Many individuals select WordPress for its simplicity, however keep for the group. I can’t consider many different on-line instruments that rival it for the sheer dimension and friendliness of its consumer base, and willingness of that consumer base to share options.
Throughout the group some folks stand out for his or her contribution, going the additional mile, or simply sheer charisma. Right here I current ten of probably the most fascinating personalities within the WordPress world at the moment (intentionally unnumbered as they’re no particularly order!).
Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt)
Not many individuals personal a personalised four-letter area title, however ma.tt is among the fortunate ones! As a founding member of WordPress, Automattic, and WordCamp, he has extra emotion invested in WordPress than most.
“Like consuming, respiration, music, I can’t not work on WordPress”, he writes on his weblog.
Jeff Chandler (@wptavern)
Is there a viable enterprise mannequin for a WordPress information web site? It’s been a scorching subject these days and Jeff Chandler, “Tavern Keeper” at WP Tavern is well-placed to reply. Jeff hit the headlines when he offered the weblog to a thriller purchaser, who ultimately revealed himself to be none apart from Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress itself.
Since then, Jeff’s private profile has rocketed and he’s given a number of interviews concerning the subject of WordPress enterprise fashions.
However Jeff’s bread-and-butter is the WPTavern weblog, the place he’s been protecting us abreast of the most recent information developments for the final 5 years. Different WordPress information websites come and go, however the Tavern stays open for enterprise.
Matt Medeiros (@mattmedeiros)
Once in a while I discover somebody popping up everywhere in the web, with no thought how they discover the time for all of it. Matt Medeiros undoubtedly qualifies as a type of folks. First up he’s co-founder of Slocum Design Studio, a specialist WordPress design and growth company. Underneath the Slocum banner he produces two podcasts, PressThis and SEOLunch.
As if that’s not sufficient, he additionally runs the Matt Report, the place he publishes common interviews with individuals who work with WordPress. He’s carved out a pleasant publishing area of interest by specializing in the enterprise facet of WordPress. There’s no filler, simply high quality interviews with the likes of Chris Lema, Brad Williams (WebDevStudios), and Jeff Chandler.
Joost de Valk (@yoast)
His search engine optimization plugins have been downloaded over 10 million occasions and he has the good title in WordPress. Dutchman Joost de Valk created the Yoast model because of Rand Fishkin from Moz, who informed Joost to inform English-speakers the title was pronounced “toast with a y”!
Whether or not you say Joost or Yoast, his WordPress plugin has been synonymous with search engine optimization since its inception again in 2009. He’s an everyday speaker on all issues search engine optimization and WordPress and retains everybody up to date along with his whereabouts on his wonderful weblog over at yoast.com.
Brian Gardner (@bgardner)
Maybe probably the most copied man in WordPress, Brian Gardner is the brains behind the Genesis framework from StudioPress, the “better of one of the best” amongst WordPress theme frameworks, in response to Mashable. Some argue he invented the entire idea of premium theme frameworks along with his Revolution theme and subsequent Genesis/StudioPress mission.
Brian’s private weblog is a melting pot of WordPress suggestions and tips (principally geared in direction of Genesis) and a playground for his personal theme growth, typically hinting at a future Genesis little one theme launch. Proper now he’s exhibiting off what Genesis 2.zero has in retailer for us.
Toni Schneider (@tonidotorg)
For these within the business facet of WordPress, Toni’s your man.
Born in Switzerland, Toni moved to California for school and determined to remain put, ignoring the chance to get a “actual job” and throwing himself into entrepreneurship at a fledgling e-mail startup. After a profitable exit to Yahoo, Toni joined Matt Mullenweg on the Automattic mission.
As CEO of Automattic, Toni has overseen the launch of initiatives similar to Jetpack, VaultPress, Gravatar, and naturally the continued success of WordPress.com. He additionally finds the time to work as a companion at VC agency True Ventures, making certain not simply everybody concerned in WordPress, but in addition Silicon Valley, is aware of his title.
Right here’s a keynote from final yr, stuffed with details about the business facet of WordPress.
Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith)
Mark makes his dwelling as an internet publishing marketing consultant, however he’s higher referred to as a WordPress famous person. As one of many lead builders of WordPress, Mark has performed an important position in getting WordPress to the place it’s at the moment.
In his own-words, Mark is a non secular skeptic, a type of stuck-up Mac customers, and actually unhealthy at answering emails. He’s additionally a devoted household man, a lot so he launched his personal tackle Amazon evaluate websites known as Have Child, Want Stuff. It’s purposeful, nice to take a look at, and oh, it’s on WordPress after all!
Mark is within the highlight proper now as lead developer on WP 3.6.
Daniel Espinoza (@d_espi)
Creating WordPress plugins helped Daniel and his spouse repay $67,000 of debt in simply eight months. He targeted on constructing recurring income plugins for the WooCommerce platform, then offered the plugins to attain his monetary purpose.
What’s subsequent for Daniel? “There are adjustments in WordPress, there are adjustments within the web, and there are adjustments on the earth. With a lot change occurring I’m very assured that I can discover a new area of interest to serve clients”, he writes on his weblog.
One factor appears sure — WordPress hasn’t seen the final of Daniel Espinoza.
Chris Pearson (@pearsonified)
Chris developed Thesis, the favored WordPress theme framework, however he’s excess of a one-trick pony. Chris can discuss something and every part WordPress, from search engine optimization to what number of hours per week he works on his enterprise. This, mixed along with his self-proclaimed “enthusiastic, outspoken character”, sees Chris commonly booked to talk at WordCamps and different business conferences.
He blogs at Pearsonified about subjects as numerous because the Thesis theme and his private curiosity in internet typography.
Frederick Townes (@w3edge)
Frederick has his fingers in lots of pies. He’s the person behind design and growth firm W3Edge and the creator of the W3 Whole Cache plugin. He was founding CTO of Mashable, an amazing instance of a significant web site working on WordPress, and remains to be concerned at the moment as Senior Technical Advisor. On prime of all that, he’s co-founder and CTO at actual property internet advertising and marketing firm Placester.
Frederick’s huge expertise of WordPress entrepreneurship places him in nice demand as a speaker. He offers again to the group by talking at quite a few WordCamps, not simply close to to his Massachusetts dwelling, however as far afield as Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Tom McFarlin (@tommcfarlin)
Within the first publish Tom was talked about in one of many feedback as a notable miss so it’s solely acceptable that I begin with him. Tom is a WordPress developer and avid blogger who dedicates an excessive amount of his running a blog time to sharing WordPress suggestions, tutorials, snippets, sources, and all issues WordPress.
Tom’s private weblog is a good useful resource particularly for newbies however superior customers and builders can also profit from his deep mastery of the platform.
Aaron Jorbin (@aaronjorbin
On his Twitter profile, Aaron describes himself as a Polyhistoric man of the net — no matter meaning ?
Regardless, Aaron is a WordPress Core committer and dedicates a part of his time on the net to serving to builders enhance their abilities, amongst different issues.
Helen Hou Sandi (@helenhousandi)
Each member of the WordPress core committer staff is a worthy point out on this record however Helen Hou Sandi stands out as a result of she is the one feminine member on the staff. Amongst different issues, Helen is a religious WordPress evangelist and has graced a variety of WordPress associated conferences around the globe.
Tom Auger (@TomAuger
Tom is one other dedicated WordPress evangelist who shares plenty of suggestions and tips on WordPress and different growth subjects by way of his web site and thru social media.
Matt Medeiros (@mattmedeiros)
Matt runs mattreport.com, an internet site that helps folks begin and run profitable enterprise web sites on WordPress. He principally interviews main WordPress entrepreneurs after which shares these interviews as podcasts on his web site.
Via these interviews, Matt has realized a ton of tips to make cash utilizing WordPress and is now thought-about an authority in his personal proper on how one can monetize it.
Amber Weinberg (@amberweinberg)
Amber Weinberg is a self-taught WordPress developer who’s been constructing web sites since her teenagers. She makes a speciality of WordPress and front-end growth. She principally shares suggestions and tips on WordPress, worthwhile freelancing, writing clear code, and every part in-between.
If you wish to craft a profession as a contract WordPress developer, you can find Amber’s story very inspiring, so make sure to take a look at her web site to get her distinctive insights.
Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier)
Chris focuses on common internet growth and notably on CSS. He runs css-tricks.com (which is constructed on WordPress) and codepen.io the place he shares plenty of design and growth tips that lower throughout the net growth board, together with WordPress after all.
Chris’ major focus isn’t WordPress, however now and again he shares snippets, instruments, and sources that you need to use in your WordPress initiatives. In all, as a WordPress developer or eager consumer, it’s good to maintain up along with his websites.
Jeff Starr (@perishable)
Jeff is a real WordPress star. He’s a developer and writer with greater than 10 years expertise growing for WordPress. He at the moment runs three web sites: Perishable Press, Digging Into WordPress and WP Tao, all devoted to educating the ins and outs of WordPress.
Jeff’s WordPress tutorials and books are primarily aimed toward builders who need to grasp the craft of theme growth.
Brennen Byrne (@brennenbyrne)
Brennen is a safety guru with regards to WordPress and it’s no shock that he’s now totally targeted on his new ingenious mission Clef, an app that enables easy however highly effective 2-factor authentication for WordPress. The app makes use of a digital signature to log you in moderately than conventional passwords. The mission is considerably new and has not but gained quite a lot of traction locally (but), however there’s little doubt that it is the long run.
Brennen is certainly somebody it’s best to comply with if you wish to learn the way completely safe your WordPress websites.
Andrew Nacin (@nacin)
Andrew is a WordPress lead developer and couldn’t be extra concerned within the WordPress group as an entire. He participates in all phases of the event cycle from web site infrastructure to bug fixes. He additionally frequents WordCamps the place he meets actual WordPress customers (identical to you!) regularly.
He additionally dedicates a lot of his time to the WordPress.org web site and you’ll spot him on many a mailing record and the IRC growth channel.
Ryan Boren (@rboren)
Along with contributing to the WordPress core as a lead developer, Ryan additionally works as an engineer at Automattic. On the WordPress entrance, he frequently modifies the codebase to enhance effectivity and accessibility. He’s additionally an everyday bug fixer over at Automattic and describes himself as an “Atheist Vegan Transhumanist Libertarian.”
Peter Westwood (@westi)
There are numerous issues you may study from Peter Westwood, a member of the lead builders’ staff since 2005. He’s lively on Twitter and although his WordPress weblog isn’t up to date all that usually, when it’s you may relaxation assured he has one thing informative to say.
Automattic (@automattic)
This publish was about people but it surely’s exhausting to single out sure personalities with out mentioning the groups they lead or work with. For sure, the staff at Automattic stands out with regards to staff contributions to the WordPress group.
Automattic is a staff of WordPress lovers that run and preserve WordPress.com (together with many different initiatives). Automattic is a creation of Matt Mullenweg and the staff commonly contributes to a variety of open supply initiatives, most notably WordPress.org. Crew members are recruited from everywhere in the globe and most work remotely, which makes it a uniquely fascinating staff.
Go to the Computerized web site to take a look at all the staff. You’ll be able to both single out people to comply with or you would easy comply with the group as an entire.
Nick Roach and Crew (@elegantthemes)
Nick Roach is the founding father of Elegant Themes and heads a staff of 30 builders, designers, and tech help specialists. Nick and his staff have constructed greater than 100 WordPress themes (many premium) and so they share quite a lot of what they’ve learnt on their weblog. A variety of their suggestions are aimed toward WordPress customers however builders can also study lots from these guys.
Sinisa Komlenic and Crew (@themeskingdom)
Like Nick Roach, Sinisa based and runs Themes Kingdom, a WordPress themes growth firm in Ohio. They’ve constructed some strong themes and share quite a lot of helpful tips about their weblog. However in contrast to Elegant Themes, these guys are a close-knit staff of seven builders, designers, and a help agent. They appear very effectively organized and it clearly reveals of their work. There’s undoubtedly one thing to study from these guys for each aspiring WordPress theme developer.
WooThemes Crew (@woothemes)
WooThemes are makers of free and premium WordPress themes. They created what’s at the moment probably the most standard ecommerce plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, together with a bunch of different extensions for the plugin. In reality, there are a few builders who earn a dwelling solely from growing and promoting WooCommerce extensions.
