter!