Creative Web Solutions is hiring a talented WordPress/Divi Website VA to join our U.S.-based remote team. You’ll maintain, refresh, and design websites for a variety of clients, with flexible hours (20–30/week), pay ranging from $20–$40/hr depending on experience.
Must have: 2–3 years WordPress and Divi Builder experience, a good sense of clean web design, responsive/mobile-first skills, understand SEO best practices, and have the ability to communicate clearly by email, text, and video communication. Attention to detail and the ability to follow written instruction is vital to your success in this position.
Nice to have: Elementor, Canva, DNS/domain management, Google Workspace.
💻 Flexible schedule, paid holidays, retirement plan with 3% match, and company-provided computer included.
Must have 2-3 years WordPress/Divi website design experience, skill set will be verified. Must reside in and be employable in the US and pass a background check. International candidates, contractors, and third-party firms need not apply.
Apply now to help us manage and create beautiful, functional websites that keep our Customers happy! To apply:
- Send your one-page resume to [email protected]
- Use the subject CWS VA Applicant (yourname)
- In the email body, explain why you’d be a good fit for CWS, using your own words, not AI. Don’t regurgitate the job listing details.
- Include your favorite emoji in your email subject line
These types of calls are becoming more common, especially among small business owners. At Creative Web Solutions, we want to make sure you’re aware of the red flags and know how to protect yourself from this kind of fraud.
👉 Read the full article to learn what to watch for and how to stay safe.
]]>Lisa is more than a successful business owner. She’s a community cheerleader, a generous mentor, and someone who shows up again and again for the people and causes that matter. With a background in web design dating back to the late ’90s, Lisa built Creative Web Solutions not just as a business, but as a mission: to support small businesses and nonprofits across the Emerald Coast.
For over 23 years, Lisa has quietly donated thousands of hours to local organizations, providing web support, design guidance, and encouragement without expecting anything in return. She’s known for her kindness as much as her tech skills; she’s always ready to offer her time, expertise, or simply a listening ear.
Whether she’s mentoring a fellow entrepreneur or helping launch a nonprofit’s website redesign, Lisa leads with heart. She believes deeply in lifting others up and creates ripples of impact that go far beyond what’s visible on a screen.
We’re proud to see Lisa’s years of dedication and behind-the-scenes support recognized with this well-deserved honor. Her work has made a real impact across the Emerald Coast, and we’re lucky to have her at the helm of Creative Web Solutions.
Congratulations, Lisa!
]]>Genius Holly started the Nerdy Girl movement at last year’s event, and this year, in addition to the Nerdy Girl stickers, we had giveaways, because, well, NERDY GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!!!
TeCMEN Industry Day is a great way to network and meet new people, and have some fun doing it. The swag is an extra bonus!
To help businesses stay compliant, Google recently sent out a reminder highlighting key policies, including the importance of keeping business information accurate and welcoming genuine customer feedback. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you need to know:
- Keep Information Accurate – Ensure your business details are up-to-date and accurately reflect your offerings.
- Encourage Honest Feedback – Accept all reviews, both positive and negative, without selectively soliciting positive ones. Avoid offering incentives for reviews, and never post misleading or harmful content about competitors.
Violating Google’s policies, guidelines, or terms of service may result in content removal or restrictions on your Business Profile.
If you see an inaccurate or inappropriate review, you can report it here.
For more details, visit Google’s Help Center.
Links:
If you want to include any video on your website, we recommend uploading via YouTube channel, then embedding on your website.
Uploading website videos to YouTube can have many benefits, including:
- Improved search engine ranking: Google automatically indexes videos on YouTube, which can help your website rank higher in search results.
- Easy to embed: You can easily embed YouTube videos on your own website.
- Track performance: YouTube provides tools to analyze your viewers and the performance of your videos.
- Easy to share: Videos on YouTube are easy to share on social media.
- Increased visibility: YouTube’s search engine and related videos can help your videos reach more people.
- Improved brand awareness: YouTube’s large user base can help you reach more people and increase brand awareness.
- Free hosting: YouTube hosts your videos for free, so you don’t need to worry about bandwidth.
- Respond to feedback: You can respond to comments and feedback on your videos.
- Unlimited video bandwidth: YouTube can handle heavy traffic and sudden spikes in demand.
Here we walk you through how to add a video to your website using YouTube.
Log in to YouTube, or create a new YouTube account if you don’t already have one. For businesses, it’s KEY that you create a business YouTube channel, rather than using a personal YouTube account.
- Click the “Upload a video” icon.
- Select options and choose the video file to upload from your computer.
- Enter video information. Be thorough, YouTube uses this info to help Google index your video.
- Publish the video. It can take a few minutes or a few hours for the video to become live on YouTube, depending on the quality and size of the video upload.
- Let us know when the video is published! As soon as YouTube notifies you the video is live, let us know, so we can add the video to your website.
Other things to consider:
- Closed captioning should be made available on the video for viewers that are hearing impaired (accessibility is important!)
- A “thumbnail” placeholder image should be created for use on devices that won’t autoplay or won’t display video (for example, older phones, or limited bandwidth connections).
- Unless the video is very short and purely design-oriented, we do not recommend autopay.
If you have any issues, please let us know. We’re here to help.
Tutorial created 2025-01-21
]]>- We receive mail at a Fort Walton Beach post office box (for safety/security), but only check the box once or twice per week (this can cause a few days’ delay).
- When we pick up the post office box mail, we usually deposit checks the same day, using mobile deposit (your check is scanned via banking software and deposited electronically). Deposited checks are shredded 3-6 months after they clear the bank.
- If your account doesn’t allow mobile deposit, it can take up to a week for the check to be deposited, but the payment will be noted on your account the day we receive the check.
- Quickbooks Online (QBO, our accounting system) is configured to automatically send invoice reminders at 21 days and 30 days. It’s a system-wide setting that applies to all Customers.
- If we can’t match the payment to an outstanding invoice, we’ll contact you before we deposit the check. If we receive an extra check (or duplicate), we’ll contact you before we deposit it.
- We’ll never disconnect hosting or email without trying to contact you first.
- Domain renewals are handled differently, because they expire, and, in most cases, must be manually renewed on our end. We usually reach out by email several times before a domain expires.
- When we don’t hear back from Customers we’ve tried to contact, we assume they don’t want to keep our services. We’re busy too, so if we ask for a call back, please call back!
If you have any questions about your invoice or our billing process, please reach out to us!
]]>WordPress is open source software. That means it’s free for anyone to use, for any purpose, distribution, or profit. Open source software requires ongoing maintenance and upkeep, much of which is managed by volunteers or “sponsored” programmers (paid by the WordPress Foundation or third party business sponsors such as Automattic). In other words, there is a cost for open source (free) software, because it must be maintained.
There’s been a lot going on in the tech community related to WordPress, Matt Mullenweg (MM) and WP Engine (WPE), after MM “publicly criticized WPE for building business models around WordPress without making meaningful contributions to the platform itself” in a Sept. 17 blog post, and reiterated the same at the WCUS Portland 2024 Closing Talk Q&A with Matt Mullenweg. Because MM decided WPE wasn’t giving back enough, he used the closing talk to “go nuclear” on WPE, as retaliation for their failure to pay millions of dollars requested by MM to be paid to Automattic, his for-profit company(1). Please read the ChatGPT summary of the issue below
Since MM’s talk, the WordPress ecosystem has been greatly (and detrimentally, in my opinion) impacted. The tech news is abuzz with the latest details; plenty of speculation, finger pointing, and downright meanness.
This is not a proud moment for anyone who works in the WordPress ecosystem.
As an agency working mainly within the WordPress ecosystem, we’re caught in the middle, caught up in the crossfire, feeling the pain of any sanctions that our host, WPE, is placed under. Years ago (in 2013), after extensive research, we aligned ourselves with WPE for hosting because we felt they offered the best possible website hosting option for CWS’ Customers.
WPE provides excellent service to CWS; they have been and continue to be, an extremely reliable company to work with.
Because of MM and WPE’s difficulties, we’re keeping a close eye on how things are unfolding. As your website services provider, it is our job to look after the “geeky parts” of making sure your website runs smoothly and reliably. The situation is very dynamic, changing almost daily, and we will be vigilant in watching how this situation plays out. If we need to make a change, we’ll let you know as soon as we know.
For now, we watch carefully, and wait.
Should you have any questions about anything you read or hear, please do not hesitate to reach out for clarification, information, or reassurance. If you feel that a change is needed now, let us know and we’ll work with you to find a viable solution.
~ Lisa Smith, and the Creative Web Solutions Team
ChatGPT summary of the issue
Pulled Sept. 30, 2024
The conflict between Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, and WP Engine, a major WordPress hosting company, centers around issues of leadership, control, and philosophy regarding the open-source nature of WordPress.
The Problem:
Control and Philosophy: Matt Mullenweg is a staunch advocate for the open-source WordPress ecosystem and the vision behind it. WP Engine, as a commercial entity, has been seen by Mullenweg as taking too much from the community without sufficiently contributing back, potentially endangering the open-source spirit of WordPress. Mullenweg has criticized companies like WP Engine for building proprietary platforms on top of WordPress and commercializing it in ways he finds contrary to the open-source ethos.
GPL Dispute: At one point, Mullenweg raised concerns about WP Engine’s compliance with the General Public License (GPL) that governs WordPress and the software derived from it. WP Engine, being a proprietary host, uses WordPress software in ways that Mullenweg has suggested might not align perfectly with WordPress’s licensing terms.
The Interaction:
(1) Public Criticism: Mullenweg has publicly criticized WP Engine for building business models around WordPress without making meaningful contributions to the platform itself. This has led to tensions between WP Engine and Mullenweg, as the company has defended its position, arguing it provides value to users and the community through its hosting services and innovations.
Response from WP Engine: WP Engine has taken a more neutral stance, emphasizing their contribution to the WordPress ecosystem by providing quality hosting solutions and innovations. They also argue that their services help further popularize WordPress, benefiting the community in the long term.
The clash is essentially between Mullenweg’s desire to protect the integrity of WordPress’s open-source roots and WP Engine’s pursuit of profit and growth as a commercial entity within the WordPress ecosystem. Mullenweg’s tactics in dealing with WP Engine appear to be a mix of public critique, philosophical framing, and leveraging his influence within the WordPress community. Here’s how his approach can be described:
- Public Criticism and Accountability:
- Naming and Shaming: Mullenweg has used his platform to publicly call out WP Engine for practices he perceives as being at odds with WordPress’s open-source ethos. This includes questioning the company’s contributions to the community and raising issues related to licensing compliance under the General Public License (GPL). By doing so, he positions himself as a guardian of WordPress’s values.
- Philosophical Framing:
- Open-Source Advocacy: Mullenweg frequently invokes the importance of open-source principles in his arguments. By framing WP Engine’s business practices as potentially harmful to the health and future of WordPress, he attempts to align the broader WordPress community behind the idea that commercial ventures should actively contribute to the open-source ecosystem. This tactic appeals to developers and other community members who share similar ideals.
- Leveraging Influence in the WordPress Ecosystem:
- Setting Expectations for Contributions: As the leader of the WordPress project, Mullenweg can set a moral and cultural tone within the community. His public criticisms of WP Engine can act as a form of soft power, influencing how others in the ecosystem view WP Engine and similar commercial entities. By highlighting a perceived imbalance between what WP Engine takes versus what it gives back, Mullenweg seeks to encourage more meaningful contributions from commercial players.
- Highlighting GPL and Legal Concerns:
- Legal Pressure via Licensing: By raising concerns about WP Engine’s compliance with the GPL, Mullenweg emphasizes the legal obligations of companies that benefit from WordPress. This tactic can serve as a pressure point, suggesting that failure to adhere to the GPL could result in more significant consequences, potentially deterring behavior he sees as problematic.
Overall, Mullenweg’s approach seems designed to maintain the balance between commercial interests and the open-source ethos of WordPress, using both public pressure and moral arguments to influence companies like WP Engine.
Updated info
Added October 4, 2024
Since our last update, the situation between Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, and WP Engine has escalated further. WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Mullenweg and Automattic, accusing them of libel, extortion, and trademark misuse. WP Engine claims that Mullenweg has abused his power by blocking their access to critical WordPress.org resources, such as the ability to update plugins, which has caused significant disruption for WP Engine’s users. This includes the discontinuation of security updates and plugin support, creating vulnerabilities for website owners who rely on WP Engine-hosted WordPress installations.
The conflict centers around accusations from Mullenweg that WP Engine has been profiting from the WordPress ecosystem without sufficiently contributing back to its development. Mullenweg publicly criticized WP Engine, referring to the company as a “cancer to WordPress” and accusing them of undermining the community ethos of the open-source project. WP Engine’s lawsuit, on the other hand, asserts that Automattic has been leveraging the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks for anticompetitive purposes and even demanded 8% of WP Engine’s gross monthly revenue.
This legal battle has left parts of the WordPress community divided. Some developers and users are concerned about the precedent this sets for trademark control and the potential long-term impact on commercial entities built around WordPress. As of now, WP Engine is seeking injunctive relief and damages, and both parties seem to be digging in for a prolonged legal struggle.
This conflict could have broad implications for how commercial interests intersect with the open-source ethos of WordPress, and how trademark and licensing rights are managed moving forward.
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I traveled to Portland OR last week for WordCamp US 2024. It’s an annual community gathering of WordPress users, developers, designers, etc. Whenever I take a trip, I always consider it a big adventure, and this trip was no exception.
I was able to connect with several people in person, that I normally only “see” on video chat or Zoom. The first was Debbie from my coaching group. We’ve known each other for years, but never actually met in person. Next was our very own Jen. Until we shared a very tasty and fun Vietnamese lunch, we’d never met in person. I got to catch up in person with Nathan Ingram, my business coach, which is always awesome.
I met some new WordPress friends too. The first day I met Scot, a fellow micro-agency owner. He gave me valuable insights for an issue with a Customer website rebuild. The second day brought dinner with Debbie, Nathan, and I met Chris, a programmer who’s been working with Nathan on a large website rebuild. After dinner, I ventured (all by myself) out on a Portland bus ride to a “side party” hosted by WP Engine and NitroPack. The party was packed with people, with an open bar and amazing food. My drink even had an ice cube with the WP Engine logo in it! While showing off my logo ice cube drink, I met Phil, who worked with Delicious Brains, then WP Engine. Delicious Brains created Advanced Custom Fields, run by millions of WordPress websites, WP Migrate, WP Offload Media, WP Offload SES, and Better Search Replace, which we use often here at CWS. Later that night, I met Cara and Grace, both are micro-agency owners who regularly travel to WCUS together. They were hanging out with Robert, a programmer from Massachusetts. The four of us had an adventure getting back to the hotel (had to walk a few extra blocks for the return bus), but made it back to the hotel without incident.
The following day I met Zack from Gravity Views, and visited Google Portland for a class on Google Site Kit. They took us on a mini tour of their downstairs offices and working areas. I saw Syed Balkhi from Awesome Motive / WP Beginner about 10 times at WCUS, but only saw Matt right before the closing session. I had a very nice chat with Remkus (Within WordPress) and met Scott (the developer behind PODS).
The organizers for WCUS Portland 2024 did an amazing job. The venue was spacious, with plenty of space to network, chat, catch up, and power up. The vendor space was very large, and there was plenty of swag! I would have preferred an event t-shirt to a pair of socks, but I’m happy to have the commemorative socks (and pin). The HOP cards were a fantastic convenience.
The entire event was uplifting and exciting, up until the last hour when Matt gave his “spicy” talk to close out WCUS 2024 (full nuclear mode). That talk sparked a heated discussion in the WordPress Community, and eventually brought to light that WordPress has an even bigger problem – it is managed at the whim of only one person, Matt Mullenweg. I talk about what’s happening and what we’re doing in this post: The Price of Open Source Software.
]]>Your primary role will be email correspondence with Customers, attending to support tickets, consulting with team members on tasks/workload, time tracking, admin and support tasks, small website changes and additions for our hosting Customers, managing backups before making updates. You will also support overflow design-project work as needed.
If you’re a motivated individual who loves working with WordPress, improving user experience, working in a remote environment, and helping awesome Customers, we want to hear from you!
Required Skills:
- Must be eligible to work as an employee in the USA
- Must be familiar with working primarily in Google Chrome, on a Chromebook
- WordPress & Divi experience (page, text and image additions and changes, theme builder templates, WordPress theme and plugin installation)
- Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Gmail)
- Image cropping and resizing, basic graphic design skills
- Attention to detail, problem-solving skills
Helpful Skills:
- sFTP/FTP experience, HTML
- SEO and page speed best practices
- CSS editing
- Automated and manual website backup and migration
- Intermediate graphic design; Canva familiarity
Team Skills & Attributes:
- Ability to follow checklists and procedures
- Care for your work and positive outcomes for our Customers
- Willingness to learn and grow, open to feedback
- Reliable, ability to follow established workflows
- Excellent problem-solving skills
- Outstanding communication
Reasons to Consider Working with CWS:
- Flexible schedule
- Opportunity to work on a variety of aspects of a web design business
- Opportunity to learn additional skills
- Management that’s open to suggestions and feedback
This is a part-time 20 hour per week role, $20-25 per hour. We’re dedicated to finding long-term, A-players for our team. The right person will receive ongoing job security, an increase of hours as the company grows and opportunities for further growth.
Must be eligible to work as an employee in the USA. Interested qualified candidates, please send a current resume to lisa at getcws dot com with 2024 WP Admin/Web Job in the subject, along with your favorite emoji … like this 😼
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