News

On July 11th, we held our fourth Genesis Shapers Slack meeting. As a reminder, These meetings are a great opportunity for folks to share their thoughts and ideas about Genesis. You can read the recaps of the January, February, March, April, and May meetings.

The Genesis Shapers are a hand-selected and diverse group of people representing companies from across the community who have come together to be a representative voice in the strategic direction of Genesis in addition to the feedback we receive directly from customers, across social channels, and through Genesis WP on Slack.

Included in this group are:

Bill Erickson, Carrie Dils, David Decker, Gary Jones, Greg Boser, Jennifer Bourn, Jon Brown, Jonathan Jeter, Lauren Gaige, Lee Anthony, Mike Hemberger, Nahuai Badiola, Remkus de Vries, Robin Cornett, Sara Dunn, and Sridhar Katakam.

In the Shapers meeting earlier this month, we discussed Google AMP.

David Vogelpohl, the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine and StudioPress brand lead, facilitated the conversation, and here was the meeting agenda:

• How do we build a starter child theme that every site owner and developer wants to use and contribute back to?
• What are the minimum options a starter theme generator would need to offer before you consider using it?
• Would using Genesis Sample as the generator template suffice, or would you want to see changes to Sample first? If so, what changes?
• Are there any other user options you would like to see in Genesis in the future?

Announcements

Before I get into the recap of the Shapers meeting, there are two exciting things that I wanted to share with you.

I am pleased to announce that Nahuai Badiola, Remkus de Vries, and David Decker have been added to the Genesis Shapers group.

Nahuai is the founder of C├│digo Genesis, a Spanish Genesis tutorial-based membership site. Remkus is the co-founder of WCEU, has been a champion of Genesis for many years, and is currently working with Yoast. David has built many Genesis plugins and is a core contributor to the framework as well.

I am thrilled that they have joined the group, and look forward to their insights and learning from their expertise.

In addition, I am pleased to announce that Nick Cernis will be the release lead for Genesis 3.1.

Nick has been working with us for years, and his ascension from customer support to developer has been incredible to witness. His meticulous code and creative approach to enhancing the framework is a perfect fit.

As you can see, there is a lot to be excited about these days with Genesis.

Speaking of that, at the end of June we had our in-person Genesis Shapers meeting. Unfortunately I wasnÔÇÖt able to attend the entire meeting, but I was there for the opening question and early discussion:

ÔÇ£Who/what inspires you most about the Genesis community?ÔÇØ

There was a resounding echo of answers, and for the most part, each participant said the same thing: The willingness to give back within the community, and to go above and beyond the call of duty to help others at any given moment.

This didnÔÇÖt come as a surprise to meÔÇönot one bit. In fact, it was the exact same answer I would have given as well. Pure and simple, the generosity inside the Genesis community is unmatched in the WordPress space, and I could not be any prouder.

Now onto the Genesis Shapers recap…

Genesis Starter Theme

David kicked off the meeting by asking this:

ÔÇ£How do we build a starter child theme that every site owner and developer wants to use and contribute back to? If you currently use your own starter theme, would you be interested in a theme generator (website and command line tools) that takes the tedious first steps out of building a new Genesis child theme?ÔÇØ

Mike Hemberger started with this:

So many people have their own workflow so many different tools, flows, styles, etc highly unlikely youd have one. But if its basic/simple enough, but more powerful than Sample, it could be worth it for basic stuff or new devs with Genesis.

Bill Erickson added:

ÔÇ£I personally wouldnÔÇÖt use a theme generator because I like being in control of my starter theme, constantly making tweaks. But I think the idea of a Genesis starter theme generator is excellent and would be very helpful for those looking to start building their own Genesis themes. Something simple like selecting which layouts should be available, whether or not to include accessibility and gutenberg functionality, stuff like that.ÔÇØ

And then Remkus shared his thoughts:

ÔÇ£For those who _do_ use Genesis Sample as a basis, having the option to rename everything automagically before while they actually download a version is a huge time saver.ÔÇØ

Robin Cornett had a simple requestÔÇöone that I have been pushed for over the yearsÔÇöand something that Lauren Gaige agreed with:

ÔÇ£I would love to see published standards, or at least recommendations, for child themes.ÔÇØ

David Decker chimed in:

ÔÇ£For new users, and Site Builders / Non-Coders a Generator like ÔÇ£GenerateWP.comÔÇØ (one working example) would be fine, absolutely. I personally use ÔÇ£SampleÔÇØ as for me it is enough most of the time.ÔÇØ

It was great to see the new Shapers embracing their role and contributing to the conversation. Their perspective is much appreciated, and look forward to see that in future meetings.

Genesis Starter Theme Generator

After a number of responses, David Vogelpohl asked:

ÔÇ£So all these responses beg the next question…. What are the minimum options a starter theme generator would need to offer before you consider using it?ÔÇØ

Gary Jones jumped in immediately:

ÔÇ£Answer: you donÔÇÖt. A starter theme is just the end product. The real value is in identifying the _processes everyone uses to build themes_, and create something that can cater for that.ÔÇØ

David Decker had some interesting insights:

ÔÇ£I think a generator is only one alternative Genesis should offer. Genesis targets to a lot of developers, site builders, even non-coders.ÔÇØ

From Bill Erickson:

ÔÇ£I see the theme generator as a stepping stone for those looking to move beyond StudioPress themes and build their own. It will help show them how to setup the basics of what they need. And it would deliver a leaner version of Genesis Sample based on specific needs. I donÔÇÖt work on ecommerce sites, so I donÔÇÖt need all the WooCommerce code in Genesis Sample. I do build AMP sites so IÔÇÖd keep ÔÇÿAMP SupportÔÇÖ checked.ÔÇØ

Lastly, from Remkus:

ÔÇ£I donÔÇÖt think we should expect it to solve everyoneÔÇÖs problem per se. What it will do for sure is make the first steps of customizing a theme more convenient.ÔÇØ

I think the general consensusÔÇöand what we can take away from this conversationÔÇöis that we want to provide tools which enable quicker deployment and consequently allow folks to build sites faster.

Genesis 3.1 Roadmap

David Vogelpohl transitioned us away from Genesis Starter Theme/Generators to the future with Genesis 3.1:

ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre starting to add additional user options in Genesis 3.1 (title and breadcrumb toggles in the block editor settings, layout options moving to the block editor, option to change footer credits text via the Customizer). Are there any other user options you would like to see in Genesis in the future?ÔÇØ

Specifically addressing the footer credits change, Mike suggested:

ÔÇ£If weÔÇÖre moving footer credits in, I think adding post meta/info settings in (the other stuff from Genesis Simple Edits) makes sense. Not as asked for, but footer credits and how to change post meta (author/comments/etc) stuff are things we are asked about  in support all the time.ÔÇØ

And Bill mentioned:

ÔÇ£If you plan to add footer creditsÔÇöamong other thingsÔÇöinto the framework, I think a general `remove_theme_support( ‘genesis-simple-edits’ );` should remove them, for those of us who donÔÇÖt want them Rather than having to remove each new addition with every new release.ÔÇØ

David asked this question:

ÔÇ£How far should Genesis take all of this? (Would control over fonts be going too far, for example?)ÔÇØ

His question was met with a resounding echo:

ÔÇ£Yes fonts, colors, etc is too far IMO.ÔÇØ

And this:

ÔÇ£As someone who wrote the abandoned Prose 2, yes, fonts and formatting are too much.ÔÇØ

This led to a lengthy conversation around functionality/options being made available a pluginÔÇöor suite of plugins, ala Jetpack. Of course, there are a lot of ways to skin this cat, because the variety in user typesÔÇöfrom novice bloggers to developersÔÇöneeds to be considered.

We finished the meeting with some conversation around performance, which I know will play a key role in the future of Genesis and future meetings.

Recap

As Genesis continues to evolve, the future seems bright. I know that our team is busy working on bug fixes, enhancements, and listening to feedback from the Shapers as well as other members of the community.

Of course, a lot will be determined as future iterations of Gutenberg are deployed. As some of these changes make their way into WordPress Core, weÔÇÖll be following along so we can ensure seamless integration and optimal experiences for our users.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

On July 11th, we held our fourth Genesis Shapers Slack meeting. As a reminder, These meetings are a great opportunity for folks to share their thoughts and ideas about Genesis. You can read the recaps of the January, February, March, April, and May meetings.

The Genesis Shapers are a hand-selected and diverse group of people representing companies from across the community who have come together to be a representative voice in the strategic direction of Genesis in addition to the feedback we receive directly from customers, across social channels, and through Genesis WP on Slack.

Included in this group are:

Bill Erickson, Carrie Dils, David Decker, Gary Jones, Greg Boser, Jennifer Bourn, Jon Brown, Jonathan Jeter, Lauren Gaige, Lee Anthony, Mike Hemberger, Nahuai Badiola, Remkus de Vries, Robin Cornett, Sara Dunn, and Sridhar Katakam.

In the Shapers meeting earlier this month, we discussed Google AMP.

David Vogelpohl, the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine and StudioPress brand lead, facilitated the conversation, and here was the meeting agenda:

• How do we build a starter child theme that every site owner and developer wants to use and contribute back to?
• What are the minimum options a starter theme generator would need to offer before you consider using it?
• Would using Genesis Sample as the generator template suffice, or would you want to see changes to Sample first? If so, what changes?
• Are there any other user options you would like to see in Genesis in the future?

Announcements

Before I get into the recap of the Shapers meeting, there are two exciting things that I wanted to share with you.

I am pleased to announce that Nahuai Badiola, Remkus de Vries, and David Decker have been added to the Genesis Shapers group.

Nahuai is the founder of C├│digo Genesis, a Spanish Genesis tutorial-based membership site. Remkus is the co-founder of WCEU, has been a champion of Genesis for many years, and is currently working with Yoast. David has built many Genesis plugins and is a core contributor to the framework as well.

I am thrilled that they have joined the group, and look forward to their insights and learning from their expertise.

In addition, I am pleased to announce that Nick Cernis will be the release lead for Genesis 3.1.

Nick has been working with us for years, and his ascension from customer support to developer has been incredible to witness. His meticulous code and creative approach to enhancing the framework is a perfect fit.

As you can see, there is a lot to be excited about these days with Genesis.

Speaking of that, at the end of June we had our in-person Genesis Shapers meeting. Unfortunately I wasnÔÇÖt able to attend the entire meeting, but I was there for the opening question and early discussion:

ÔÇ£Who/what inspires you most about the Genesis community?ÔÇØ

There was a resounding echo of answers, and for the most part, each participant said the same thing: The willingness to give back within the community, and to go above and beyond the call of duty to help others at any given moment.

This didnÔÇÖt come as a surprise to meÔÇönot one bit. In fact, it was the exact same answer I would have given as well. Pure and simple, the generosity inside the Genesis community is unmatched in the WordPress space, and I could not be any prouder.

Now onto the Genesis Shapers recap…

Genesis Starter Theme

David kicked off the meeting by asking this:

ÔÇ£How do we build a starter child theme that every site owner and developer wants to use and contribute back to? If you currently use your own starter theme, would you be interested in a theme generator (website and command line tools) that takes the tedious first steps out of building a new Genesis child theme?ÔÇØ

Mike Hemberger started with this:

So many people have their own workflow so many different tools, flows, styles, etc highly unlikely youd have one. But if its basic/simple enough, but more powerful than Sample, it could be worth it for basic stuff or new devs with Genesis.

Bill Erickson added:

ÔÇ£I personally wouldnÔÇÖt use a theme generator because I like being in control of my starter theme, constantly making tweaks. But I think the idea of a Genesis starter theme generator is excellent and would be very helpful for those looking to start building their own Genesis themes. Something simple like selecting which layouts should be available, whether or not to include accessibility and gutenberg functionality, stuff like that.ÔÇØ

And then Remkus shared his thoughts:

ÔÇ£For those who _do_ use Genesis Sample as a basis, having the option to rename everything automagically before while they actually download a version is a huge time saver.ÔÇØ

Robin Cornett had a simple requestÔÇöone that I have been pushed for over the yearsÔÇöand something that Lauren Gaige agreed with:

ÔÇ£I would love to see published standards, or at least recommendations, for child themes.ÔÇØ

David Decker chimed in:

ÔÇ£For new users, and Site Builders / Non-Coders a Generator like ÔÇ£GenerateWP.comÔÇØ (one working example) would be fine, absolutely. I personally use ÔÇ£SampleÔÇØ as for me it is enough most of the time.ÔÇØ

It was great to see the new Shapers embracing their role and contributing to the conversation. Their perspective is much appreciated, and look forward to see that in future meetings.

Genesis Starter Theme Generator

After a number of responses, David Vogelpohl asked:

ÔÇ£So all these responses beg the next question…. What are the minimum options a starter theme generator would need to offer before you consider using it?ÔÇØ

Gary Jones jumped in immediately:

ÔÇ£Answer: you donÔÇÖt. A starter theme is just the end product. The real value is in identifying the _processes everyone uses to build themes_, and create something that can cater for that.ÔÇØ

David Decker had some interesting insights:

ÔÇ£I think a generator is only one alternative Genesis should offer. Genesis targets to a lot of developers, site builders, even non-coders.ÔÇØ

From Bill Erickson:

ÔÇ£I see the theme generator as a stepping stone for those looking to move beyond StudioPress themes and build their own. It will help show them how to setup the basics of what they need. And it would deliver a leaner version of Genesis Sample based on specific needs. I donÔÇÖt work on ecommerce sites, so I donÔÇÖt need all the WooCommerce code in Genesis Sample. I do build AMP sites so IÔÇÖd keep ÔÇÿAMP SupportÔÇÖ checked.ÔÇØ

Lastly, from Remkus:

ÔÇ£I donÔÇÖt think we should expect it to solve everyoneÔÇÖs problem per se. What it will do for sure is make the first steps of customizing a theme more convenient.ÔÇØ

I think the general consensusÔÇöand what we can take away from this conversationÔÇöis that we want to provide tools which enable quicker deployment and consequently allow folks to build sites faster.

Genesis 3.1 Roadmap

David Vogelpohl transitioned us away from Genesis Starter Theme/Generators to the future with Genesis 3.1:

ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre starting to add additional user options in Genesis 3.1 (title and breadcrumb toggles in the block editor settings, layout options moving to the block editor, option to change footer credits text via the Customizer). Are there any other user options you would like to see in Genesis in the future?ÔÇØ

Specifically addressing the footer credits change, Mike suggested:

ÔÇ£If weÔÇÖre moving footer credits in, I think adding post meta/info settings in (the other stuff from Genesis Simple Edits) makes sense. Not as asked for, but footer credits and how to change post meta (author/comments/etc) stuff are things we are asked about  in support all the time.ÔÇØ

And Bill mentioned:

ÔÇ£If you plan to add footer creditsÔÇöamong other thingsÔÇöinto the framework, I think a general `remove_theme_support( ‘genesis-simple-edits’ );` should remove them, for those of us who donÔÇÖt want them Rather than having to remove each new addition with every new release.ÔÇØ

David asked this question:

ÔÇ£How far should Genesis take all of this? (Would control over fonts be going too far, for example?)ÔÇØ

His question was met with a resounding echo:

ÔÇ£Yes fonts, colors, etc is too far IMO.ÔÇØ

And this:

ÔÇ£As someone who wrote the abandoned Prose 2, yes, fonts and formatting are too much.ÔÇØ

This led to a lengthy conversation around functionality/options being made available a pluginÔÇöor suite of plugins, ala Jetpack. Of course, there are a lot of ways to skin this cat, because the variety in user typesÔÇöfrom novice bloggers to developersÔÇöneeds to be considered.

We finished the meeting with some conversation around performance, which I know will play a key role in the future of Genesis and future meetings.

Recap

As Genesis continues to evolve, the future seems bright. I know that our team is busy working on bug fixes, enhancements, and listening to feedback from the Shapers as well as other members of the community.

Of course, a lot will be determined as future iterations of Gutenberg are deployed. As some of these changes make their way into WordPress Core, weÔÇÖll be following along so we can ensure seamless integration and optimal experiences for our users.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

If you were considering taking up our $100 off Pro Plus offer, today is the last day to save!

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Due to all the big WP Engine news lately, I am sure many people are feeling a little overwhelmed. With that in mind, we decided to extend our $100 off Pro Plus offer an extra week!

What’s the news?

• Smart Plugin Manager – The Biggest Headache in WordPress, Solved
• Hubspot Partnership – Hubspot integration, baked in
• and probably the biggest news of all … Flywheel Acquisition!

That offer again …

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Due to all the big WP Engine news lately, I am sure many people are feeling a little overwhelmed. With that in mind, we decided to extend our $100 off Pro Plus offer an extra week!

What’s the news?

• Smart Plugin Manager – The Biggest Headache in WordPress, Solved
• Hubspot Partnership – Hubspot integration, baked in
• and probably the biggest news of all … Flywheel Acquisition!

That offer again …

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

To celebrate the release of Genesis 3.0, an incredible update to Atomic Blocks, and a ton of amazing community events in June we have decided to offer steep discounts on ProPlus packages! Scroll to the bottom for details on the offer and even options for getting themes for free. Keep reading to see why weÔÇÖre celebrating.

Genesis 3.0 + AMP

The new leaner, more capable Genesis 3.0 is here.

You can check out the changes in the changelog but the biggest addition is full Google AMP compatibility which allows you to achieve potentially faster page speed and better search visibility for those who need it! AMP capabilities are opt-in in Genesis. If you donÔÇÖt want to use AMP, you donÔÇÖt have to.

More Atomic Blocks Goodness

In addition to the freshly launched Genesis 3.0, I am thrilled to announce the amazing Atomic Blocks has also received an update to ensure AMP compatibility!

Now not only can your themes be AMP compatible, but so can your blocks. Keep an eye out for even more exciting and game-changing updates to Atomic Blocks coming soon!

Find information about all the changes here.

Join the Genesis community at WordCamp EU

We have a ton of things planned to support the community and bring everyone together during WordCamp EU. If youÔÇÖre planning on attending, donÔÇÖt miss these exciting opportunities to join others from the Genesis community.

Register now to join leaders and influencers from around the Genesis community at our WP Engine / Genesis Community party on 21 June 2019.

As is now tradition, we would love for you and any of your Genesis community friends, to join us for a photograph at our WordCamp Europe booth, Saturday 22nd of June at 11am. Below is our Genesis community from WordCamp US. WeÔÇÖre hoping for an even bigger group at WCEU. We hope to see you there!

Meet us in Austin at the WP Engine Summit

Several of us will be presenting, demoing or just hanging out at the WP Engine Summit, June 24-26, 2019 Fairmont Hotel, Austin, TX – if you are also going to be there, make sure you say hi!

Heres a Gift to Celebrate: Get $100 off Pro Plus until Wednesday, June 26th, 8pm EST 

1. Take $100 off the Pro Plus All Themes package, which includes every single theme we make, now and in the future, plus 29 third-party themes.
2. Are you an agency or freelancer? Join the WP Engine agency program and get a free WP Engine account with unlimited staging sites for your customers, free StudioPress themes & support, and a listing in the WP Engine agency directory to help you get leads for your business.
3. Sign up for the Annual Starter plan at WP Engine, and get all our StudioPress theme packages plus 4 months free with WP Engine!

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

To celebrate the release of Genesis 3.0, an incredible update to Atomic Blocks, and a ton of amazing community events in June we have decided to offer steep discounts on ProPlus packages! Scroll to the bottom for details on the offer and even options for getting themes for free. Keep reading to see why weÔÇÖre celebrating.

Genesis 3.0 + AMP

The new leaner, more capable Genesis 3.0 is here.

You can check out the changes in the changelog but the biggest addition is full Google AMP compatibility which allows you to achieve potentially faster page speed and better search visibility for those who need it! AMP capabilities are opt-in in Genesis. If you donÔÇÖt want to use AMP, you donÔÇÖt have to.

More Atomic Blocks Goodness

In addition to the freshly launched Genesis 3.0, I am thrilled to announce the amazing Atomic Blocks has also received an update to ensure AMP compatibility!

Now not only can your themes be AMP compatible, but so can your blocks. Keep an eye out for even more exciting and game-changing updates to Atomic Blocks coming soon!

Find information about all the changes here.

Join the Genesis community at WordCamp EU

We have a ton of things planned to support the community and bring everyone together during WordCamp EU. If youÔÇÖre planning on attending, donÔÇÖt miss these exciting opportunities to join others from the Genesis community.

Register now to join leaders and influencers from around the Genesis community at our WP Engine / Genesis Community party on 21 June 2019.

As is now tradition, we would love for you and any of your Genesis community friends, to join us for a photograph at our WordCamp Europe booth, Saturday 22nd of June at 11am. Below is our Genesis community from WordCamp US. WeÔÇÖre hoping for an even bigger group at WCEU. We hope to see you there!

Meet us in Austin at the WP Engine Summit

Several of us will be presenting, demoing or just hanging out at the WP Engine Summit, June 24-26, 2019 Fairmont Hotel, Austin, TX – if you are also going to be there, make sure you say hi!

Heres a Gift to Celebrate: Get $100 off Pro Plus until Wednesday, June 26th, 8pm EST 

1. Take $100 off the Pro Plus All Themes package, which includes every single theme we make, now and in the future, plus 29 third-party themes.
2. Are you an agency or freelancer? Join the WP Engine agency program and get a free WP Engine account with unlimited staging sites for your customers, free StudioPress themes & support, and a listing in the WP Engine agency directory to help you get leads for your business.
3. Sign up for the Annual Starter plan at WP Engine, and get all our StudioPress theme packages plus 4 months free with WP Engine!

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

On May 9th, we held our fourth Genesis Shapers Slack meeting. As a reminder, These meetings are a great opportunity for folks to share their thoughts and ideas about Genesis. You can read the recaps of the January, February, March, and April meetings.

The Genesis Shapers are a hand-selected and diverse group of people representing companies from across the community who have come together to be a representative voice in the strategic direction of Genesis in addition to the feedback we receive directly from customers, across social channels, and through Genesis WP on Slack.

Included in this group are:

Bill Erickson, Carrie Dils, Gary Jones, Greg Boser, Jennifer Bourn, Jon Brown, Jonathan Jeter, Lauren Gaige, Lee Anthony, Mike Hemberger, Robin Cornett, Sara Dunn, Sridhar Katakam, and Tonya Mork.

In the Shapers meeting earlier this month, we discussed Google AMP.

David Vogelpohl, the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine and StudioPress brand lead, facilitated the conversation, and here was the meeting agenda:

• How much demand do you have from clients for WooCommerce sites?
• What could we be doing better with WooCommerce?
• In addition to Schema, what could we be doing better with Yoast?
• What other plugin integrations should we be doing a better job with?
• What other technologies could be integrated with Genesis that are important to Genesis developers?

Demand for WooCommerce Sites

With the rise of WordPress and eCommerce websites over the past few years, this question/topic was definitely something that I was interested in.

David led the conversation by asking the shapers ÔÇ£How much demand do you have from clients for WooCommerce sites?ÔÇØ

Bill Erickson jumped right in:

ÔÇ£I get a fair number of inquiries for ecommerce sites (most donÔÇÖt ask for WC by name) but I personally pass on them.ÔÇØ

When asked why, Bill said:

ÔÇØI havenÔÇÖt had the time to learn WooCommerce deeply and would rather have an ecommerce expert handle that portion. IÔÇÖll often partner with Justin Sainton from Zao – his team handles ecommerce, we do the theme development.ÔÇØ

Jon Brown from 9seeds added:

ÔÇ£We avoid(ed) eCommerce for a long time too, favored membership a lotÔǪ  Now weÔÇÖve kind of come around and do a lot of straight eCommerce/WooCommerce website builds.ÔÇØ

There was additional conversation around WooCommerce websites, which was great to see. Obviously a need exists in our space, and it is being filled by some of the Shapers.

Lauren Gaige continued the conversation:

ÔÇ£For me, IÔÇÖd say about 75% of my customers have WooCommerce already or plan to put it on their site in the very near future.ÔÇ£

And Mike Hemberger echoed that:

ÔÇ£About 50-75% of our clients use Woo. Many of those are Membership sites, and we love WooMemberships.ÔÇ£

Jennifer Bourn also said:

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm seeing a large increase in inquiries about eCommerce in general and Woo is the most widely requested when they have a specific request. In our local meetup community, lots of people are interested in eCommerce, but few actually have an eCommerce site or Commerce plugins installed. (We just asked this on Tuesday to a room of about 70)ÔÇØ

Aside from WooCommerce, it seems as though the other alternative recommended by Shapers is Shopify. For grins I signed up for a Shopify site and was amazed at 1) how easy it was to sign up and 2) how good it looked out of the box.

Sara Dunn had this to say:

ÔÇ£I honestly tend to refer eCommerce only sites to Shopify, but thatÔÇÖs probably a different conversation. Too many things to configure and that need to be tacked on with WooCommerce, in my opinion. The b advantage with Shopify having their own support and not so many plugins that can break each other.ÔÇØ

To round out this part of the conversation about the demand from clients for eCommerce websites, Jonathan Jeter of Click Here Labs said:

ÔÇ£We do both WooCommerce and Shopify. Currently working on Shopify certification to use their API to integrate with sites we build.ÔÇØ

Genesis and WooCommerce Compatibility

David transitioned us into conversation Genesis and WooCommerce:

Sticking to Woo though What could we (Genesis) be doing better with WooCommerce?

Carrie Dils jumped in:

ÔÇ£Theme-wise, more of them with support for WooCommerce styles. ItÔÇÖd be nice if WooCommerce scripts only loaded on pages where theyÔÇÖre needed, but thatÔÇÖs a feature that belongs in Woo, not Genesis.ÔÇØ

Robin Cornett suggested:

ÔÇ£I would like to feel like the Genesis Connect plugin is more actively supported/maintained. I am sure I don’t have a great handle on it, but it doesn’t seem to be at this point.ÔÇØ

Jennifer Bourn added:

ÔÇ£Themes that account for the WooCommerce styles and require less custom code to customize and more small CSS tweaks are much more appealing because it saves us time and it reduces project cost and make the projects more affordable for the client.ÔÇØ

Mike had some words of wisdom here:

ÔÇ£It does feel a bit weird that Genesis doesnÔÇÖt work with WooCommerce out of the box, but IÔÇÖd be nervous to get it in core because the pace of releases. If an update is needed for Woo compat, then a G Connect update could be out way faster.ÔÇØ

Sidenote: I agree with Mike 100% about inclusion into Genesis Core, for the very reason he stated.

There was some really good perspective given in this part of the discussion, and one very interesting comment came from Jon Brown:

ÔÇ£A large number (50% of first time support tickets) are because they havenÔÇÖt installed and activated Genesis Connect.ÔÇØ

This lead to some back-and-forth dialogue around the one-click setup feature that weÔÇÖve added to Genesis this year.

David summarized things well here:

ÔÇ£So to summarize these thoughts, Genesis Connect is the go-to approach, it needs some love, and it’s possible pulling Connect into core could be a good idea, but tricky…also detecting/alerting about Connect might also be helpful.ÔÇØ

Genesis Compatibility with Yoast

David introduced this segment by asking, ÔÇ£In addition to Schema, what could we be doing better with Yoast?ÔÇØ

Bill had some happy words to say:

ÔÇ£Other than Schema, Genesis works perfectly with Yoast.ÔÇØ

To which Mike agreed:

ÔÇ£I think Schema is it too.ÔÇØ

Bill continued with some really helpful suggestions:

ÔÇ£1. Simple way to disable Genesis schema, either with a filter or theme supports. I think filter is best because plugins would be interacting with it, not themes.

2. Consider how best to step out of the way when a plugin provides Schema, in the same way we remove SEO metaboxes and breadcrumbs.

Genesis and Other Plugins

We moved the conversation away from Yoast, and opened it up to include any plugins. David asked:

ÔÇ£What other plugin integrations should we be doing a better job with?ÔÇØ

Carrie asked:

ÔÇ£Insights on how many Genesis users have Easy Digital Downloads installed? There are similar issues ÔÇÿconnectingÔÇÖ EDD to Genesis as with WooCommerce.ÔÇØ

David responded:

ÔÇ£As an FYI, I spoke to Sandhills just yesterday about EDD and Genesis. We’re kicking off some testing.ÔÇØ

ThatÔÇÖs good news, yÔÇÖall!

Jennifer asked a question that I resonated with:

ÔÇ£Has anyone thought about disabling things like comments, emojis, etc? We install those plugins on quite a few sites and it would be awesome to have that option at the get-go to turn those off and not need the plugins.ÔÇØ

I donÔÇÖt know that thereÔÇÖs much we can do in Genesis for this, but as a person who advocates for less, I see where the question comes from.

Additional Technologies with Genesis

As we were drawing close to the allotted time, David asked this final question:

ÔÇ£What other technologies (not plugins) could be integrated with Genesis that are important to Genesis developers?ÔÇØ

Bill suggested:

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖd love to see a CSS Tree Shaker plugin. Now that IÔÇÖve been working on AMP sites itÔÇÖs been incredibly useful for keeping css size down. Basically the AMP plugin, without AMP and the 50kb restriction.ÔÇØ

Jon added:

Id be curious if StudioPress/Genesis is/has dug into modern responsive image handling stuff . and if genesis_get_image() etc could be more modern in its approaches.

There are ways to do this via a filter, as Mike pointed out, and will defer to Nathan and the engineering team to decide if this is something that can be accomodated.

Recap

This was (yet) another great Genesis Shapers meeting, and I am always thrilled to see how much conversation we have around certain things. ItÔÇÖs obvious to me that those who design and develop with Genesis are met with many challengesÔÇöfrom client requests to limitations with software.

I love to hear about the process Shapers take to address these challenges, and certainly appreciate the time and energy they put into being a part of this group and the feedback that is given.

As David pointed out, it seems as though this meeting might have left us with more questions than when we started, but in my opinion, thatÔÇÖs not a bad thing.

Genesis 3.0 is coming June 19th, and we couldnÔÇÖt be more excited.

This release has been months in the making, and weÔÇÖre thrilled to share with you some details about the release, what you can do today to prepare for this version, as well as run the beta a full 3 weeks before the official reveal.

Click here for more information.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

On May 9th, we held our fourth Genesis Shapers Slack meeting. As a reminder, These meetings are a great opportunity for folks to share their thoughts and ideas about Genesis. You can read the recaps of the January, February, March, and April meetings.

The Genesis Shapers are a hand-selected and diverse group of people representing companies from across the community who have come together to be a representative voice in the strategic direction of Genesis in addition to the feedback we receive directly from customers, across social channels, and through Genesis WP on Slack.

Included in this group are:

Bill Erickson, Carrie Dils, Gary Jones, Greg Boser, Jennifer Bourn, Jon Brown, Jonathan Jeter, Lauren Gaige, Lee Anthony, Mike Hemberger, Robin Cornett, Sara Dunn, Sridhar Katakam, and Tonya Mork.

In the Shapers meeting earlier this month, we discussed Google AMP.

David Vogelpohl, the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine and StudioPress brand lead, facilitated the conversation, and here was the meeting agenda:

• How much demand do you have from clients for WooCommerce sites?
• What could we be doing better with WooCommerce?
• In addition to Schema, what could we be doing better with Yoast?
• What other plugin integrations should we be doing a better job with?
• What other technologies could be integrated with Genesis that are important to Genesis developers?

Demand for WooCommerce Sites

With the rise of WordPress and eCommerce websites over the past few years, this question/topic was definitely something that I was interested in.

David led the conversation by asking the shapers ÔÇ£How much demand do you have from clients for WooCommerce sites?ÔÇØ

Bill Erickson jumped right in:

ÔÇ£I get a fair number of inquiries for ecommerce sites (most donÔÇÖt ask for WC by name) but I personally pass on them.ÔÇØ

When asked why, Bill said:

ÔÇØI havenÔÇÖt had the time to learn WooCommerce deeply and would rather have an ecommerce expert handle that portion. IÔÇÖll often partner with Justin Sainton from Zao – his team handles ecommerce, we do the theme development.ÔÇØ

Jon Brown from 9seeds added:

ÔÇ£We avoid(ed) eCommerce for a long time too, favored membership a lotÔǪ  Now weÔÇÖve kind of come around and do a lot of straight eCommerce/WooCommerce website builds.ÔÇØ

There was additional conversation around WooCommerce websites, which was great to see. Obviously a need exists in our space, and it is being filled by some of the Shapers.

Lauren Gaige continued the conversation:

ÔÇ£For me, IÔÇÖd say about 75% of my customers have WooCommerce already or plan to put it on their site in the very near future.ÔÇ£

And Mike Hemberger echoed that:

ÔÇ£About 50-75% of our clients use Woo. Many of those are Membership sites, and we love WooMemberships.ÔÇ£

Jennifer Bourn also said:

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm seeing a large increase in inquiries about eCommerce in general and Woo is the most widely requested when they have a specific request. In our local meetup community, lots of people are interested in eCommerce, but few actually have an eCommerce site or Commerce plugins installed. (We just asked this on Tuesday to a room of about 70)ÔÇØ

Aside from WooCommerce, it seems as though the other alternative recommended by Shapers is Shopify. For grins I signed up for a Shopify site and was amazed at 1) how easy it was to sign up and 2) how good it looked out of the box.

Sara Dunn had this to say:

ÔÇ£I honestly tend to refer eCommerce only sites to Shopify, but thatÔÇÖs probably a different conversation. Too many things to configure and that need to be tacked on with WooCommerce, in my opinion. The b advantage with Shopify having their own support and not so many plugins that can break each other.ÔÇØ

To round out this part of the conversation about the demand from clients for eCommerce websites, Jonathan Jeter of Click Here Labs said:

ÔÇ£We do both WooCommerce and Shopify. Currently working on Shopify certification to use their API to integrate with sites we build.ÔÇØ

Genesis and WooCommerce Compatibility

David transitioned us into conversation Genesis and WooCommerce:

Sticking to Woo though What could we (Genesis) be doing better with WooCommerce?

Carrie Dils jumped in:

ÔÇ£Theme-wise, more of them with support for WooCommerce styles. ItÔÇÖd be nice if WooCommerce scripts only loaded on pages where theyÔÇÖre needed, but thatÔÇÖs a feature that belongs in Woo, not Genesis.ÔÇØ

Robin Cornett suggested:

ÔÇ£I would like to feel like the Genesis Connect plugin is more actively supported/maintained. I am sure I don’t have a great handle on it, but it doesn’t seem to be at this point.ÔÇØ

Jennifer Bourn added:

ÔÇ£Themes that account for the WooCommerce styles and require less custom code to customize and more small CSS tweaks are much more appealing because it saves us time and it reduces project cost and make the projects more affordable for the client.ÔÇØ

Mike had some words of wisdom here:

ÔÇ£It does feel a bit weird that Genesis doesnÔÇÖt work with WooCommerce out of the box, but IÔÇÖd be nervous to get it in core because the pace of releases. If an update is needed for Woo compat, then a G Connect update could be out way faster.ÔÇØ

Sidenote: I agree with Mike 100% about inclusion into Genesis Core, for the very reason he stated.

There was some really good perspective given in this part of the discussion, and one very interesting comment came from Jon Brown:

ÔÇ£A large number (50% of first time support tickets) are because they havenÔÇÖt installed and activated Genesis Connect.ÔÇØ

This lead to some back-and-forth dialogue around the one-click setup feature that weÔÇÖve added to Genesis this year.

David summarized things well here:

ÔÇ£So to summarize these thoughts, Genesis Connect is the go-to approach, it needs some love, and it’s possible pulling Connect into core could be a good idea, but tricky…also detecting/alerting about Connect might also be helpful.ÔÇØ

Genesis Compatibility with Yoast

David introduced this segment by asking, ÔÇ£In addition to Schema, what could we be doing better with Yoast?ÔÇØ

Bill had some happy words to say:

ÔÇ£Other than Schema, Genesis works perfectly with Yoast.ÔÇØ

To which Mike agreed:

ÔÇ£I think Schema is it too.ÔÇØ

Bill continued with some really helpful suggestions:

ÔÇ£1. Simple way to disable Genesis schema, either with a filter or theme supports. I think filter is best because plugins would be interacting with it, not themes.

2. Consider how best to step out of the way when a plugin provides Schema, in the same way we remove SEO metaboxes and breadcrumbs.

Genesis and Other Plugins

We moved the conversation away from Yoast, and opened it up to include any plugins. David asked:

ÔÇ£What other plugin integrations should we be doing a better job with?ÔÇØ

Carrie asked:

ÔÇ£Insights on how many Genesis users have Easy Digital Downloads installed? There are similar issues ÔÇÿconnectingÔÇÖ EDD to Genesis as with WooCommerce.ÔÇØ

David responded:

ÔÇ£As an FYI, I spoke to Sandhills just yesterday about EDD and Genesis. We’re kicking off some testing.ÔÇØ

ThatÔÇÖs good news, yÔÇÖall!

Jennifer asked a question that I resonated with:

ÔÇ£Has anyone thought about disabling things like comments, emojis, etc? We install those plugins on quite a few sites and it would be awesome to have that option at the get-go to turn those off and not need the plugins.ÔÇØ

I donÔÇÖt know that thereÔÇÖs much we can do in Genesis for this, but as a person who advocates for less, I see where the question comes from.

Additional Technologies with Genesis

As we were drawing close to the allotted time, David asked this final question:

ÔÇ£What other technologies (not plugins) could be integrated with Genesis that are important to Genesis developers?ÔÇØ

Bill suggested:

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖd love to see a CSS Tree Shaker plugin. Now that IÔÇÖve been working on AMP sites itÔÇÖs been incredibly useful for keeping css size down. Basically the AMP plugin, without AMP and the 50kb restriction.ÔÇØ

Jon added:

Id be curious if StudioPress/Genesis is/has dug into modern responsive image handling stuff . and if genesis_get_image() etc could be more modern in its approaches.

There are ways to do this via a filter, as Mike pointed out, and will defer to Nathan and the engineering team to decide if this is something that can be accomodated.

Recap

This was (yet) another great Genesis Shapers meeting, and I am always thrilled to see how much conversation we have around certain things. ItÔÇÖs obvious to me that those who design and develop with Genesis are met with many challengesÔÇöfrom client requests to limitations with software.

I love to hear about the process Shapers take to address these challenges, and certainly appreciate the time and energy they put into being a part of this group and the feedback that is given.

As David pointed out, it seems as though this meeting might have left us with more questions than when we started, but in my opinion, thatÔÇÖs not a bad thing.

Genesis 3.0 is coming June 19th, and we couldnÔÇÖt be more excited.

This release has been months in the making, and weÔÇÖre thrilled to share with you some details about the release, what you can do today to prepare for this version, as well as run the beta a full 3 weeks before the official reveal.

Click here for more information.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Are you struggling to find ways to improve your freelance/agency profits or simply looking for ways to get your web design projects done faster?

Reducing your time to get projects kicked-off can not only drastically improve your profit per project, it can help you deliver projects faster, resulting in happier customers who continue to order more and more from you.

In this article, we will explore how you can use the new Genesis one-click theme setup feature available in StudioPressÔÇÖ newest themes (which may be freely available to you) to get a huge head start on your projects by setting up a theme, beautiful block-based demo content, and required plugins in under 30 seconds. Really!

Skip ahead to check out StudioPress themes which currently include the one-click theme setup feature.

What is the one-click theme setup feature?

Released in early 2019, the Genesis one-click theme setup feature allows any Genesis theme developer to configure theme demo content and dependent plugins to load automatically when someone first activates the theme. You can use a one-click setup feature in Genesis themes from StudioPress, other theme companies using Genesis, or you can create your own.

The one-click theme setup feature often turns hours, days, weeks, and even months of setup time into an automated process that takes seconds. Check out this real-time gif of our newest theme Revolution Pro loading in under 30 seconds (No video edits or 2x playback. It really is this fast!)

Which StudioPress marketplace themes support one-click theme setup?

Since the one-click theme setup feature was introduced, the newly expanded StudioPress R&D team has been working on adding the feature to all the StudioPress-owned themes and working with third-party theme providers in the StudioPress marketplace to do the same with their themes.

As of todayÔÇÖs date, these are all the themes in the StudioPress marketplace which you can use to jump-start projects in seconds with the one-click theme setup featureÔǪ…

Revolution Pro (Great for blogs & business sites)

$129 with Genesis. $74.95 if you have already purchased Genesis. Included for free for ProPlus customers, WP Engine customers, & WP Engine agency partners

Monochrome Pro (Minimalist theme great for all kinds of sites)

$129 with Genesis. $74.95 if you have already purchased Genesis. Included for free for ProPlus customers, WP Engine customers, & WP Engine agency partners´╗┐

Authority Pro (Great for personal brand & author sites)

$129 with Genesis. $74.95 if you have already purchased Genesis. Included for free for ProPlus customers, WP Engine customers, & WP Engine agency partners´╗┐

Hello Pro by BrandID (Great for personal brand & professional services)

$99.95 with Genesis. $59 if you have already purchased Genesis. Included for free for ProPlus customers

Genesis Sample Theme (Flexible starting point for any type of site)

Free if youÔÇÖve already purchased Genesis. Included for free for ProPlus customers, WP Engine customers, & WP Engine agency partners´╗┐

How can the Genesis one-click theme setup actually make me more profitable?

We all know that working faster means we spend less time doing things and thus, we make more profit, but how exactly does that come to life when you use a Genesis theme with the one-click theme setup?

As a previous agency owner, this is something IÔÇÖve personally thought a lot about and it was key to the product strategy when the StudioPress engineering team was planning the one-click theme setup feature.

Of course, using the one-click theme setup, which utilizes the new WordPress block-based page builder (Gutenberg), is a great way for nearly anyone to start building a beautiful and functional WordPress site. In this way, we see this feature opening up new capabilities for less sophisticated developers to build more valuable sites for the customers they serve.

One-click theme setup also allows novice site builders  to demand a higher price for the services they provide and to deliver that work in a shorter period of time. ItÔÇÖs not unreasonable to think you could spin out a simple brochure site in as little as 1-2 days. Depending on what you charge, this could mean thousands in revenue per day for even a single freelancer. For many folks, this is huge!

Additionally, the ability to ÔÇ£punch above your weightÔÇØ has been one of the benchmark benefits of using Genesis. WeÔÇÖre excited to see these enhancements enable the next generation of site creators in building their WordPress practice or their agency/freelance business and be able to demand a premium for the services they provide.

IÔÇÖm an advanced WordPress developer. Is this for me?

If you boast an advanced WordPress practice within your agency or internal team, you may be thinking ÔÇ£What does a one-click theme setup do for me? I donÔÇÖt need an easy button!ÔÇØ

While that may be a bit harsh as we all love ÔÇ£easy buttonsÔÇØ, knowing when and how to use the easy button can be the difference between looking like a pro and looking like a novice.

Even among advanced WordPress agencies and teams, we often find the need to create simple sites in a hurry. One-off marketing campaign sites, intranets, and any number of micro-projects often land squarely in our backlogs or the asks we receive from agency customers.

Using a Genesis theme enabled with one-click setup is a great way to quickly knock these projects out and delight your customers or stakeholders.

ItÔÇÖs true that you could design and code every last nook and cranny of these kinds of sites, but leveraging a solid starting point with one-click setup themes can help reduce your development time which you can save for more valuable projects that introduce new experiences or functionality into your or your clientsÔÇÖ sites.

Woah! One-click themes! How do I make one of those?

As mentioned earlier, the capabilities behind the one-click theme setup was built into Genesis itself. This means that as a theme developer, you (or your team) can make your very own one-click themes!

Agencies may find it helpful to build their own custom themes with one-click capabilities to enable a bigger percentage of their staff to kick a project off on their own or to offer lower-priced services to their customers. You can customize the plugins which are pre-loaded and use this as a method for  standardizing the way you build e-commerce sites or sites that rely on a specific plugin or functionality.

There are nearly an infinite amount of use cases you could address with the one-clock theme setup feature, which is why it was so important to us to provide this functionality directly in the Genesis framework. ItÔÇÖs not only StudioPress themes and our partnersÔÇÖ themes that can leverage this capability, you can too!

You can read more about how to build using the one-click theme setup feature here.

Conclusion

Our hope is that these new capabilities will provide you the efficiency you need to get projects done faster, and if youÔÇÖre an agency or freelancer, to make more profit per project. We have a ton more planned in terms of utilizing one-click themes to deliver even more value to the community of Genesis users and product makers around the world.

As a reminder, for many of you, these capabilities are available for free through our ProPlus theme package, for WP Engine Customers, and for WP Engine agency partners.

Stay tuned for even more exciting product announcements as we continue to invest in Genesis, the StudioPress themes, and in supporting the global community we all share.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.