Get To Know Chris Lema

Chris Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite. He’s also a daily blogger, a public speaker, and product strategist. He helps companies leverage WordPress, and helps WordPress companies find leverage. For twenty years Chris has developed and managed high performing engineers to build software products — particularly SaaS products in a variety of B2B vertical markets. He’s also spent the last ten years coaching startups on product development & marketing strategies.

We’re thrilled Chris will be speaking at WordCamp Sacramento 2015 on the lessons learned from reviewing 30 membership plugins.

Speaker Q&A With Chris

Why is taking about Membership plugins an important topic?

In general, any time there are a massive number of plugins that suggest they do the same thing, I think it’s worth having a map that helps people figure out which one is the right one for them. Many plugins are there to make your website a bit nicer, easier to use, or help you get your message out. Membership plugins, like eCommerce plugins, are there often to transform a site into a business. So if you’re running a business, picking the right membership plugin seems like a worthwhile effort. And that’s what drove my research, my article series, and this talk.

What is your history with membership plugins?

I build my first membership site in 1995. Of course that was without WordPress. But I started building content-gating solutions almost as the web was just starting. And then about ten years ago I started building some large ones that would protect content, help documents, community discussion and file downloads. These were sites that supported a business effort and helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in yearly maintenance from our clients. So logically, I tried doing all of that in WordPress and struggled a bit. Since then, and especially over the last 5 years, it’s been a space I’ve spent a lot of time on — for my own companies, for my personal sites, for friends, and as a consultant.

How did you get started with WordPress? Why WordPress?

I got started with WordPress in 2005 in the late summer. It was just as version 1.5 came out. I was excited about WordPress because it was fast, easy, quick to tweak, and allowed me to get out of supporting clients directly on every single little text change they wanted. Only after 5-6 years of working with it did I step into the community and begin to participate at WordCamps. I love the people, the community, and the entrepreneurs in the space.

What is your favorite thing about WordPress?

I’ve been in the tech community since late 1994. I’ve been a Microsoft certified partner, a certified partner of IBM and Oracle. I’ve built software for million and billion dollar enterprises. I’ve gone to conferences that cost five or ten thousands dollars to attend. And in all of that time, no single technology community is more approachable or available than the WordPress ecosystem. You can walk straight up to the most well known expert and they’ll gladly welcome you, talk with you, and help you. It’s incredible and awesome.

Can you share a couple WordPress plugins that you love or recommend?

Well, it would be silly not to mention WordPress membership plugins, right? So let’s suggest MemberPress, iThemes Exchange, and the WooCommerce extensions — Memberships and Subscriptions.

Resources or recommendations?

I’m biased; let me start there. My belief is that you should step into a community slowly and carefully. You should be aware of the players and what they’re up to. That’s a tall order in such a wide and diverse community. But it has really helped me. I spent a year watching. Today it’s much easier. I recommend people sign up for the Club at Post Status to keep aware of all of what’s happening. I also recommend developers check out WPSessions.com for all sorts of lessons that can help them up their game.

Check Out The Speakers

WordCamp Sacramento 2015 is bringing you an awesome line up of speakers from not only our greater Sacramento region, but throughout California and beyond. Check out our speakers page to see the 2015 WordCamp Sacramento Speakers, and be sure to follow them on Twitter.