On this week’s episode, we’re gonna take a trip down memory lane, and talk about the last five years of me doing a WordPress podcast, right here on Your Website Engineer Podcast, Episode 261.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Your Website Engineer Podcast. Today, we are celebrating the Five Year Anniversary of this podcast. Yes, it’s hard to believe that it has been five years since this thing has gotten started, but that’s – it’s awesome. It is as incredible – back in 2010 – December 3rd, 2010 was my very first episode, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that. Let’s dive in. Let’s get through the news and the plugin section, and then we’ll get into a little bit of history on this show, and what’s happened over the last five years.

So, the big piece of information that’s out in the news is WordPress 4.4 Release Candidate is out and available. This normally means that WordPress, the next version, is very, very close. It looks like – in the notes for this, it looks like they’re targeting the December 8th, which is next Tuesday, and that is going to be when WordPress 4.4 releases. It’s been a huge, huge week. It’s like a huge week and a half going on in the WordPress community with WordPress.com coming out with the app that came out. That all came out last week. We’re talking about WordCamp US is all of this week – or not all of this week, but towards the end of this week. And then next week, we’re releasing WordPress 4.4.

And all of this is going to take place right before the holidays, and then maybe everybody can sit back and relax and enjoy the holidays without having these impending deadlines that are just over them all the single times. So, that’s what’s coming out. And be sure to look at that and check out, and make sure you’re ready for this new version of WordPress. Make sure your site’s backed up, all that good jazz. And we’ll talk more about that next week.

The, “Is there a plugin for that?” section, I didn’t really want to highlight a specific plugin, but one with a new feature that you may or may not have known about, and this happens on WordPress.com starting on December 1st, and it also happened in Jetpack. And it has the ability to turn snow on on your website. I don’t know if this is anything that’s important or not to you, but you have the ability to go in, you can turn snow on so that snow falls on your website. And if you’re using Jetpack, you can go ahead, there’s a module that you can turn off. You could basically just turn that off in Settings under General. It’s off by default, and if you want to turn it on, you can go ahead and do that.

If you want to remove that option, there’s a link in the show notes for a blog post written by one of my coworkers, Jeremy, who’s on the Jetpack team, and he talks about how you can enable snow all the time, if you can enable snow in different months if you want to. There’s all kinds of good information there. So, if you’re interested, I know that half of the world isn’t seeing snow right now because it is summertime, or almost summertime for half of the globe, so it won’t make any sense to have snow on on your side of the world, but you can follow the steps in this blog post and you can actually turn snow on when it is snowy in your neck of the woods. So, that is the featured plugin of the week, and it’s just how to turn snow on on your WordPress website.

Okay, so today, as we dive in, I just wanted to take a trip down memory lane and just kinda look and see what has changed, and what has happened in these last five years of podcasting. So, I started this podcast on December 3rd, 2010. When I did it, there was only two other WordPress shows that were out there, and between the two shows, they had about seven or eight episodes in total that were outdated. They were already about a year outdated, and there was no more shows. And so, I’m like, “Ah, this would be a good time for me to actually, you know, get into an area, get into a niche where people may or may not be able to find the show based on searching for the term WordPress.” And so, I started back then, December 3rd, 2010. Now, we’re to the point where there’s more than 15 WordPress shows that are on iTunes, just by me doing a quick search on iTunes.

And so, that’s where I got started. I got started in December 2010, and you may or may not know this, either – I don’t think I’ve ever shared this before – but I had a podcast and it was called Business Online Podcast that started about two months before that. It did about, I don’t know, maybe 12 or 13 – maybe up to 20 shows, and before I decided that I couldn’t do both shows, and I wanted to be more targeted, the Business Online Podcast show was a show that was, like, talking about all the different tools and stuff that you could run your business online. We talked about, like, Skype and, like, how to use Facebook and Twitter and all that kind of good stuff. So, there’s just too many topics to cover, so I went ahead and just – I kind of killed that off, and then started focusing on Your Website Engineer.

That first episode was 6 minutes and 34 seconds. It was all about letting you know what the show was about, what I was gonna talk about on the show, just kinda outlining and highlighting the show, and it originally had the name The WordPress Engineer. Now, that’s a little trivia tidbit that you may or may not have known, as well. And it originally had that name. That was the name that I had picked, that was the domain name that I had purchased, and that was what I had used in 99 designs when I was getting the logo and the podcast artwork designed for the show.

And luckily, I was so thankful that there was one of the guys that said, “You may want to check into the trademarks for WordPress, and make sure that this is okay, that you’re allowed to call yourself The WordPress Engineer.” And because the name sounded awesome. I thought, “Ah, this would be really great.” Well, it turns out that you can’t use WordPress in a top level domain, and there was all kinds of other issues with it. So, the first episode I didn’t bother rerecording because it was so painful to rerecord the very first time, but then Episodes 2 through 261, it’s Your Website Engineer, and that is the brand name that I’ve stuck with for the last five years.

WordPress, when we started this whole thing, December in 2010, was on Version 3.0. The brand new default theme was 2010, which is pretty crazy. Like, you think about that, how long ago that was. And I’m looking at just some of the other things that happened – I was gonna install WordPress 3.0 just to see what it looks like and what you can do, but basically, it had – I’m trying to see – it had the new default theme is 2010. It allows you to implement custom backgrounds, headers, short links, menus – menus came out in 3.0, that was a brand new thing – post types – so custom post types, that was a new thing – and taxonomies. So, all of those things had just gotten started in 2010, when I started this crazy podcast that many years ago.

There have been 14 releases since then, so if you think – and those are major releases, so there’s been a lot of minor ones with security updates and whatnot. So, you know, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 all the way up to 4.4 will actually happen this year, and next week or so.

Let’s see, what else has happened? The ninth episode was an awesome recording. It was my very first recorded episode, and it got lost in Adobe Audition. I was recording directly into my computer, and I did an interview with a lawyer, and we were talking all about how he got awesome site traffic and how he optimized his site to make sure that his site wouldn’t go down when he was getting hundreds of thousands of people coming to his site. It was probably one of my favorite interviews. Of course it was my favorite because it was my very first one.

And we were on Skype together, and we had just wrapped up the interview. I’m like, “Let me check to make sure that we got it.” I hit Stop on the Adobe Audition, and I had all the waveform there; it looked like all the text was there. I was just so excited that I recorded my very first interview. I was excited to – you know, I think I was even ahead of schedule, like, I had it recorded on a Friday and it was ready to release. And I said, “Yup, looks good, and thanks so much,” and that’s what I said as we continued to chat afterwards. And then all Adobe Audition played was, “Yup, looks good. Thanks so much.” “Yup, looks good. Thanks so much.” It just kept repeating over and over again. I was so heartbroken.

I was never able to rerecord that episode, so that one is kind of just in my memory. And so, that day, I went out and I bought a digital recorder, and so, that was – oh, let’s see – that was episode, I don’t know, 9, I think I said. So, for the last 240-plus episodes, I have had a digital recorder, and I can see the audio levels, and I can make sure that it’s working while I’m looking at my computer while recording these episodes.

Earlier in 2010, right before I started the podcast, I actually had my own development agency, or freelance business, whatever you want to call it. I called it Hartzler Digital Media, and I continued to build it and build websites and clients. I had clients. And that was a really unique place for me. I used the podcast a long time for building business, just generating new business and leads. There were a lot of times that I would come and I would have email from people that are listening to the show and said, “Hey, I’d really like you to work on this. I feel like I trust you. I’ve heard you on the podcast.” And it was like great marketing strategy because I love podcasting.

I got started in kind of the radio industry when I was in college. I played smooth jazz on Sunday mornings – or I guess it was Sunday afternoons on college. That was my work-study job, was playing smooth jazz. And I also did a work-study position being a radio announcer, and I did things for the local high school football team, and the men’s basketball team. And so, those were like two ways that I got in front of the microphone. I just really fell in love with it. And so, that’s kind of how I got started, like, with – I wanted to create this podcast. I knew it would be a great way to build my business. And so, that’s what I ended up doing. I created the podcast to kind of thrive my business, and get more clients and more leads.

The show topics came from, like, a whole variation of places. A lot of times, it happened – I came up with a show idea based on what I was working on that week with a client. So, if a client had their site hacked, I talked about that. If a client couldn’t renew their domain name because another person owned it, like, I talked about that. Anything that I came across. You know, if I was building a store for somebody, we talked about building shopping carts and stores and things like that. So, it was a great idea for me to generate content. I also had a lot of people ask me questions, just use the contact form, fill out questions, and figure out, like, “Okay, that’s a good show topic.” You know, I’ve come up with five years’ worth of topics. It’s been kind of a challenge.

I also look through the news and find interesting stories and tag them for later, you know, as an interesting plugin that somebody talks about. Is it a way to build a custom login page? Or whatever that looks like. You know, it’s just been keeping your eyes and ears open about what’s going on in the WordPress space.

I kind of shifted my open – or my development agency over to training in 2013. So, from 2010 to the early stages of 2013, I was mainly looking for client work and working on projects and things like that. In 2013, I launched a – it was called Advanced WordPress Developer Course, and it was an online training course where I had the videos hosted online, and I created these videos, and then each week, there would be like an hour webinar where I’d answer any questions and we’d talk and we’d chat. And I did that session for, like, four, five, six different times. And I had – I got to meet some other really neat developers. I still have relationships with a lot of those people. And it just – it was a great way for me to challenge myself to learn a subject, and then teach it on video.

Then later in that year, I created something called Conquer Your Website, and that was a short, kind of a more beginner level training series that people paid money for to access that course. Then, let’s see, what else is happening? Oh, in 20 – let’s see, that’s 2013. We’re still talking 2013, and the end of 2013 is when I got hired on at Automatic. That’s when I started as a happiness engineer, and started learning all things WordPress.com. And I want to tell you that the first couple months after starting at WordPress.com – or starting at Automatic, like, it was really hard and challenging to come up with show ideas because I would spend all day thinking WordPress.com, all day thinking about the things you can do on WordPress.com, this managed hosted site, and then I’m like, “I don’t know what to talk about in the self-hosted world.” Like, it was very disconnected. It was really, really hard.

So, I kinda just powered through, and I was recording those episodes, you know, late on Tuesday so they could go out early on Wednesday morning. Then in February of 20 – or in March of 2014, that’s when my daughter was born, and then there was a lot of weeks where I was recording at really ridiculously weird hours. You know, I may have woken up for her nightly feeding, it was 4:00; if I was awake enough, I would come down here and I would record an episode real quick, and just get things moving and going. And oh man, it was crazy times. But that’s what happens when I had a passion for WordPress, and I was like, “I don’t want to break the streak.” Like, that’s one of those things, like, I’ve been doing it 261 weeks in a row – like, I don’t want to miss the streak. I want to make sure that it’s always published while we go out there.

So, that five-year stretch, I’ve recorded episodes at WordCamps, I’ve recorded episodes at other events, like New Media Expo, things like that. I’ve done them on team meetups. I was in Barbados one time and I didn’t have time to record the episode, so I recorded it right into my computer and talked about team meetups, actually, when I was there in Barbados. I’ve done Skype interviews, I’ve done in-person interviews, and it’s just been a great way to know and learn other people about in the community, and some of the interesting, cool products that are out there to help WordPress users, you know, do this, whatever that is, better. So, that’s pretty cool.

I’ve recorded – three different times, I’ve recorded three episodes in a row, back to back to back, so that they could be set to release on three-week vacations that I’ve been on. Those were like three summers in a row, we went on three three-week vacations, so I’ve done that to make sure that I haven’t missed an episode. Every time I’m getting ready to go out of town, I make sure there’s another episode in the queue so I don’t have to worry about it while I’m gone. I can kind of set it and forget it, and remember that hey, there’s going to be another podcast episode that week.

There’s been nearly 1 million downloads, and if you think about that, that doesn’t sound like a huge, huge number for going for five years, but you know, when you think about all the people that are talking about your podcast numbers, you know, these are people that have these wide niche podcasts. So, something along the lines of people who are interested in business, or technology, or whatever that is. Like, they have a bigger range. Like, there’s not a lot of people that want specific WordPress information. So, nearly 1 million downloads, and there’s been more than 18 million hours listened. If you average about the 20 minutes per show, or whatnot – each show has been anywhere between that 16 and 30 minutes, trying to target that 20- to 24-minute mark.

Let’s see. I’ve changed hosting companies six times since I started in 2010. I’ve changed themes twice, and I’ve changed newsletter providers five times, which is crazy. Like, things just keep changing. They are so exciting. It’s always great to be right there, learning about what’s happening in the newest trends, and how to do this better, and how to do that better. And so, those are some of the reasons that I’ve changed those hosting companies that many times. I know that I’ve changed affiliate providers and things along those lines in five years. I couldn’t quite figure out how many or what I’ve changed in that amount of time. And so, that’s kind of a recap.

I guess one other thing I want to mention, I’ve done webinars before in the past, like doing one-hour training sessions. I’ve done live hangouts to just kind of hang out. I’ve spoken at events. The podcast has really helped me be comfortable in front of people, which is unusual because, like, nobody’s here – like, I’m in my office, all by myself, talking into a microphone. But that makes me feel more comfortable when I’m out in the public, and it’s time for me to give a presentation. I feel like I’m just more prepared, and I’m ready to give a presentation.

So, those are kind of some of the things that have been happening over the last five years. I’m really excited about what’s gonna happen in 2016, and what is that, you may ask? There’s gonna be more short actionable videos. Now, that’s – my fingers crossed, I’m hoping I can do this. And I’ve said before, like, I want to create short videos, but I’ve never actually pulled the trigger. But I’m actually going to find a time where I’m going to record four podcasts – or four videos at a time, and just have them set to be released – kind of do more batch processing because I feel like things go out of control sometimes when I’m at work, and you have to start work, quote-on-quote, and then go do this for my hobby, if you will.

So, we’re gonna do more short actionable videos, and I’m gonna try to tailor the content for beginners and developers. And when I say beginners, like, I don’t think that’s the best word, but I’m gonna try to tailor things so that there are ways to do things in the WordPress dashboard, and there’s ways to do things outside of the WordPress dashboard. And those are gonna be my two kind of target areas. So, you don’t necessarily have to be a beginner, but you don’t want to have to mess with any code, like, that’s going to be one target set. And then there’s going to be a target area for developers, and here’s how to do this with code and whatnot.

Let’s see; what else? Like, can I probably shoot 52 more podcast episodes? Unless 2016 is a weird year that has 53 or 51 weeks – 51 Wednesdays – there will be one every single week. I can promise you that. And hopefully, we can say that there’ll be three more revisions of WordPress that come out in 2016. With the current schedule, you know, once every about – once every four months or so, I think that will still continue to happen, and that’s how often we’ll get a brand new version of WordPress.

And so, lastly, I just want to say thank you so much for just hanging out with me, not just today, listening to what’s happened in the last five years. And if you’re brand new, thank you for tuning in, and just here’s what’s happened. You don’t have to go back and listen to all the episodes. But I just want to say thank you for tuning in, spending time each and every week, clicking on links that are on my resources page for affiliates, and subscribing to email newsletters, and just messaging me when you have questions.

All of those things. Like, like that helps to drive me on. That makes me feel like, “Hey, what I’m doing is providing value to somebody,” and that value is helping you build your WordPress website, understand and know how to use WordPress better, how to hire developer better, whatever the case may be. Like, my goal is to just provide valuable information so that you can do exactly what you want with your website, and have the best version of your website that you can possibly create.

And so, if you have any questions, ever, feel free; there’s a contact page on my website at YourWebsiteEngineer.com, or go onto the Twitters, if you will. I’m @DustinHartzler there; you can send me messages through there. Whatever. You can email me at Dustin@YourWebsiteEngineer.com. Any way that you want to get a hold of me and you have a question for me, I’m happy to answer questions. That’s one of the beautiful things about my job at Automatic. Like, I get to answer people’s questions all day long. It’s not like it’s a big burden for me to answer additional questions that are not part of work, you know, if you will.

So, that’s kind of – that’s a wrap, I guess. That’s five years. I cannot believe – 261 episodes. My hard drive is getting full with all of these episodes, and it’s just been an absolute blast. I have so much fun each week firing up this recorder, trying to figure out a neat, interesting plugin for you, what’s going on in the WordPress space, and then coming up with a topic. And has it been easy? No. It hasn’t been easy. There’s been weeks that I spend my two-hour block for recording and editing and show notes, all that kind of stuff, I’ve spent two or three hours just coming up with a show topic before. But that doesn’t discourage me, that just helps to push me on and plan out a little farther ahead, okay. The easy part’s recording. The hard part is coming up with topics, so if you have a topic, if you’re interested in me talking about X, let me know and I’ll try to work that into an upcoming schedule.

So, with that, I’m going to fire up the outro music, and that’s going to be a wrap. Five years’ worth of podcasts, over 18 million hours of you guys listening to this show. That just blows my mind. And the number of people that listen every week would fill an auditorium. Like, it’s so crazy that you guys spend time each week learning about WordPress, and so, I’m gonna keep creating it as long as you keep listening. So, that’s all I got for you this week. Take care. Thank you so much for five years. I’m talking to you. Bye-bye.