WP Sessions ~ Developing Your WordPress Skills With Expert Help

Whatever level of WordPress developer you are, I'm pretty sure you've all wished you were a bit better at one aspect of it or another. But finding the ideal online course, or forum, or other place to get help, is never an easy task. No matter how many sites you visit, forums you frequent, and groups you turn to, nothing will beat getting advice from the top WordPress developers in the world. Following some of their blogs and such might be a good way to start, but the ideal solution would be a single location that brings together all these experts, and their expertise. That's where WP Sessions comes in.
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Whatever level of WordPress developer you are I’m pretty sure you’ve all wished you were a bit better at one aspect of it or another. But finding the ideal online course or forum to get help is never an easy task.

No matter how many sites you visit, forums you frequent, and groups you turn to, nothing will beat getting advice from the top WordPress developers in the world. Following some of their blogs might be a good way to start, but the ideal solution would be a single location that brings together all these experts and their expertise.

That ideal solution is WP Sessions.

wp-sessionsHow It Started…

Everyone has failed at something or another at one time or another, and has been looking to improve their skills in order not to let that happen again. Everyone wishes they could grow as a web developer in order to, in turn, grow their business or skill-set. This is what led to the birth of WP Sessions in the first place. It began as a project by Brian Richards to bring together WordPress experts to not only teach but also give talks about specific WordPress-related topics.

The Main Goals for WP Sessions

The main goal behind WP Sessions is to hone your skills as a developer and/or business owner. It does this by providing monthly events whereby live talks or lessons are broadcast to all attendees, who in turn also have the opportunity to ask the experts their own questions and also interact with the rest of the community members. You can ask your questions live or even submit them beforehand if you won’t be able to follow in real time.

That’s another issue that WP Sessions has dealt with. Every live session is recorded and made available to members to view at any time, starting from right after the live session ends. This way you are free to follow your desired sessions at your own convenience and your own pace.

What You Get

Once you become a member you have the choice of Sessions and Courses. Let’s start with Sessions.

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Each session can be purchased and viewed straight from the WP Sessions website. Here you have a choice of various sessions focusing on different aspects of WordPress. They range from business-related topics such as Building a WordPress Business, to code-specific lessons such as Building WordPress Plugins, and other topics like How to Give a WordCamp Presentation that Matters. All very interesting and helpful resources for every WP developer out there.

As I mentioned before, each session is presented by different people, all experts in their own fields, ranging from graphic designers to successful entrepreneurs. With each session you get a little background into who the speakers are as well as a brief look into what they will be covering. Each session consists of the talks and teachings of the particular experts in question, together with a Q&A panel in which you’re able to ask these experts any questions you might have related to that subject through a web chat.

Besides sessions you also have the Courses.

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There is currently one course available, namely Your First WordPress Plugin, with the others currently in production. Each course will go into detail to teach you the best standards and techniques for that particular subject, be it coding, using a particular WordPress plugin, or others. These are once again taught by some of the most respected experts out there, all of whom have a vast background in WordPress and have proven their worth through success.

What Else You’ll Be Getting Very Soon!

The courses currently in production are to be released by WP Sessions this fall and winter, all presented by some very well known instructors. Get ready… here is a small preview of what’s to come.

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Greg Rickaby will be presenting a course called Mastering Sass: Beginner to Expert. Sass is the elegant solution to not having to write large amounts of CSS to style every little thing on your site. Sass is gaining in popularity and Greg will take you through everything that has to do with it, from the basic building blocks up to expert design practices.

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Zack Tollman is all set to launch a course on How to Optimize WordPress Performance where he’ll be delving deep into the ways he has learnt to optimize WordPress through his vast experiences. He will start with tools to measure performance, gradually building up to optimizing the rendering path on the front-end, all at a level and pace that anyone can follow.

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Chris Lema will also be sharing his expertise with the WP Sessions members, explaining in his own way How to Build a Membership Site. This is a vast subject that has already been discussed in one of their sessions, but Chris lays it all out in an easier to understand format that helps you make better and more informed choices from the beginning to the end of your process.

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Tom McFarlin takes you through his course on Using the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate. Having been asked on countless occasions to explain how he makes the best use of his own WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Tom not only goes through it step by step but also talks about the organizational decisions that went into it.

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Brian Richards himself then gives his own contribution to the courses, delivering one on how to get Up and Running with Unit Tests. Having gone through the hassles of testing buggy code himself Brian goes through the advantages of using Unit Tests, starting from what a unit test is, then actually setting up a project with unit tests, and even delving into setting up remote, continuous resting integration.

Membership, VIP, and the Added Perks

The newest feature for WP Sessions is its VIP Memberships. With this you can delve even deeper into WP Sessions community’s teachings and you can even download the entire library for viewing at your own convenience.

A discussion area is available to all VIP members in which you are free to discuss anything you might need. Perhaps there was something you didn’t understand in one of the sessions, or you’d just like to talk to a fellow WordPress professional in some other part of the world, the discussion area is the ideal location.

Another perk to being a member is the ability to ask the experts your questions during the live training held every month. And if you’re not available for the live event itself you can ask your questions before or after and they will be answered anyway. VIP members will also soon have access to exclusive, in-depth courses regarding a wide variety of subjects.

The option to download the recorded sessions is an added bonus. This lets you follow the course at any time and any place without the need for an internet connection.

Two other features soon to be added to WP Sessions are transcripts for all the videos so you can follow what is being said (eventually the idea is to also have subtitles within the videos themselves), as well as exclusive speaker interviews. These interviews will take a more in-depth look at certain aspects of the experts lives’ and how they grew into the successful people you see today.

Affiliates, Discounts and More

While you do have to pay for the memberships and the sessions WP Sessions states that you’ll be better off financially after following these courses. First of all, there is a large variety of exclusive discounts available to all VIP members from a wide array of product and service vendors. Affiliate commissions are also available at 20%, with that percentage going up to 30% for VIP members. So basically if you successfully refer four people to this service you’re already in the black.

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Besides all that, WP Sessions bring up the point that with the knowledge and skills you can attain form this course if you take it seriously you are bound to grow as a developer and/or business owner, giving you greater opportunities to increase your income and reap the rewards of all your hard work. But this all depends on you and how much you actually want to learn and grow as a developer or business owner. Just like anything else, the more effort you put in the better the eventual outcome.

WP Sessions also offer a 110% money-back guarantee. And no, that’s not a typo. They are so confident that you will be a satisfied customer that WP Sessions are offering any customer who feels that they have not improved in their first year of membership an extra 10% in their refund.

My Personal Experience with WP Sessions So Far

I’ve been using WP Sessions for a couple of weeks now and I could safely say that it’s having a good effect so far. I don’t want to sound over-enthusiastic about it but I really am pleased with what I’ve gone through. Having had no previous experiences where I was personally in touch with any of the WP experts you find on WP sessions, I found these videos to be an encouraging start.

The first thing that struck me was the fact that I’m watching and listening to some of the most highly regarded experts in the WP world and their sessions. while professional and very informative, still feeling like a down to earth conversation that anyone can relate to.

The Q&A sessions are also a great feature. You not only get to ask your own questions to these WP gurus but you also get to listen to and read the questions posted by fellow WP users. Who knows, their questions right now might be your questions for your next project.

The discounts for members are a great perk that everyone loves and the money-back guarantee isn’t even an issue in my opinion. Though it’s good to know that these guys have so much confidence in what they’re doing.

Yes the videos are lon, and you do need to assign a certain amount of hours to get the best out of what you’re paying for, but let’s face it, wouldn’t you rather spend a few extra hours learning from the experts instead of fishing through countless blogs and forums to find what you need?

The fact that these people are taking time out of their busy schedules to help out and share their knowledge with the WP community is refreshing. You could be an experienced developer or the head of a brand spanking new start-up company, whoever you are you’ve got a lot to learn from these guys.

Head over to WP Sessions and give it a go for yourselves. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Mark is the CEO behind the WP Mayor project. He has been using WordPress since 2012, joining the WP Mayor team in 2014. Since then, he has helped to review, test, and write about hundreds of WordPress products and services; educating the community of millions of WordPress users around the globe.

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