We are back with our much-awaited WordPress Influencer Interview Series. Today, we have Erin Lin, who is a passionate WordPress designer and owner of WPointer. She specializes in designing custom and responsive WordPress websites for her clients. In this interview, she also talks about how attending WordCamp Taiwan in 2018, has transformed her life in a better way. This year, she will be a regional sponsor for the same event. Word Camp Taiwan will commence in December.
The excerpts of the interview follow:
Cloudways: Hello Erin, we are glad to have you today. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background. How you started your career?
Erin: Hello! It’s my honor to be here today! Thank you for interviewing me!
I managed to get my Master’s degree in Interactive Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. Afterward, I had the opportunity to work for two companies as website and UI designer in Savannah, GA and Los Angeles, CA. At that time, I was working closely with web developers to design and maintain websites.
I always wished I could know more about programming, so I can make a whole dynamic website myself. Finally, I found WordPress in 2011. Since then, I literally can not live without it. It has totally transformed my life! I have worked as a freelancer for seven years, and have developed hundreds of websites. Last May, I launched my personal blog, WPointer, to deliver engaging and casual WordPress tutorials to aspiring WordPress newbies.
Cloudways: You have started your personal blog, WPointer. From where did you get the idea of blogging? What challenges did you face in the early stages?
Erin: During my freelancing days, I found myself answering the same questions – over and over again – to my clients. Therefore, I thought it would be nice if I can write them down on my blog, and to help more people understand and solve the issues facing them. Seven years of freelancing helped me gain knowledge about what mistakes newbies often make and what difficulties they usually encounter. On the other hand, I also own a WordPress learning group on Facebook, which has around 6000 members. A lot of people follow my tutorials, and ask for help and help others. This whole exercise gives me a lot of ideas.
As far as the challenges in the early stages – are concerned – I think it’s all about time management. It is because I have two young kids, I need to take care of them at the same time. Posting regularly, to me, is definitely a challenge. I used to write posts on my phone within fragmented time or even on the bed while putting my son to sleep.
Cloudways: You have created more than 100+ websites since 2011. Is there any project that you are proud of in particular? Can you share the most complicated or the most interesting project you have worked on?
Erin: I am definitely proud of my own blog site. I have spent a lot of time on its UI design and strived to build a comfortable online learning experience. Also, there’s another site, I think that’s quite interesting.
In 2018, I developed a Photographer’s site with Beaver Builder and Pods. Being able to create custom fields and use them in the page builder without any coding, is definitely an amazing and exciting thing! It made the site much more dynamic and easy to maintain.
Cloudways: We all know that there are a lot of CMSs available in the market. Why you specifically choose WordPress for developing your projects?
Erin: Before WordPress, I also tried my hands on Joomla and Drupal. Maybe because I am not a developer, back in the day, I really had a hard time understanding Joomla’s infrastructure. Drupal was too technical for me as well. On the other hand, WordPress is really straightforward. It basically divides a website into three parts: content, appearance (Theme) and functionality (Plugin).
As a designer, I know I can have better control over the content and theme, and I can use plugins to complement what I am weak at.
Cloudways: You have started a private learning group on Facebook. How do you motivate beginners to create WordPress websites? How do you encourage them to learn WordPress?
Erin: On my blog, one of the most popular tutorials is the “5-day self-learning course”, which consists of three series: blog site, the company site, and shopping site. Each series consists of six pages, which contain a total of 200- minute step-by-step video tutorials, along with text explanation on the side.
People can choose the series – they are interested in – to follow. In order to encourage my group members to start, every month, I pick one week as the “Group Learning Week”. Whoever is interested in creating a website can simply leave a message to sign up for free.
During that week, everybody tends to follow the “5-day self-learning course” day by day together and discuss in the group when needed. This “Group Learning Week” activity has successfully helped hundreds of members finish their first WordPress websites.
Cloudways: Last year, you had the opportunity to attend WordCamp Taipei. How was your experience there? Are you going to attend WordCamp US 2019? Do you have any group of WordPressers?
Erin: Last year, It was the first WordCamp in Taipei. I was extremely honored being one of the lead organizers, as well as a speaker. I got a few chances to meet with people in WordPress Central and mentors in Japan online, which was a truly fun and unforgettable experience.
I really enjoy connecting with people around the world. I also enjoy talking to sponsors and speakers at the pre-party event. This helps me understand how WordPress is transforming the internet world.
I wrote an article last year after the WordCamp. This year, WordCamp Taipei 2019 will commence on Dec. 28. With my blog getting bigger, this time, I am not only an attendee and an organizer, but also one of the regional sponsors. I hope I can pay back to the WordPress community as much as I can because I really love it so much! I really appreciate all the WordPress volunteers for their hard work.
By the way, this year, the ticket sales will start on Sep. 30. Welcome to join us in Taiwan!
Cloudways: I learned somewhere, when you were in school you learned Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. May I know which is the first design you developed using Photoshop? Can we see some pictures if you have?
Erin: One of the designs I remember the most was created when I was in Savannah College of Art and Design. It was my self-portrait that included all types of variations, done by Illustrator. Unfortunately, the hard drive that contains all of my previous work, is damaged. I have lost all the work that I had done during that time.
Cloudways: What do you think about affiliate marketing? How would you compare the affiliate marketing practices of today and say, five years back? What is the one thing you would like to change about the current affiliate industry?
Erin: Honestly, I only started to engage in affiliate marketing as recently as last May, which is less than one and a half years ago. So, I am really not sure about the difference between the current state and what it had been five years back. As far as I know, affiliate marketing is very mature and easy to setup. I really appreciate this type of economy which allows me to do what I am good at (Web design), promote WordPress to Chinese readers, and make a living with that at the same time.
I personally feel uncomfortable promoting services or products that I don’t like or even those I have never used. As long as the product itself is really worth-recommending, I will definitely love to spread the word, and make some money out of it.
There are too many languages to help you communicate. The service providers may not be able to keep documentation or make sales pages in all languages. If providers are willing to offer high ticket affiliate programs and cooperate with bloggers, I believe bloggers will be more welcome to be creative and make a win-win situation.
Cloudways: Would you agree that web hosting drives the internet? What are your thoughts about cloud hosting? How do you compare/contrast it with traditional shared hosting for businesses?
Erin: Before I came to know about Cloudways, I used to have shared hosting for my clients. At that time, I had two major problems: one, I could not upgrade my server at anytime, and the other was, I could not switch to other hosting plans. But the fact is, for a freelancer, clients come and go. It’s a common practice.
Hence, you have to adjust yourself according to the situations. Now, with cloud hosting available, as a non-technical designer, I can finally enjoy fast speed and server flexibility without touching those scary VPS settings. Thank you so much, Cloudways!
Cloudways: Let’s leave all the things for a while and talk about your personal life. I have visited your Facebook profile and observed that you have a group of buddies. Apart from work, how do you usually enjoy your personal life?
Erin: I have two kids. Besides work, we do a lot of family-centered activities, like reading at the bookstore, riding bicycles, playing balls, visiting a nearby park, etc…
Life is short, so I always remind myself to pursue a balanced lifestyle, instead of working all the time. Children grow super fast, so I hope I can give them as much time as I can, during their school age. Once the kids are in bed, I love reading books, surfing the internet to catch more WordPress news, watching movies, and playing Switch with my hubby.
Cloudways: Finally, here’s your chance to freestyle. Write anything you think could be interesting or useful to our readers. But in CHINESE. 😄
Erin: 哈囉！大家好，我是網站帶路姬，今天真的很開心有這個機會接受Cloudways的專訪，因為我自己也是Cloudways的忠實客戶，自己用過後覺得真的節省我很多管理主機的時間，讓我可以保有更多的時間在內容創作上，CP值真的很高，雲端主機效能真的不錯！我的網站帶路姬的部落格也是用他們的主機喔！如果你有興趣想瞭解更多的話，可以參考我的五天自學衝刺班的型錄篇，帶路姬有詳細的解說他們的方案，手把手的教你做好你的第一個WordPress型錄網站，並且教你Cloudways主機必學的主機管理技能喔！祝福大家網站製作與營運順利！:)
Translated by Erin Lin
“Hello! Hello everyone, I am the website with Lu Ji. I am really happy to have this opportunity to accept an interview with Cloudways. Because I am also a loyal customer of Cloudways, I feel that I have really saved a lot of time for my managed host after I have used it, so that I can keep more. More time in content creation, CP value is really high, cloud host performance is really good! My site leads the way to Jiji’s blog is also using their host! If you are interested in learning more, you can refer to my five-day self-study sprint class catalogue, with Lu Ji have detailed explanations of their plans, hands-on teaching you to do your first WordPress catalogue website, And teach you the host management skills that Cloudways hosts must learn! I wish you all the best in making and operating your website! :)”
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Saud Razzak
Saud is the WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways - A Managed WooCommerce Hosting Platform. Saud is responsible for creating buzz, spread knowledge, and educate the people about WordPress in the Community around the globe. In his free time, he likes to play cricket and learn new things on the Internet. You can email him at [email protected]
