We live in a world where simplified solutions are readily available everywhere, and results are expected instantly. So how do we meet those expectations? How do we lower the entry barrier and provide quick and easy ways to set up websites, especially for non-professionals? And how do web hosting companies ensure that people don’t simply go for a Facebook page instead — whose set-up is mind-blowingly quick and easy? By removing as many steps as possible, says Andrey—every step in set-up matters, however small, on the hoster and WordPress side. Luckily, we’re already taking big steps in the right direction. Listen in!

The online landscape has seen an incredible transformation over the last few years, where more businesses created ecommerce websites out of necessity – they had to in order to survive. But now as things get back to normal, we take a look at what has stayed, and what fell by the wayside. And no one is better positioned to do that than Robert Blaize, a Senior Engineer at WebPros. He’s been working with servers since the late 1990s, which means he’s seen what has come and gone, and what has staying power.

They say those who can’t do teach, but that’s certainly not the case for Carrie Dils. Her path from Starbucks Barista to Frontend Developer for Fortune 100 companies is an incredibly interesting one that includes starting and leaving web development in hopes of opening a coffee shop, then coming back with a vengeance to learn WordPress development, work with some of the biggest companies in the world, and then teach WordPress Development.

A common story among WordPress developers of a certain age is that they are self-taught. Tracy Apps has a similar story – but the similarities end there. See, Tracy has forged her own path. A path that skillfully combined art and engineering in a way that allows her to use all of her best skills to deliver fantastic results for her clients. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this month’s Women in Tech

WP-CLI is a command-line interface that is able to execute WordPress code, as well as so much more. While you’re locked into specific use cases using the Dashboard (namely the ones the Core team thinks of), WP-CLI is much more expressive and scalable. For this episode, we’re joined by Alain Schlesser. He’s the Senior Engineer at XWP; but he also maintains WP-CLI as an open source project.

Just 10 years ago, the common way to manage your infrastructure for many enterprises and large organizations was to do it themselves – something referred to as “on prem,” for on premises. As you can imagine, there are a lot of headaches that come along with managing your infrastructure this way. You need to have someone on call all the time incase something goes wrong. If a piece of hardware breaks, you either need to keep backups on hand or order them and hope they come quickly. And you may be at the mercy of certain events, like the iOS update from 2013 that took down college networks across the country. Luckily in 2022, there’s a better way: hyperscalers.

An open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for developing server-side Web applications, Node.js has garnered a huge amount of popularity and support. Using the widely used JavaScript language, it helps web developers of any size write lightning-fast applications, whether you’re supporting a small side project, or a government agency.

If you’re a developer, you know what it’s like having to test your code. If you’re anything like me, you verify the code works, run a couple of tests…maybe do some automated testing…and hope for the best. Perhaps that approach is OK for pet projects and early-stage projects, but what about for a platform that runs over 40% of the web? For Anne McCarthy, WordPress Product Liaison at Automattic, testing software of this magnitude is one of her primary responsibilities. And she does it well.

Imagine the following situation: As a website owner you are receiving a message from a visitor that your website is down. It gives a bad impression and costs you sales now and can diminish trust with consumers. In other words, when your site is unavailable or underperforming, you want to be the first one to know – you don’t want to hear it from a potential customer. In order for that to happen, you need monitoring. Luckily, Vincent Van Megen is here to tell us the most important facts about monitoring – what it is and how Plesk’s new offering, 360 Monitoring, can help.

One of the best things about WordPress is that it can help bring people into tech from all walks of life; that is the case with today’s guest, Emily Hunkler. On top of being the first guest in our Women in Tech series, she is the COO of GoWP, a company that helps agencies outsource common WordPress tasks and development.

WordPress accounts for over 40% of the web, so security is a big, important topic for site owners. Luckily, both Plesk and Patchstack are dedicated to keeping WordPress sites safe! In this episode, Robert tells us about Patchstack’s global bug bounty program to help fund developers keeping open-source software safe. We also discuss how security ownership is a team effort, from the site owner to the hosting company. Vulnerabilities can happen at any level, so all stakeholders need to be vigilant. Finally, we talk a bit about risk analysis, how to stay ontop of patches and vulnerabilities, and what the future of site security looks like.

We’ve reached the end of 2021, and it seems like just yesterday we were talking about omni-channel marketing and the massive evolutions that eCommerce saw in 2020. But now it’s time to recap what we’ve learned on Season 2 of Next Level Ops, as well as look towards what’s in store for 2022. To help us do that, we have Brian Richards, founder of WPSessions and organizer of WooSesh, the only WooCommerce-focused event. Brian has developed eCommerce sites, has been teaching WordPress for nearly 10 years, and now focuses on running WordPress and WooCommerce events. As a result, he has some fantastic insight on what’s going on and what’s to come.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) can be a great time for store owners to generate some extra income for their business to bring them through the end of the year. Whether you’re in retail and it’s usually your best quarter, or you’re in services which tend to be slow, running a good BFCM sale can be a boon to your business at a time where you want to finish the year strong. That’s why we have Jason Coleman today. He’s the founder of Stranger Studios, the company behind Paid Memberships Pro and the new Site Wide Sales plugin for WordPress. He gives us tons of advice based on lessons he’s learned over the last 10+ years running a digital business, and 4+ years intentionally working on BFCM sales.

These days, it’s easier than ever to set up an e-commerce store and not really think about how it all works. But when it comes to one of the most important aspects of your store, the payment gateway, there’s a lot to understand. From what they are to choosing the right now, you want to make sure you find one that fits your business. Luckily this month, we have Dirk Habermann with us from EVO Payments. He gives us the rundown, and then tells us a huge advantage of the Plesk eCommerce Toolkit!

For eCommerce owners, understanding SEO and the process of earning and retaining customers is of the utmost importance. Maddy Osman, SEO Consultant, is our guest speaker in this episode, tackling the technical and practical topics around user experience and site optimization from a marketing perspective. How can you make your site more ‘findable’ and interesting? Let’s take a look.

It’s the age-old question for some: do you go with a hosted web solution where you only have to worry about the content or products, or do you go with a self-hosted solution you can completely control. And like everything with computing, the answer is a resounding, “it depends.” It depends on what you need, what you want to focus on, and the goals of the business.

It’s easy for people to say you can boost performance with better hosting, or using a caching program — and sure, that’s true to some extent. But according to Patrick Garman, these changes won’t make the biggest impact…and he should know. He’s in the business of building and optimizing online stores. Instead, you should focus on simplicity

Taking the first steps to set up your store online can be tricky, so tune in to this episode to hear how you can make the process easier, and explore why now is the time to get started. In this episode we'll talk all the importance of using the right tools, and how Plesk can help!

If you're taking orders online, your eCommerce shop needs to be secure or you'll have big problems. Today, we have Chris Teitzel, the Founder of Lockr.io. Chris is a cybersecurity expert, and we’re going to get pretty deep on the importance of security when it comes to your eCommerce store, and how you can reduce liability while focusing on what you do best: running your business.

Just creating on the web isn’t the best approach when you’re trying to be a successful creator or business owner. Alberto Medina knows that, and he, with his team at Google, are dedicated to helping creators by showing them how to be more successful.