9seeds

Building Custom WordPress Solutions | Plugin Development

 

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OMG, we’re a year old!

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It’s hard to believe it was one year ago today that Todd, Shayne and I set out on this journey together. A year already? How is that even possible?

I’ve been asked several times how 9seeds started. So for those who have wondered but never asked, here’s a quick history of how 9seeds came to be.

Back in 2008 I had heard about a series of events going on around the country called WordCamp. I sent a message on twitter asking if anybody was planning one for Las Vegas. The responses I got back all said pretty much the same thing, “no, but you should organize one.” Having never organized an event of this size before, I did what any (in)sane person would do, I dove in head first!

In early January of 2009, WordCamp took place in Las Vegas. It came together far better than it should have given my lack of experience. A lot of that had to do with the amazing lineup of speakers that weekend. One of which was Shayne Sanderson. Though we had never met in person and had only chatted online a few times to that point, we became good friends right away.

During that time, Todd and I were working for a marketing company here in Las Vegas. The owners had sold a large portion to an investment company and though we had both been there for several years our interest in staying there was quickly fading.

Over the next several months, Shayne and I spoke at a handful of WordCamp events. This lead to both of us receiving several requests for side projects. Shayne and I were working nights and weekends as we both found no end to the amount of people looking for help. We started collaborating on more and more projects. When we needed extra help, we would hit up Todd.

We weren’t happy with our day jobs and there were a slew of people looking to pay us for help. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize where this was going. Within a few months, we decided to start a company together.

While October 1st is our “official” anniversary, last year at this time we all still had full time jobs. But that got old pretty quickly. By the end of January, we had all quit our jobs and have been building 9seeds ever since.

We are amazingly lucky to have made so many friends in the WordPress community. It has been an amazing first year and we can’t thank you enough for your friendship and support.

From the bottom of our hearts, thanks!

– John

9seeds in Savannah

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Well….guess what? Another WordCamp…surprise surprise!

This time, I’ll be at WordCamp Savannah on August 21st and 22nd, and I’m excited to be there as I have never been to Georgia before.  I am a little worried about the humidity, but I’m sure I’ll survive.

This is actually a 3 day event. Friday the 20th will be a Pre-WordCamp Workshop day where you can get your own domain and site setup and get familiarized with WordPress before the actual event. This is a great idea for those who want to start a site but aren’t just quite sure how. Lisa-Sabin Wilson will be heading up this workshop, so anyone attending will be in good hands.

9seeds is sponsoring this event and I was asked to do a short version of my PHP/CSS for Beginners presentation as well as hang out at the Genius Bar on Sunday the 22nd. So I’ll do a quick version of how to understand and modify PHP and CSS for beginners and then answer the flood of questions that will probably come into the Genius Bar on Sunday. If you have WordPress questions and have not taken advantage of a Genius Bar at WordCamps you’re missing out…it’s a great resource to get questions answered. I’m sure it will be a great time and the list of speakers looks great, so if you don’t have a ticket yet you really should go get one!

So, Savannah looks like a great city and I’m looking forward to seeing it and catching up with WordPress friends there. Hope to see you there!

Affiliate plugin for WP-ecommerce

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Since Shayne has spent so much time helping people out in the WP e-Commerce user’s forum, it’s no surprise that we receive a steady stream of requests for people looking to enhance their online store. One of the requests we get the most is from people who would like to pay affiliates to drive traffic to their site. With no real solution available, we did what any enthusiastic development team would do; we built it!

Introducing the Affiliate Plugin for WP e-Commerce

The Affiliate Plugin makes it simple to sign up and manage affiliates for your online store. You can easily set the payout amount (flat rate or % of sale) per affiliate, add custom banners and text links with unique tracking codes, view stats and more.

We didn’t forget about your affiliates. They will have the ability to get their unique tracking links and see their traffic and earnings stats.

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

Display a list of your affiliates

Easily create and edit your creatives.

See which sales your affiliates drive.

The Affiliate plugin is available now. Purchase your copy today.

If you need assistance with the plugin or have a feature request, please let us know!

Drop Thesis For Half Price

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With the licensing controversy between WordPress and the Thesis theme, there are a lot of users having to rethink what theme they want to use for their WordPress site. Matt Mullenweg has made an open invitation to purchase a GPL compliant theme for anyone wanting to move away from Thesis. As part of the WordPress community we would like to do our part and offer to install and modify a new GPL compliant theme for half price*!

What does this mean? It means….if you want rid of Thesis and want to give your site a whole new look, we’ll do the conversion for you for half price*!

If you’re interested in keeping your site’s existing look and still want a conversion, then you can visit our friends at WebDevStudios where they have a sale for that running currently.

So, let us know how we can help you get converted to a GPL compliant theme and we’ll happily do it for half price*.

*Half price offer is good for conversions from Thesis themes only. GPL compliant theme must be provided and is not included in discounted rate. Prices may vary depending on complexity of site design. This offer ends Saturday, July 31st at midnight, Pacific time.

Next stop, WordCamp Boulder

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I'm Sponsoring WordCamp Boulder 2010Last year I had the great pleasure of attending WordCamp Denver and am very excited to be heading back to Colorado for round two! But this time, WordCamp has moved up the road to Boulder, CO. This year I won’t just be attending, but we are also one of the sponsors of the event!

Last year the guys at Crowd Favorite put together a great collection of speakers, and this year is no different. Have a look at the list of speakers, and then go register to attend! There are less than 100 tickets left, so get on it!

I also wanted to send a big ‘ol THANKS to the guys at Crowd Favorite for moving the event from February to July. As beautiful as it was to see everything covered in snow, I’m sure the place will be just as beautiful without the snow.

See you there!