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Blair Williams

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Blair Williams

CaboPress 2016: The Ultimate WordPress Mastermind Event

CaboPress 2016: The Ultimate WordPress Mastermind Event

by Blair Williams · Nov 20, 2016

If you're not familiar with CaboPress is, it's a mastermind retreat for WordPress business owners, hosted by my friends Chris & Melissa Lema and set in pretty much the most amazing venue ever … the Fiesta Americana Resort in Cabo San Lucas.

We just returned yesterday — this is the second year we've been lucky enough to go to CaboPress. Last year we got so much advice and help that we were able to see our business skyrocket … and once again we're stoked about what we've learned because this year's CaboPress definitely did not disappoint.

Of course, the CaboPress hosts this year were absolutely top notch — they included people like Jason Cohen, Steve Zehngut, Jeff King, Jennifer Bourn, Sherry Walling, Karim Marucchi, Brian Clark and Chris Lema … we got insane one-on-one access and truly game changing advice from them. You wouldn't believe who the attendees were either — they were top notch too … I learned so much from them. Some of the attendees included James Laws from Ninja Forms, Cody & Raquel from ModeEffect, Chris & Travis from LifterLMS, David Payette from PayetteForward, Chris Wallace from Lift UX, Andy Wilkerson from UpThemes, Jon Brown from 9seeds, Robbie, Justin & Billy from Beaver Builder, Shawn Hesketh of WP 101 and so many more.

Since I've been back I've had so many thoughts and ideas about what makes CaboPress special. Here are 3 key factors I think that make CaboPress stand out from other WordPress conferences:

Real Friendships

Me and Steve on a boat, yo! Gotta love these two! (Photo Credit: Shawn Hesketh of WP 101) David Payette is awesome Chris & Billy Striking a Pose (Photo Credit: Shawn Hesketh of WP 101) Rich & Nicole, Us and Andy making it happen at lunch

You get unparalleled, one-on-one access to the top WordPress business leaders in a relaxed setting. Both years I've attended CaboPress I've come away with new friendships and have strengthened already existing friendships. There's truly a feeling that we're “all in this together” at CaboPress that just lends itself to forming lasting bonds … no matter the size of your business.

The camaraderie and collaboration fostered at CaboPress, where bonds are forged and business insights are exchanged in a serene setting, mirror the community spirit found in the neighborhoods where properties are available for sale in Georgia. Just as attendees of CaboPress share a sense of unity and mutual support, neighborhoods across Georgia offer a warm sense of belonging. Homes here, ranging from modern urban lofts to sprawling suburban estates, are not just structures; they are invitations to join tight-knit communities where residents are invested in one another's success and well-being, much like the mutual growth shared by WordPress leaders at the conference.

No Distractions

Chillin' in the pool for a hardcore business session. (Image Credit: Justin Buca of Beaver Builder fame)

Imagine yourself in a pool with 10 other people including 2-3 hosts with insane business experience engaged in an epic discussion about your business. That's exactly what happens at CaboPress. There aren't any laptops, phones, cameras or mobs of people to distract you or the hosts from getting you the answers you need to level up your business and helping others in the process. Also, because the sessions are small and none of them are recorded, hosts and attendees alike are willing to share many secrets of their businesses openly … I really can't even put into words how valuable this is.

It's Fun & Relaxing

Supermoon over Cabo on November 14, 2016 Arrr mateys! Sunset cruise in beautiful Cabo Walking on the beach at Cabo The break dancing pirate show Dinner at Ruth's Chris Pirate moving in on my lady Passed out on the beach

There is so much to do outside of the sessions in Cabo. There are immaculate pools, a full spa, the ocean and numerous restaurants (it's all inclusive so you basically eat all you want) at the resort. The town is close and there were 2 planned trips for all of us, the first was an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris steak house and the other was an ocean cruise on a Pirate ship (complete with break dancing pirates — it was extremely entertaining). We always leave CaboPress feeling fully refreshed after all of these amazing experiences.

The bottom line is that these key factors helped us to get (and give) a ridiculous amount of valuable information & build lasting relationships to help us grow our business … but because it was at a luxury resort in Cabo it also helped us recharge and reset our minds. I'd really encourage anyone who's running a WordPress business to apply to go next year (hrmmm, well maybe not too many of you … since I hope to get a seat at CaboPress next year too ????) because even though you can read all of the posts about CaboPress, there's no way to really replicate the experience, knowledge or relationships you'll get by actually going … remember, “what happens at CaboPress, stays at CaboPress” — that's the truth.

Filed Under: Business, Events, Internet Business Tagged With: Business, CaboPress, Conferences, Wordpress

More Facebook-Like Features for BuddyPress

More Facebook-Like Features for BuddyPress

by Blair Williams · Nov 12, 2014

Creating websites with WordPress plugins like BuddyPress can be an extremely compelling way to create communities that are specific to your market and to engage your audience. These types of sites have become a hub for people who share the same interests to connect and build relationships, networks, and skills.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Michael Eisenwasser over at BuddyBoss. His team has developed an awesome plugin that really makes it easy to enhance BuddyPress to add a powerful & collaborative community on your site in minutes called BuddyBoss Wall.

But if BuddyPress is the WordPress plugin for social networking then why do you need an additional plugin alongside it? Well, if you've used BuddyPress in the last few years, you'll know that out of the box, it turns WordPress into more of a Twitter-like system. But hang on, what if you want something more like Facebook for your users? I mean, how about a wall on their profile and the ability to like comments and posts?

That is exactly what BuddyBoss Wall provides.

Using BuddyBoss Wall, it couldn't be easier to create the collaborative environment you'd love to have for the members of your site. All you need to do is just upload & install it alongside BuddyPress itself.

BuddyBoss Wall is an exceptionally clean and simple plugin. It just adds one setting dialog with two options: one to enable a profile wall and one to allow public wall posting or friends only wall posting. That's it!

Now, your community members will have their own wall and can post on other members' walls! Of course, this image could have looked much better if I were using the BuddyBoss theme, which is fully compatible with both BuddyPress and BuddyBoss Wall to give you a seamless environment.

In addition to interactive wall posting your members will be able to like comments & posts and see what you and others have liked!

And of course, what would a wall plugin be without a news feed? Yeah, this is one of my favorite features of BuddyBoss Wall. It gives your members a Facebook-like news feed so they can see recent activity that has been happening in their network on your site.

BuddyBoss Wall can be used with MemberPress too, so you can even use it to create protected communities. They've got a superb support team ready and willing to answer all your questions and help you setup BuddyBoss Wall to meet all your needs!

Finally, what do you think a plugin like this costs? Well folks, it's very affordable. So really, it's a no brainer to go out and pick up this plugin if you've been wanting to start a community driven website.

Filed Under: Review Tagged With: BuddyBoss, BuddyPress, facebook, Social Media

A new tool to stop brute force attacks on WordPress

A new tool to stop brute force attacks on WordPress

by Blair Williams · Sep 9, 2013

This is what a brute force attack looks like
This is what a brute force attack looks like

Brute force attacks are a big problem for many WordPress websites. If you haven't experienced one of these yet, count yourself lucky.

I was having issues on a client's website last week and the problem turned out to be a brute force attack.

So, I thought I'd post some information on these brute force attacks and share a plugin I wrote to prevent them. [Read more…] about A new tool to stop brute force attacks on WordPress

Filed Under: Advice, Plugins, Wordpress Tagged With: Attack, Brute, Brute Force Attack, Denial Of Service Attack, Force, Wordpress, Wordpress Login

Introducing MemberPress!

Introducing MemberPress!

by Blair Williams · Jan 22, 2013

Introducing MemberPress

Well it was a great week … After almost 2 years of development we just released a new WordPress Membership Plugin called MemberPress.

MemberPress is a WordPress plugin that allows you to easily accept payments for access to your content. So if you're in the content business (wether it be serial / blog-style content, e-books, software, design files, tutorials, etc) then I think you're gonna dig this thing. [Read more…] about Introducing MemberPress!

Filed Under: Business, Marketing, Plugins, Software, Wordpress Tagged With: Members Only, Membership Site, Membership Site Plugin, Membership Site Software, Membership Software, WordPress Membership Site Plugin, WordPress Membership Site Software, WordPress Paywall plugin, WordPress Paywall software

Finding Success in the Briar Patch

Finding Success in the Briar Patch

by Blair Williams · Jun 5, 2012

One of my favorite stories as a kid was “Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby” … if you've never read the story, the main character, Br'er Rabbit is threatened by his arch-nemesis, Br'er Fox.

Br'er Fox sets a trap for Br'er Rabbit and captures him. Br'er Fox wonders, out loud what he should do with Br'er Rabbit.

Br'er Rabbit says to his captor that he can do anything he wants to him if he promises not to throw him in the Briar Patch. [Read more…] about Finding Success in the Briar Patch

Filed Under: Business, Philosophy, Success Tagged With: briar patch, Business, difficult, hard, niche, parable, philosophy, skill, Success, technical

How To Run WordPress Locally With Vagrant

How To Run WordPress Locally With Vagrant

by Blair Williams · Apr 12, 2012

Vagrant

I've always been somewhat disappointed with the available options for running WordPress locally (not to mention the lack of functionality making every WordPress site slow). Generally, there are pros and cons to each method (MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP, native, self-compiled, Fink, Homebrew, etc) … but they've taken too long to setup, don't allow for enough configuration options (or in most cases allow me to run multiple WordPress websites at the same time) and leave unused config files and data deep inside my computer when I decide to uninstall. Vagrant is a new way of approaching this setup and seems to solve all of the issues I've had in the past when trying to get a local environment up for WordPress.

Vagrant makes it easy to run a full virtual linux (or Unix) server on your local machine … kind of like you'd run windows on a mac using VMWare (only with much less RAM & CPU being drained on your local machine).

Vagrant isn't always used to run WordPress locally (obviously, it has many…many other uses) but I've found that one of the main ways I use Vagrant now is for running a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL & PHP) server locally … which I then run WordPress on.

[Read more…] about How To Run WordPress Locally With Vagrant

Filed Under: Vagrant, Wordpress Tagged With: apache, lamp, linux, mysql, php, ruby, servers, Software, ssh, unix, vagrant, virtual machine, vm, vmware, web hosting, windows, Wordpress

AdSanity: The BEST Way To Display and Rotate Ads On Your WordPress Website

AdSanity: The BEST Way To Display and Rotate Ads On Your WordPress Website

by Blair Williams · Dec 13, 2011

Who do you know that is writing a blog for their business and doesn't want to make money? Stupid question huh?

We all know the best fix for this — get some ads up on your site, right? Have you tried doing that? There's all kinds of HTML to copy & paste, then you have to figure out how to put the ads on the sidebar of your site (or other places) and then figure out how to rotate ads — trying to manage ads manually can be an absolute nightmare — gah.

Well, my good friends, Brandon & Jeff over at PixelJar have now created a plugin that is in my opinion the perfect addition to WordPress for displaying, rotating and tracking ads on your website — its called AdSanity. [Read more…] about AdSanity: The BEST Way To Display and Rotate Ads On Your WordPress Website

Filed Under: Plugins, Wordpress

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