Brian Coords

WordPress Developer & Educator

Tech

I’m sharing the best resources and tutorials for developers building in and on the block editor.

  • AdWords for Nonprofits – How to Get Half a Million Dollars in Free Ads

    In the non-profit space, internet marketing and modern tooling can be a hard sell, especially with limited resources. Fortunately, Google has a great suite of free apps,grants, and Adwords for nonprofits, offering them a unique chance to take advantage of Google’s top-class services and advertising network. For this article, we’re going to dive a little…

  • Writing WordPress Content in HTML

    There are a lot of myths and opinions about developers and their reliance on- or aversion to- software that has been built by others. On one side of the spectrum, there’s the camp that believes that everything with your name on it should be build from scratch in HTML and vanilla CSS. These purists like…

  • Custom Post Type Basics – Super Custom WP Part 2

    This is part two of a series on customizing WordPress. Click here to start at the beginning. The transition of WordPress from blogging platform to full-fledged CMS is an ongoing process, but it was around Version 3.0 that the ability to register our own custom post type really kicked it into high gear. Custom post types allow us…

  • CMB2 & the WP REST API

    Update: CMB2 has added support for the REST API. While this method is still valid, I encourage you to review my follow-up post as well as their documentation. CMB2 opens a lot of doors with WordPress development, making it possible to store all sorts of meta, or extra, information about each post. Typically, meta information…

  • Digital Media Workflow Step Two – Develop the Mediums

    It’s time to come clean. Earlier I said that not every story is put down in writing, and in a sense, that’s true. We can tell our stories through alternative mediums like video and photography. When it comes to our online digital media strategy, however, writing is going to pervade everything you do. And with…

  • Digital Media Workflow Step One – Find the Story

    John is standing in a small semicircle of casual acquaintances, holding a drink in one hand and trying to think of something to say. Everyone else has shared an insightful opinion or humorous anecdote with the group, and he starts to feel the pressure of his own self-consciousness behind his eyes. He knows it’s his…

  • Intro to Digital Media Management

    The most important ingredient to successful digital media is storytelling. It’s not analytics, it’s not content, it’s not new social networks or conversion rates or newsfeeds. If you want to motivate people to join your team or advocate for your cause or learn something new or donate resources, there needs to be a meaningful narrative…

  • Don’t Fear the Auto-Update – Stay on Top of WordPress

    Recently I’ve noticed a new sort of FOMO in the online community, fear of missing out on breaking changes. Every time a new version of something is released, from iOS to WordPress, there’s a large chorus of ‘wait for the .1 release’ online. And I have to say that I understand the hesitance. Breaking changes and…

  • How to Successfully Use Visual Editors to Give Your Clients Control

    I used to be very skeptical about visual builders for websites, especially for developers. Perhaps I just never fully experienced the Dreamweaver era, though I have made a few Flash headers in my time. Or maybe there’s a sense of purity that comes from building something from ‘scratch’, even when ‘scratch’ includes the most popular…

  • WordPress Tip: Quickly Import Posts via Google Sheets and JSON

    Recently, I found myself setting up a new WordPress site, but with an enormous legacy of content that needed to be uploaded in the form of posts and custom post types. We had about 1500 posts just in one category and a few hundred posts under different custom post types like ‘videos’ and ‘events’. To…