Interview with WordPress Web Designer Brian Balla

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Brian Balla. Brian is a WordPress Web Designer located in Portland, Oregon.

In 2009, Brian Balla left a 9 to 5 corporate design position to embark on a career as a freelance web designer and WordPress specialist. Since then, Brian has been able to retain a client roster of over 55 small to medium sized businesses in five states and two continents. With a background in small business, Brian is passionate about helping business owners and scrappy start-ups make their websites work harder for them. From one-page informational websites to complex enterprise level applications, Brian offers his clients expertise in a variety of areas including web design, WordPress development, standards compliance, analytics interpretation, and search engine marketing and optimization.

How did you get introduced to WordPress?

During high school and college, most of my free time was spent either writing or building websites.

After college, my web design hobby went to the “back burner” and laid dormant for several years as I immersed myself in suits and ties and 8 o’clock meetings. Fast forward to the fall of 2006. As I was searching for a restaurant for dinner later that evening, I came across a website with the link “Powered by WordPress = Code is Poetry”. This reminded me of my days designing and developing. I skipped the menu and I followed that link. Fast forward again to several weeks after that. I had fully immersed myself in the world of WordPress and began building and breaking things faster than I could keep track.

Why “Post by Email”

This is the first time a core feature has been removed from a WordPress and replaced by a Plugin. There are some concerns about removing a core feature and what will actually occur with the code that is currently on websites. The new “Post by Email” plugin created by Kat Hagan is scheduled to replace the core feature.

WordPress Tavern reached out to WordPress core developer Andrew Nacin and

Andrew Nacin Indicated that “There were some nagging concerns that outright removing the feature from core could inconvenience users who still rely on it. That doesn’t detract from Kat’s work at all. Her plugin is fantastic and it’s definitely a huge improvement over what’s in core now. It was never designed to be pulled into core, but rather to provide us an opportunity to remove what’s in core now.”

For more information on the changes to the “Post by Email” function go to WordPress Codex “Post By Email”

Fancy Gallery Pro WordPress Plugin

Let’s you determine the capabilities of Contributors, Editors, Authors, and Subscribers and you can turn features on and off for the Administrator, Here is a list of capabilities for the Administrator.

How to Use the WordPress.com Reader

WordPress.com Reader is ideal for the WordPress.com member who needs to be updated 24/7, those who work in industries where changes occur repeatedly such as news or finance, or just the average person who likes to have all the information they need at there fingertips. Can you just imagine having all this information fed into your computer or mobile device as it is happening? Well, this is what WordPress.com Reader will do for you.

The WordPress.com Reader displays all the posts in order as they are published with the most current blogs at the top of the list. You will see just a small excerpt of each post, as an introduction to the blog, with thumbnails of images. When you want to read more, just click on the blog title and you can read the full blog. Here is an example of what you might see from a blog excerpt:

At the bottom of the WordPress.com Reader feed you have the option to Like and/or Reblog  by clicking on the icons in the bottom right corner of each post.

Why Should You Update WordPress?

One of the most important reasons to update WordPress is security. This is to prevent hackers from gaining access to WordPress and user websites. WordPress is always updating security and maintenance to prevent attacks from malicious code.

WordPress implemented automatic updates with the release of WordPress 2.7, originally called the WordPress Upgrader. These updates can occur while you are sleeping.

WordCamp Dayton, OH Tickets on Sale

Tickets are now on sale for WordCamp in Dayton, Ohio. The date is set for the first WordCamp in Dayton on March 7th and 8th. Tickets are on sale for $40.00 each.