Jamie Schmid has a particular passion for creating excellent content experiences. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, she has been working as a WordPress freelancer and consultant since 2012, regularly taking sites from conception through a well-managed build process that encourages communication, planning, and smart use of content. She has a background in Information Architecture and Content Strategy and a big ol’ enthusiasm for all things WordPress. Now living in Portland, OR, Jamie is a Community Evangelist for SiteLock, traveling the country and helping build awareness of website security best practices and solutions.
We’re thrilled to have Jamie onboard as a speaker at WordCamp Sacramento 2018 asked a few questions to help you get to know more about her. Check out our mini interview with Jamie below:
What is the topic of your WordCamp talk?
Don’t Break Live: Using A Staging Site Can Make Your Life A Lot Easier
Why do you think this is important?
Changing content, adding features, and running updates on your live site all run the risk of *something* breaking — content not looking the way you want, a new plugin or theme produces unexpected results, running a theme, plugin or core update causes your site to break.. any of these things happening on your live site can cause you to lose visitors. And whether traffic loss is just momentarily or permanently, it can mean a lot of missed opportunity and sales, not to mention making your brand look bad.
A staging site is an exact copy of your live site, but hosted privately so only you can see it. If an update or change breaks your staging site — no sweat, just undo the change, or spend some time fixing what broke. Take as much time as you’d like, because your visitors are never going to see the broken staging site! Having a staging site at the ready gives you the freedom to test drive themes and plugins as often as you want, previewing their look and functionality, and only making the changes live when you are ready.
Setting up a staging site can be tricky if you don’t know where to begin. In my talk I will cover a few options for setting up a staging site, and go over a process for managing your updates and changes so you never have to worry about breaking your live site again!
What’s your WordPress origin story?
I built my first WordPress website in 2011, and then got a job building WP sites fulltime in 2012. I’ve been pretty much dedicated to only WordPress related work since then! WCMilwaukee 2012 was the first WordCamp I ever attended, and ever spoke at.
How has WordPress impacted your world?
So much! I travel to lots of WordCamps every year, and a lot of the people I consider close friends, I met through WordPress. So much of my inspiration for everything I do comes from seeing and meeting so many smart, kind people in the WordPress community. I’ve also gone from being really shy and scared in front of an audience, to enthusiastic and confident to share in everything I’ve learned over the years. When you learn so much from other people, it’s second nature to want to give back to the community.
You can connect with Jamie further at:
Get Your Ticket ASAP!
WordCamp Sacramento 2018 sold out in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and we do expect it to sell out again. Be sure to get your WordCamp Tickets asap to secure you spot at this awesome event! Tickets are only $40 (thanks to our generous sponsors) and include:
- Two full days of Beginner Tracks, walking new users through how to use WordPress.
- Two mixed tracks of sessions on Saturday.
- Two mixed tracks of sessions on Sunday.
- A Happiness Bar — our version of a help desk, open throughout the event so you can get help with your site and get your questions answered.
- An opportunity to network with and meet sponsors, speakers, and other WordPress community members, including business owners, designers, developers, agency owners, bloggers, copywriters, freelancers, site owners, and more.
- Refreshing drinks throughout the entire event.
- A WordCamp Sacramento 2018 t-shirt.
- A catered lunch on Saturday.
- A networking reception Saturday immediately following the event.
- Snacks on Sunday.