This Week Online Today With Ahmed Khalifa

In this episode, I talk to Alexandria Blaelock; an author, blogger and philosopher based in Melbourne, Australia. Alexandria has shared a powerful story on how a major health setback in her life has set her into making the most of your time and follow your passion. In this case, it is to write and publish books, which Alexandria has successfully done and continuing to do so. Here are just a few things we talk about: Making the most of your time and your life Standing out as an author in a competitive industry Taking the time to understand the logic of using WordPress The importance of patience in all aspects of life The process of creating content consistently and finding inspirations to do so "All of us, every single person has their own ways of expressing their thoughts and opinions. So, the way I might explain to you how you tie your shoe lace does not involve rabbits and holes and something like that. Whereas the way you explain to me how to tie my shoe laces might involve straight lines and angles o

In this episode, we are doing something a little bit different. Normally I talk to awesome individuals who are doing something really awesome with WordPress. Today, I talk to Alban Brooke, the Director of Marketing at Buzzsprout, the podcasting hosting company, which is also the host of The IgniteRock Podcast. Here are just a few things we talk about: the story of Buzzsprout and the podcasting world the purpose of the WordPress plugin and why they have decided to build one advice on how to get started on your own podcast various ways on how to grow your audience "...almost half of podcasts are churches or nonprofits. And the reason for that is these are groups that are already putting together content every week. A pastor is putting together all week, and he gives a 45-minute talk. That's a tonne of effort put into a great piece of content. And so for them, it made sense. Even if you have a church of only 150 people, you want to be able to get that sermon online, hold onto it, keep a record, and people c

In this episode, I talk to Erin Flynn; a web designer based in Aspen, Colorado but with a difference. Despite starting her career within the web design and development industry, as she focuses on helping other designers and developers to run their business more efficiently and effectively. I first spotted Erin after reading a blog about her 5-year self-employment anniversary and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to invite her onto the show and to talk more about her journey. Here are just a few things we talk about: the 18-year journey which led to becoming self-employment why being yourself has more benefits than pretending to be like others how keeping things simple when starting your own site is the best thing to do the benefits of consistent communications with your clients "...keep your clients happy while you're building them a website is a weekly email or a weekly check in. Where literally all you do is you say, "Here's what I've accomplished this week. Here's what I'm working on next week." That a

In this episode, I talk to Emanuel Blagonic; a Croatian-native who has talked about the impact that WordPress has had in his native country and the community that it has built. The first time I met Emanuel was at WordCamp Belfast 2016, where he did a talk entitled "How WordPress Changed the Face of Croatian Politics". I was captivated by his talk and I knew I wanted to talk to him on this podcast and dive deeper. Here are just a few things we talk about: how, together with the community around him, he has built a portal to encourage transparency and communication with local authorities how WordPress has helped him to create a path in his life and make a difference to those around him being part of the WordCamp Europe network and the opportunity it provides to network with like-minded people why Emanuel thinks accessibility is the next big thing in web standards "...it doesn't matter if you are holding a meetup for 10 people or 100 people or 1,000 people. It really doesn't matter because if you are helpin

In this episode, I talk to Russell Aaron of WebDevStudios who shares his story from originally wanting to become a world-changing journalist and ended up as a WordPress expert. Russell, who is currently based in Las Vegas, works at Maintain which forms a part of WebDevStudio and a die-hard WordPress advocate who believes in its power to both transform businesses and lives. Here are just a few things we talk about: The generosity of the WordPress community How learning a little bit every day can make a huge difference in the short and long-term The reasons on why Russell wants to be a better role model "Start small. Read one article a day on WPBeginner and another one on Torque. So you're reading two articles a day. By the end of the week, you've read 14 articles and you've learnt. Now you know 14 different things about WordPress that you didn't know when you first started. And when you do that consistently over a month, you will have a really good understanding of how WordPress works. And then two months

In this episode, I talk to Anne Dorko of Dialect and Without Boxes who has been using WordPress to help create her digital nomadic lifestyle. Anne shares her story of how started from nothing into getting into WordPress and create a business out of it. Anne has worked her way up by creating WordPress themes and plugins via Dialect Pro and helping others to achieve their online objectives whilst also dreaming of being a freelancer and a digital nomad. Some of the things Anne and I talk about are: how the opportunity to experiment and "break" WordPress has helped her to grow her knowledge and subsequently her business how she likes to alleviate any fear that people have when it comes to working with their own website building plugins and themes which have helped to create passive income overcoming her imposter syndrome to help those around with their online projects "Success is very relative to what your goal is. If my goal is to make $100,000 on a website and I get 100,000 visitors but no money from it, su

In this episode, I talk to Julie Christie from Tea Break Tog, a community and course-based photography website which was built on the back of Julie's passion for photographer as well as the determination to have a business to revolve around her family. I first spotted Julie when watching and listening to a video podcast which featured herself and several other people. I was immediately impressed with her business and her branding, as well as enjoyed listening to the way she has conveyed herself and the pure determination to succeed. And I had a great time interviewing Julie. Some of the things Julie and I talk about are: the fear about going into the competitive photography industry how determination and persistance is crucial for the long-term success how both the ups and downs can help your business to succeed the tough grind in the beginning which ultimately convince Julie to adjust her business Julie's next goal in helping her community to start their own photography business "All the really crappy t

In this episode, I talk to Ben Usher Smith, a web designer and illustrator who runs his own design business and has been in the industry for over a decade now. I knew Ben from our regular chats during our local WordPress Meetup group in Edinburgh and it was apparent that he has huge knowledge in the world of web design and WordPress. He is never one to shy away from helping out others when they have a question for him. Some of the things Ben and I talk about are: what goes behind the scene for web designers how Ben's experience in "offline art" has played a big part in his web design career the process Ben uses to help get the most out of clients and web designer relationship how clients can make the most out of their web designer why he also uses Squarespace as well as WordPress ""A good designer should be looking at where you can communicate with their client. And if you are looking for a good designer, look at somebody you feel like you can connect with and understand" - Ben Usher Smith Shownotes are

In this episode, I talk to Steve Morgan, an SEO Freelance Consultant at Morgan Online Marketing, blogger at SEOno and various publications, as well as being a regular speaker at major conferences. I first originally got to know Steve via Twitter and after time has passed, we finally met each other at an SEO conference. Steve is someone I have always admired and respected for the way he conducts himself as a freelancer, speaker and writer. And is never one to stop short of sharing useful tips and advice. Based in Cardiff, Steve has been working in the SEO industry for over 8 years and has been working as a freelancer for the past 3+ years. A regular speaker at major conferences such as BrightonSEO, you will find Steve writing detailed and thoroughly useful guest posts including at State of Digital. Some of the things we talk about are: The journey to his SEO freelancing career His thought processes on how Steve creates his own personal content on his blog Advice for those wants to start their own SEO caree

In this episode, I talk to Shannon Mattern from WP+BFF, a community-based site where she helps you to create your own freedom using WordPress. I first spotted Shannon on Twitter when she was doing Periscope video on this subject and I instantly knew that I had to invite her on to the show. Despite being based in Ohio and with 5 hours time difference, we made it work. And not surprisingly, we hit it off which tends to happen when you are both passionate about similar topics. Shannon's site WP+BFF is where she has helped countless number to start building their freedom using Freedom. Shannon even offers a free 5-day email course on how you can quickly and easily build a WordPress site yourself. Shannon's site is WP+BFF and this where she has helped a number of people (or her "BFFs") to start building their freedom using WordPress. Shannon even offers a free 5-day email course on how you can quickly and easily build a WordPress site yourself. Some of the things we talk about are: Shannon's journey and how s

In this episode, I talk to Gavin Bell from Blue Cliff Media, a social media agency who specialises in Facebook Ads. One of the main reasons for inviting him is because of that particular niche that he chooses to focus on. Gavin wants to stand out from the generic social media industry by choosing to niche down and it looks and sounds like he has done the right thing for his growing business. Gavin is someone that I have followed for some time online via Twitter, yet never met up with him before. He is a young entrepreneur but managed to start making a name for himself by being the go-to guy for Facebook Ads. It's not a surprise that everyone is talking about Facebook Ads and how powerful it is and Gavin has spotted that gap in the market where more and more brands are utilising it but necessarily seeing a return on their investment. Some of the things we talk about are: Gavin's journey to how he got to where he is today How he started a business in 7 days by following the brilliant 7-day Startup Book by

In this episode, I talk to Dan Ellis and Ryan Ogilvie from Theme Park Trader, a site where they discuss everything related to their passion; theme parks. Not only are they passionate about this topic, but they are very clever guys from the inbound marketing and web development background. I know Dan and Ryan from my time working at a digital marketing agency and have quickly seen how passionate Ryan is about Disney, whilst Dan has an interest in Universal Studio. Together, they have decided to combine their passion and knowledge one lunch together and created Theme Park Trader, where they are building and growing a community of like-minded people to share their knowledge. I have asked the guys to come onto the show and we have talked about the following: how their passion came about and the process to coming up with the idea of Theme Park Trader the idea of picking your niche passion to create a website and building a community how they work together and complement each other's skills the advice they have

In this episode, I talk to Nate Wright from Theme of the Crop; a WordPress theme business that he owns that solely caters for restaurants. I first met Nate at the WordPress Edinburgh Meetup, which he co-organises and started to work with him on his theme-based business. I have asked to appear on the show and to give us his insights on the WordPress themes and plugins business. Some of the things we talk about are: how he first started using WordPress how first came up with the idea of WordPress restaurant themes and why he specifically chose this particular industry the challenges that he faced and advice for those who are looking to start or currently their own WordPress theme-based business what you should look out for if you want run your own theme business, but applies to everyone who is running some kind of business "I can say 'look, buy with me because I'm the person who is really going to help you with the restaurant'. If that person over there has got 20 different themes in different market, he'

In this episode, I interview Omer Eltigani from The Sudanese Kitchen who is in the middle of preparing the first ever Sudanese recipe book in English. We talk about: his background and how came up with the idea of creating his own recipe book how the idea was validated with a number of people, Sudanese and non-Sudanese people, as well as after setting up a pop-up restaurant in London why Omer chose WordPress and he got started with it how he overcome the challenges when he first started using WordPress what Omar envisions of how he wants the website to grow what can you learn from Omar's experience if you want to put together your own recipe book "You need to stand out. You need to show something that other people aren't showing so people will take notice of you. And it's all about getting noticed and getting attention. You need to be able to stand out very clearly from the beginning and stand out from the pack." - Omer Eltigani, Sudanese Kitchen This is a fascinating episode with Omer and shows that an

Hello and welcome to The IgniteRock Podcast, a show where I interview inspiring entrepreneurs, companies and brands who uses WordPress. My name is Ahmed Khalifa and I am the host of The IgniteRock Podcast. This is episode 0 where I say hello, welcome you and briefly explain the reasons behind IgniteRock; both the website and podcast. In this episode, I would like to say hello and welcome you to the IgniteRock Podcast. This is where I want to explain to you why I have started this podcast and what I plan to do with it. WordPress can be used by anyone; entrepreneurs, musicians, marketers, artists, chef, bloggers, fashion stylists, make-up artists, property agents, stockbroker, writer. Literally anyone. So I plan to interview those who have used WordPress and totally rocked it with WordPress to show you their journey, why they use WordPress and how they use it.