How I Repeatedly Broke my WordPress Site

– and How I Cleaned-up The Mess

by Steve Case, AKA @JoeBugBuster

© 2001-2017 - Steve Case

About Me

HTML tinker since 2001

Micro-blogger since 2008

WordPress user since 2012

Attended my first Seattle WordPress Meetup the same year

First attended WordCamp in 2013

My site is still a work in progress

What are you Trying To Accomplish?

...Had to remind myself the same thing I sometimes remind clients

As Stephen Covey put it:

Begin with the end in mind

Permalinks

Real life examples

www.stevecase.org/blog/index.php/2012/05/low-tech-advertising-works/

stevecase.org/low-tech-advertising-works/

www.geekwire.com/2016/geek-of-the-week-steve-case/

Broken Social

Broken Hosting

•My hosting company was the weakest link

•Good at fixing what broke, but they broke it

•They didn’t understand WordPress very well

•Couldn’t move the site to the SteveCase.org root

The WordPress Community Rocks!

WP Engine to the Rescue – twice

“I have made some changes that we typically do not support, but since your site was live with broken content, I felt it was the right thing to make these changes as quickly as possible.” - WP Engine Tech Support

What about JoeBugBuster?

•Calls for a second domain

•Built an ugly site with the domain company’s site builder

•A better way…

Lessons Learned

Think “What are you trying to accomplish” before you configure the site, or even pick a domain.

Consider SEO and permalinks.

Use a host that “gets” WordPress.

If it's a personal blog, you can treat the hiccups as a learning experience. If it's your business, think harder when you make choices.

Resources

•WordPress Meetups

•meetup.com/SeattleWordPressMeetup/

• If you’re on Twitter, check-out #BlogChatSundays at 6 PM Pacific

•stevecase.org/repeatedly-broke-wordpress-web-site/

Where You Can Find Me

•@JoeBugBuster

• (Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat…)

•linkedin.com/in/sjcase/

•SteveCase.org (with or without /blog)