WordCamp Louisville 2011 was privileged to have Otto come and present a question and answer session. I have done my best to keep up with the questions, but a few were lost along the way, but here is the recap.
When did you start using WordPress?
5 or 6 years ago. Got on using WordPress and got into the support forums. After 1 yr… got invited as a mod. Eventually invited to start working for WordPress. 🙂
How does WordPress.com make money?
1/3 on ad, 1/3 on VIP, 1/3 on upgrade sales.
What 5 things should you do to make your blog ‘happen’ in WP.com?
Write good content and pay the upgrade to be able to play with the CSS in WP.com. The rest is basically taken care of. You do not have to worry about plugins or scalability.
What is a good example of use for BuddyPress?
Maybe good for a local community site.
What are some future releases you know of for WordPress?
- Drag and drop files in when uploading files (pics, media, etc)
- Sidebar tabulated (looks somewhat like the Fluency Admin plugin’s menu)
- Fixed problem with permalinks — postname is an option!
Any news on improving backend searchability?
Yeah, we know search sucks. Can add your own but it puts more load and umpteen other reasons not to. Recommend putting a google custom search for front end. Sphinx might be another option.
Are we going to see more e-commerce stuff in the future with all these releases to BuddyPress and bbPress and WordPress?
Not sure at this moment. Could be possible in the future.
What are your thoughts on SEO plugins?
Don’t waste your time on an SEO. I don’t use any plugins. If you have a good content, well written clean semantically coded theme, and google search, you should be okay without a SEO plugin.
What is semantic markup?
“Semantic” is more about structuring the HTML to fit the content instead of structuring it to fit the display. That one is hard to explain, I know.
What is the next release of WordPress?
End of November. Target date for 3.3 is Nov. 29th.
You can follow Otto at http://ottopress.com or on Twitter at otto42.
Close enough. 🙂 Minor corrections:
– Not in college. Haven’t been in college since 1999. Started on WP 5 or 6 years ago.
– Should be “How does WordPress.COM make money?”
– “Semantic” is more about structuring the HTML to fit the content instead of structuring it to fit the display. That one is hard to explain, I know.
– Target date for 3.3 is Nov. 29th. Just looked it up. 🙂
Thank you Otto. Edited and added. 😀