Southern Stars in a Genesis Sky, Episode #11

If you’re new to Genesis Office Hours, it’s a weekly video podcast where I (and my guests) answer your questions about the Genesis Framework live on the air. Before we dive into snow notes for Episode #11, I’d like to point out a couple of links where you can stay up to date with the podcasts:

Genesis Office Hours – Participate in the show from this link and access an archive of all earlier episodes.
GOH Chat Room – You can use the chat from the Genesis Office Hours link above, but if you want it in a separate window, here it is. 🙂
Genesis Office Hours Google+ Community – I run all the live episodes via Google’s Hangouts On Air. If you join the G+ community, you’ll receive notifications of each upcoming episode.

Also, new and exciting(!), GOH is now an official podcast on iTunes. If you hate Apple or want to download the audio on something other than an iOS device, you can alternatively access the podcast audio files via Soundcloud.

One more housekeeping note and then I promise we’ll get started with the show notes… GOH is a free resource to the Genesis Framework Community. I do not use advertisers or sponsors on the air, however I do use affiliate links in the show notes, when applicable – that allows me to recoup a part of my expenses, while not subjecting you to commercials. 🙂

Without Further Ado…

This week I had two Southern stars of the Genesis community – Andrea Whitmer of Nuts and Bolts Media and Robin Cornett, freelance designer/developer/photographer at robincornett.com. I encourage you to check out their blogs – they put out great content!

Since Andrea and Robin are both talented developers, I expected technical questions from viewers. We had a handful of those, but our conversations also wandered around client contracts, business insurance, firing clients, MailChimp, and heads on a stick.

What We Talked About

MailChimp

Re: sending RSS from Mailchimp – any tips or gotchas to share?
Question for you guys on RSS/MailChimp. I’ve got one setup for my personal site, and would like to setup another one for a separate site, related to me but more business oriented. What’s best practice, same account different list/campaign, or setup a separate mailchimp account, list/campaign?

Clients, Contracts, Insurance, etc.

Has anyone else ever fired a client? I have done 3 mockups for a client and they are still not happy… I am starting to think we have very different design styles. Should I encourage them to find another designer?
What are some signs you should fire a client?
Any recommendations for plugin for online appointment scheduling?
Do any of you have a lawyer look over your contract?
Is liability insurance essential for freelance businesses? Does everyone have it?
Where do you find your best customers?
What is your process of discovery with a new client? How do you attract new clients?
How many hours per day/ per week do you log for clients?
For how long do you give website “aftercare”? Free or paid?
Curious to everyone’s hourly rate for maintenance if they are willing to share.

Miscellaneous

So what sort of projects are you ladies working on this week?
What portion of your work week is dedicated to learning new stuff?
Carrie: How did you connect with a real estate agent for your latest stock theme?
Anyone impacted by Panda 4.0 ?
What might we do to improve the Genesis community ??
How do you overcome being “intimidated” about sharing how-to’s when others may criticize how you could have done it better?
Anyone talk about Genesis at Meetups?
Do people still comment on tutorial or just read/use it?
What is a comfortable office chair?
You may have answered this before, but what’s the best way to get on GOH? This is a goal-setting year for me 🙂

Show Notes/Links

Tools & Misc

RescueTime – helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive.
generatewp.com – Code generator using WordPress coding standards
WPMentor – be a mentor or find a mentor in the WordPress community

Seating Arrangements

Herman Miller Aeron chair – dreamy chair
Balance Ball

Tutorials & Articles

Send Images/RSS – plugin by Robin Cornett- Send full size images to your RSS feed, instead of WordPress generated smaller sizes.
Ideas Behind Responsive Emails – by Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks.com
Client Discovery Process – by Carrie Dils
WooCommerce Bookings – the best WordPress appointment solution – review by Chris Lema
2013 Genesis Framework Developer & Designer Survey Results – by Chris Strom

Custom Post Types

SuperCPT – free plugin to help with custom post types, custom post meta, and custom taxonomies
WP Types and Views – premium plugin to define custom data and design front-end templates without writing any code
Pods Framework – open source framework that allows an ordinary user or developer to easily create and extend custom post types, content types, taxonomies, users, media, or comments
Easy Content Types – premium plugin with easy to use and intuitive interface for creating custom post types, taxonomies, and meta boxes.
Types & Views tutorial – paid course by Jonathan Perez
Get Down With Custom Post Types – presentation by Robin Cornett at WordCamp Nashville 2014

Maintenance, Training, Contracts, etc.

Website Maintenance & Support Example – by Jeni Elliot
Contract Killer – open-source contract for web designers and developers
WP101 plugin – delivers a complete set of 20 professionally-produced, always up-to-date WordPress tutorial videos directly in your clients’ dashboard. Plus, you can add your own videos!
Bidsketch – What I use for writing proposals (includes boilerplate “contract” language)
QuoteRoller -What Andrea uses for writing proposals