Andrew Powers is the founder of PageLines, a premium WordPress developer. Read the review and profile of PageLines new product: PlatformPro.
Bryan: First of all, maybe you can explain what WordPress is, and how the themes you design integrate with it.
Andrew: WordPress originally started as an open-source software system for building blogs; because of this, it really has some nice marketing and syndication tools built in.
Since then it has evolved the point where it is a great over all ‘content management system’ for any website. That’s why we build on top of it.
We build software packages or “themes” that help you manage the design of your WordPress based website. So while WordPress helps you manage your site content, we help you manage your site design.
Bryan: What things need to be considered when buying a WordPress theme? And when choosing a theme designer?
Andrew: We think that ‘design’ is a very important part of success on the web. Specifically, professional design that is customized to your brand or business.
In that light, it’s very important to choose a theme that gives you a very professional starting point, yet gives you the tools you need to customize it for your business.
When choosing a designer, we think it’s important to choose someone who’s established, customer oriented and thinks about the details of your web presence, so you don’t have to.
Bryan: How much technical ability does a user need to use one of your themes? Can a novice design a full blown Website?
Andrew: Out of the box themes are very easy to implement; most people can set our products up with WordPress in less than an hour.
When it comes to ‘customization,’ we are always trying to make things simpler and easier for people; and we are getting better at it. In our latest product, we introduced a way for people to completely customize their site through drag & drop and options. It’s been a hit so far.
Bryan: Is there a difference in search engine optimization between themes and designers? Please explain.
Andrew: SEO is extremely important to most people with websites. Since ‘themes’ control the way information is displayed on your site, they play a huge role in SEO. At PageLines, we focus on using the right information structure and markup so search engines can find what they need and understand its relevance to search results.
Bryan: Maybe you can tell us a little about PageLines. When did you get started? What motivated you to start PageLines and to begin designing WordPress themes?
Andrew: PageLines started as a consulting business, helping small--business get great websites and then market them. We realized WordPress had a lot of potential as a content management system, but it only had blogging tools built in at the time.
PageLines started when we built a CMS theme framework for WordPress to use with our clients. At ?rst we gave this CMS theme away for free and people loved it. So we built a pro version and things started there.
My personal business philosophy is all about creating good ‘karma.’ I became passionate about doing this when I realized how we could help them, if we solved their “website problem.”
Bryan: How does PageLines differentiate itself from the plethora of other WordPress theme designers?
Andrew: PageLines believes in ‘quality over quantity’ and so we’ve focused on creating ‘website platforms’ as opposed to stand--alone themes.
For example, our themes all have 50 options or more, and integrated support for bbPress and several other WordPress plug-ins.
This gives our customers an edge because they have more functionality and a website that ?ts their needs better overall.
Bryan: How does PageLines make use of social media both in marketing and client interaction?
Andrew: Well, at this point we haven’t placed too high a priority on social media for our own marketing e?orts. Basically, our marketing has relied on creating great products for people.
That said, we are working on ways to better interact with people online. We do have a Twtter pro?le and Facebook page. Now we just need to ?gure out what people want to talk about.
Bryan: How is social media integrated with your product o?erings?
Andrew: We know that social media is important so we’ve implemented support for several features in the products that help you integrate social media feeds and links directly.
We’re also working on more options and better ways for people to build their community. In our latest product, PlatformPro, we’ve supported the BuddyPress addon for WordPress. This software basically turns your site into a social network in minutes, it’s really cool stuff.
Bryan: Which online tools do you recommend for businesses just getting started?
Andrew: Well this depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Everyone should be building their site(s) with WordPress and everyone will need Google Analytics installed to measure their performance.
There are some really cool plug-ins for WordPress that can help you with SEO and in syndicating your information across the Web.
Bryan: Many people feel that social media is too complex to master. What advice would you give them?
Andrew: I’ve found that the trick to building a social media following isn’t in the social part. The secret to ‘social media’ is ?nding a way to deliver value through those channels… whether that means doing contests, making people laugh, or sharing information.
Bryan: Social media can be addictive. How can businesses keep it from taking over the workday?
Andrew: I wish I knew. We would spend more time on social if we didn’t have this problem.
Bryan: What advice would you give to someone starting an online business?
Andrew: The best advice for online business is to take the ‘karma’ approach. It might seem obvious but success and monetization follow value; not the other way around. PageLines started when we gave something away for free.
Bryan: What is up next for you? What are you reading now?
Andrew: We have a couple of HUGE projects coming up with PageLines… our biggest and most important stuff to date. Of course, I can’t talk about this stuff yet. Outside of this, we are working on making all our theme designs compatible with our new Platform drag & drop framework.
Andrew Powers is the founder of PageLines a premium WordPress developer.
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