Written by Jorge Rodriguez

A few Latinos in Tech members attended the WordCamp conference in Seattle on November 4-5, 2017. This was my first WordCamp conference and I came away impressed and inspired. I had the opportunity to meet a few of you. 

What is WordCamp? It’s an empowering tech conference for anyone who designs, develops or publishes on WordPress. The organizers really did a good job at having subjects for a wide range of skill levels and fields. Everything from getting started with WordPress, contributing to the community and lightning talks packed with valuable information. I had the opportunity to network and connect with many like-minded people. 

I share with you five valuable takeaways that I learned from WordCamp: 

1. Design Tips for Non-Designers. Quick tips: Line length matters. The user may not know what’s wrong with your page, but they may think “this content is boring”. Something that can help is making your content easy to read by limiting line length to 45-75 characters per line. Raven Gildea was the guest speaker on this topic. and offers more design tips on the WordPress Tv site. 

2. How to get Google to love you. Some of my favorite tips from Kori: Page title, alt tags and meta descriptions matter. When uploading an image give it a name that includes your target keyword or phrase. Use the image alt tag, don’t leave it blank. Site speed, mobile friendliness and content influence your page ranking. Want to learn more about SEO? Follow her twitter account @koriashton 

3. The Price is Wrong. Quick tips: Pricing is not a decision, it’s a strategy. Know your value. Position or re-position yourself in your niche. Reach out to others to study their pricing. Pricing isn’t an exact science, it’s ok to experiment with pricing options. Use options in proposals involving price. Nathan (@nathanallotey) covered “Hourly Pricing, “Flat Rate Pricing”, “Value Based Pricing” and “Price Anchoring”. Need more help in pricing your services? Nathan is quite brilliant, his advice on pricing offers a unique perspective. 

4. Workshop: Clarity Breeds Opportunity – Brand Communication Tactics to Boost Referral. Quick tips: You want to be remembered, respected and referred… which is very hard without total clarity. This workshop was one of the best I’ve attended. Jennifer helped us figure out what we do best. How to answer the question. What do you do for a living? If you’re in the creative, design or service industry. Follow Jennifer @jenniferbourn for more tips on branding. 

5. What WordPress is Doing to Keep Your Site Safe. Speaker Aaron Campbell shared a couple of things you can do right now to keep your site safe. Update, update, update and keep your site updated. Minor automatic updates are very reliable. You are more likely to get hacked from an out of date WordPress installation than one that is up to date. Use strong passwords. This on its own, it’s the weakest link on website security. Aaron works full time on security and offers some helpful tips, tweet him your questions @aaroncampbell.

If you enjoyed these quick tips and are interested in attending the next WordPress event check out their website for the next Seattle Event. It would be awesome to see more Latinos at these conferences! You can also check out more WordCamp events in your area. 

About the Author

Jorge Rodriguez, Guest Blogger from Portland, Oregon

Hi everyone! My name is Jorge Rodriguez and I’m a guest blogger on this channel. I’m stoked to introduce this blog to fellow creatives, designers, bloggers and anyone interested in tech. Our goal is to use this space to share, discuss, organize and connect with others who have similar interest. In doing so we hope to inspire and empower you.

My background is in computer science and photography. My work entails web design, creating stories using film, and photography. I’m based out of Portland Oregon. I enjoy coffee, good food, beer, wine, hiking and traveling. When I’m not working, I volunteer my time teaching others. Feel free to drop me a line and say hi, even if it’s just to ask for recommendations on places to visit, hang or eat here in Portland. Links below. 

Twitter: @wspacecreative

Instagram: @wspacecreative 

Email: [email protected]