Meet Akhtar of GoodWPThemes.com

Akhtar is a web designer who specializes in designs and code themes for WordPress websites. With his company GoodWPThemes.com, he has also worked with many clients as a freelancer to enhance their online presence. Learn more about his company and work by checking out his site, goodwpthemes.com or connect with him on Facebook and LinkedIn.

1. How and why did Goodwpthemes.com first get started?

GoodWPThemes has grown from a small company with just one developer back in 2013, when the WordPress was a very different place. The site is a great for responsive WordPress website themes and Bootstrap based templates. The concept of the site is to provide a one-stop shopping solution with high-quality themes for your development needs. The company's perspective is customer-centric, with a focus on design, implementation, and support solutions based on the individual desires and concepts of each new customer. The visitors come from all over the world, with 60% of visitors from the United States, UK, Germany, Australia, and several European countries. We made a decision to focus on custom WP themes development.

2. What makes a WordPress theme stand out, in your opinion?

We discover premium WordPress themes to be always an ideal choice to create something unique and exceptional which is impressive and eye-catching to bring targeted traffic to your website. Even though there are a lot of cost-free themes to choose from, most of them have similar designs and layouts.

There are only a few themes that will help you stand out from the crowd, and improve the blank WordPress installations into a cool looking site which people will visit and share. Check our most popular collection of Creative WordPress Themes for more design ideas.

3. What are some of the features of your website that are available for people to use?

There's a great collection of premium themes as well as some free themes you can download, but the premium themes are priced very competitively with some available for just $5. These are beautiful and nice-looking themes; several are aimed toward specific kinds of businesses, such as real estate, artists, authors, retailers, and much more.

4. Do you have resources that are helpful for newbies to WordPress--and what about for more advanced users?

We're working on the helpful resources section of our site, which covers a series of tips and tutorials about WordPress for both beginners and for advanced users. It will bring a lot of exciting and useful content. Stay updated! It will be worth waiting for! In addition, if you just want to focus on the videos, you can check out GoodWPThemes YouTube channel.

5. For someone who has been thinking of switching to WordPress but hasn't made the switch yet, what would you tell that person?

I think people should think about switching to WordPress, because it is a great choice for all websites owners, when compared alongside other CMS, and it has a big community that supports of the wide range of features.

We also offer additional WordPress installation services that include custom installations and a free installation service, which includes themes, plugins, and much more. This service is currently free but there are plans to expand it into a paid service in the future. To get more info about these services, you can visit our website contact page.

Thanks, Akhtar!

Meet Ross Barber, Web Designer for Bands and Musicians

Ross Barber is a web designer who specializes in design for bands and musicians. With his company Electric Kiwi, he has worked with many independent and unsigned artists to enhance their online presence.

1. What inspired you to create a web design and marketing firm specifically geared toward the music industry?

I've always loved music, and studied BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance at university. I started my course with the idea of becoming a professional singer/songwriter; however, as I progressed, I found I was becoming more interested in the promotion and marketing side of the industry. I had been designing websites since I was around 12 years old, and it made sense to me to combine the two things that I loved: web design and music. From there, Electric Kiwi was born!

2. What do you see as some specific/unique needs for music artists when it comes to building a website?

I create completely custom websites for each musician, as I think everyone's needs are different. However, I'd say that every musician's website should have the following sections: a way for people to listen to/buy your music, a way for people to contact you (you'd be surprised how many artist websites DON'T have contact information), a news section so people can see that you're still active, show listings (if you play live), and a design that reflects who YOU are as an artist.

3. In addition to having a great website, what else do people need to do to get noticed online in the music world--both by industry professionals and by fans/listeners?

I think with everyone being so easily connected via social media, fans and listeners expect artists to be available and want to connect with them on a personal level. For this reason, I think it's so important for artists to be engaging with their audience on social media. Of course, good music comes first, but you can't underestimate the power of building relationships and connections with your fans and industry professionals--it can make a huge difference.

4. I've often read the advice that with social media and online marketing, it's good for an indie artist to choose one network and commit to posting there rather than trying to "do everything" with social media. What are your thoughts on this?

I agree. There's a lot of overwhelm, especially for artists who are still in the DIY phase of their career. It can be tempting to be everywhere all at once, but ultimately, something is going to slip when you're spreading yourself so thin. It's good to have a presence on all of the major social platforms, but the main thing to bear in mind is where your audience is, and also what platform you enjoy using the most. My suggestion would be to be active on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube (if these are relevant to your music and fanbase), but to also have profiles set up on the other platforms so people can find you there.

5. Would you tell us about your new podcast interview series and what listeners can expect to hear?

Absolutely! I've just launched a new podcast show with my friend Marcio Novelli, called Bridge The Atlantic. We interview musicians and creative professionals about their careers. We're aiming for a balance between entertainment and education, so we try to keep it lighthearted and fun, a little more like a TV talk show than most other music business podcasts. We're on YouTube and iTunes, but the best starting point would be our website: http://bridge-the-atlantic.com.

Thanks, Ross!

Meet Ben Barker, Founder of Ways2Earn.com

Ben Barker left his former life as a recruitment consultant at the start of 2013 to pursue a career online. Ben now works full time as a web designer and internet marketer. Though he's still a relative newbie to the scene, he's already finding this to be a much more satisfying and fulfilling way of life!

Ben is the founder of a website called Ways2Earn.com, a user-led forum where people can share and discuss earning opportunities from across the internet. Ben started the site with the intention of providing a place for people looking to earn money online (whether it be to top up their existing income or replace it completely) to go for honest advice.

1. Why did you decide to start Ways2Earn.com?

Since I first had regular access to the internet (about 15 years ago), I've always been interested in utilizing it as a source of income. There are countless ways to do this; however, I discovered very quickly that it's very difficult to find honest and useful advice. There are, of course, many forums on the same subject, but it's a struggle to find one that isn't awash with people who are ultimately trying to direct you towards their own or somebody else's product or website. I wanted to create something more visually appealing than the "standard look" forums, a site that was simple and easy to navigate and well-enough moderated to maintain a culture of honesty.

I guess what it boils down to is that I wanted to create a website that I would find useful myself.

2. What are some of the challenges you find that people face when looking to develop an online income?

I think one of the main problems people face when they look to start out online is that they are hoping to find something that's immediately going to provide the key to their riches. This is completely understandable when there are so many websites out there telling you how easy this is to do, in the hope of selling you their "blueprint to success."

In reality, genuine get-rich-quick opportunities simply do not exist, and unless people realize this, they are likely to keep bouncing from one of these over-hyped guides to another, until they eventually give up because their expectations can't possibly be met.

If you are looking to develop a full-time income on the internet, you need to think of it as you would any other business, and build it from the bottom up. This means that a lot of effort is likely to be involved building the foundations before you even make a penny. I don't think most people would be adverse to putting this effort in if they were well-enough informed in the first place.

3. In terms of earning regularly through various sources of "micro" income, what do you think are the qualities that make someone successful?

It's probably a fairly obvious thing to say, but tenacity is surely the most important quality to have when looking to make any sort of income. With a lot of sites that offer the chance to earn a bit of income on the side, at the outset you can find yourself earning very little in relation to the work you put in, yet this can often improve massively if you stick with it. Your earning potential is often based on your reputation with the site, particularly with freelance sites such as Textbroker and Elance, so naturally you are likely to see your earnings improve over time.

Of course, you're a lot more likely to stick with sites that offer work that suits your interests. Therefore, if you're planning on investing regular time in any source of income, it's wise to choose topics that you're already enthusiastic about.

Having long term goals is also very useful. If you have an ultimate idea of a specific amount you're looking to earn, such as enough to cover your next holiday, each bit of income you earn along the way is a step towards this, and watching your goal drawing ever closer can be a great motivating factor to keep you going.

4. In your own life, what motivated you to leave your previous career and focus on doing online work in web design and internet marketing?

I've always dreamed of working for myself, and my love of computers was enough to convince me that the internet was the ideal way to do this. I've never really been a nine-to-five type of person, so I suppose I sort of saw it as the key to my freedom. I'm not frightened of a hard day's work, but it's great to be able to do it on my own terms and my own schedule.

The other really attractive thing about having an online business is the fact that it is a location-free career. I'm a keen traveler, and having the internet as my sole business requirement allows me to travel and work at the same time.

5. What has been the biggest challenge and what has been the greatest pleasure in your career shift?

It's hard to name the biggest single challenge, but I suppose for me, if I had to name one, it was probably convincing myself to commit full-time to a new career as it meant giving up the security of my previous job. It's really difficult to make that jump into the unknown, but I'm very glad I did.

There have been so many challenges along the way, and it can get really frustrating at times, but the satisfaction you get from finding the solution to each problem always seems to provide you with the inspiration you need to overcome the next one. I've just realized how cheesy that sounds--but it's true!

My greatest pleasure was without doubt seeing new users appear on a site I'd built from scratch. I think everyone gets a certain sense of fulfillment from seeing people get genuine use out of something they've created.

Thanks, Ben!

Meet Rob McGuire of Blog Movers

As someone who moves blogs to WordPress for a living, it brings Rob McGuire great joy when he finishes a project and delivers a website that performs better than the client's original website, is cheaper and easier to maintain, and rekindles the joy they once had when they first had their website. Check out some samples of Rob's WordPress migrations, as well as this portfolio of his work.

1. How did you get into the website migration business?

I had been a freelance web developer for a few years when I noticed that I started received more and more requests from people wanting a new website, and having it on WordPress instead of the platform they were currently using. As more and more of these types of requests came in, I decided to focus most of my time on doing website migrations.

2. What do you think motivates most people to want to migrate to WordPress?

I think most people choose to migrate to WordPress either for the cost savings or for the amount of flexibility WordPress offers. For example, many people who have migrated to WordPress from HubSpot have saved over $20,000 a year from the switch.

3. What are the benefits in hiring a professional blog mover rather than figuring out the details of migrating or using a redirect url or...?

A professional knows all the steps that are involved with migrating a website. There are a lot of steps that one should take in order to successfully migrate a website or blog to WordPress without losing any visitors or search rankings. If done improperly, it's a lot like throwing all your hard work away and starting fresh with a new website.

4. In your own experience, what makes WordPress a great product for blogs and websites?

I find WordPress to be a great choice for most websites because of the huge community that supports it and also for the wide range of features it supports. Many of the most popular websites run on WordPress and it's rare to come across some type of feature that can't work with WordPress.

5. If you could give advice to someone who knows he or she needs to go through a website remodel but has been putting it off, what would you suggest?

I think anyone considering a migration to WordPress should definitely not procrastinate about getting started. The longer you wait to migrate your website, the more work it ends up being. If put off long enough, the task could seem to be overwhelming, which may cause a person to just leave things as they were, and they would settle for the website they have instead of the website they wanted to have.

Thanks, Rob!

The Fun and Informative Blog of Caelan Huntress

I recently landed on the blog of Caelan Huntress, and it's an inspiring read. Caelan left a six-figure job to spend more time with his family; he and his wife and their three kids live in Costa Rica, where Caelan works from home. He does a combination of web design, content marketing, and videography. What makes his blog inspirational is that it's clear he's living his life fully; as you read his blog, you really get an example of the meaning of "work-life balance."

Caelan's most recent posts describe his experience at the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. He goes over the highlights of each presentation he attended, and he also tells you about the myriad of other activities that filled his days. In addition to spending full days attending the events of WDS, he also had time for hanging out with old friends, making new friends, doing yoga, riding his bike all over the place, and--best of all--running a smartphone treasure hunt as his alter-ego, Danger Man. Awesome!

Check out Caelan's blog not just for inspiration but also for practical tips. His posts on WDS are full of useful links that will be helpful to bloggers and other creative entrepreneurs.

Meet Melody Beals, Musician, Songwriter, and Host of FlipCamWebisodes

She is a musician and a songwriter. She is an interviewer gone web designer. She is a mother. She is Melody Beals. Singing always came easy to her because she loved it more than most teens her age loved sports, or dating, or friends. Melody's mom would scream across the house as Melody was proudly singing whatever choir medley that was stuck in her head, "Life is not a musical, Melody!” And Melody would retaliate with, "Then why did you name me 'Melody,' Mom??!!!" It was an on-going battle.

Melody was born and bred in Austin, Texas, home of South by Southwest, the world's largest music festival. Her real dream was always to be a backup singer for a major act, but a lot of that is meeting the right people, which never happened. Her love for music never died, but she decided to take things in a different direction rather than performing. Her new website, flipcamwebisodes.com, launched March of 2013.

She interviews solo artists, instrumentalists, bands of all genres, people who have had YouTube Videos go viral, etc. As long as these artists are not on any major labels at the time of interview, she is taking them on! Her idea is really to give indie musicians the chance to shine because if this kind of thing were around 10 years ago, she would have wanted somebody to help her! Melody wants to give people a voice, a platform, bragging rights, or whatever the musicians want to do with it to help them along the way.

If there is anything that she wishes to create other than a place to promote other than their music, she has creatively designed her website to let each artist shine as an individual and as the person that they are. She wants to catch the artists before they make it big, so they can all look back someday to see where they started.

Keep up with Melody and her flipcam on Twitter and Facebook.

Note: The photo of Melody was taken by Stephanie Featheringill.

1. How did you get the idea to focus your website (mostly!) on flipcam interviews with bands/musicians?

It was kind of an accident really. I wanted to create a blog originally. I just wanted to write about the things that really interested me, such as indie music. But after thinking about it for a day or two, I knew that I would have to bring a LOT more to the table if I were going to actually get people to come to the blog. So I decided that I still wanted to be immersed into the music scene and I knew it would help the musicians out if I interviewed them, as well as it would help my site gain traffic. I chose to do the Flipcam interviews, well... because I already had a flip cam, haha!

I just hadn't seen anything like it. I wanted to create a place where anybody and everybody could be themselves without judgment and have it be a relaxed environment. I liked the idea of kind of having an amateur feeling so everybody could be at ease, and I would be able to travel to them to get the interview.

2. What are some key elements to a good interview, in your opinion?

I really like to try to ask musicians about their learning experiences. I think that it creates a place where they can talk about their trials, and it could really help other hopefuls out there who are trying to do the same things. For me a good interview is one where people who watch can walk away like they have either gotten a chuckle out of it, or REALLY learned from it. The Aly Tadros and Tom Meny interviews are great examples of that.

3. With such a busy music scene in Austin (and so many great artists accessible online, too), how do you choose the musicians to feature on your site?

I am in the most wonderful position ever with this! When I go to do an interview, I ask them who they would recommend for me to look into next. Then I go home and look them up. I only literally interview the people whose music I actually love. So when they get interviewed by me, it's like they already know I'm a huge fan. And not mentioning any names, but this has made things a little awkward at times, haha! I try not to geek out, but I'm human. I pick the people I want to know the most about first because that makes it so easy to strike up the conversation.

4. What's your own background in music, and what motivated you to start your site?

My background is singing and playing ukulele, guitar, and some piano. Most of it has been unprofessionally, as I never really kicked my ass into gear hard enough to get out there like I had always dreamed. I'm not good enough at the instruments to even call myself a beginner, but it gets me through when I write a flippin' sweet lyric. I really got into music about 15 years ago.

Having a daughter who is 4 years old really has made me stop and think about whether I want to go on tour with her at home with her daddy. I know that's crazy to think about... but it could happen. The site came to mind because I'd be working from home with my daughter, Harmony. It just seemed more feasible to create a website instead of running out the door four nights a week to band practice or performances. With this, I choose my schedule. I also don't take too kindly to the band life anymore, because if I'm spending time away from my daughter, then it better be worth it. Most of the bands I was involved in never really made it out of the garage anyway, so I am really paying attention to where I am spending my time.

5. What projects do you see yourself taking on in the next couple of years?

I see this growing and more people getting involved with wanting to be a part of it. I do not see any limits to it. I will not stop. New ideas come to me every single day about things I want to do and things I want to add. I think about the people I want to talk to and how I can help them out. I take time to listen to opinions and ideas, and will also take help (in return for mine) from anybody interested in what I have going on. Oddly, I have been getting into acting more which is crazy because I never really saw myself doing that! Opportunities keep knocking and it's a shit ton of fun! I have no idea what my next step will actually be, but I do know that ANYTHING is possible and I am open to ALL opportunities (within reason, lol).

Thank you so much for being the very first person to interview me!

Thanks, Melody!

Meet Marc Chili of CouponChili.com

Marc Chili is the CEO of CouponChili.com which is rapidly becoming one of the web's fastest growing coupon code, discounts, and promotion code websites.

1. What inspired you to start Coupon Chili?

A few years ago I was buying a new CD player from the Best Buy website and noticed that there was an option in the shopping cart to enter in a Best Buy coupon. I'd never used online coupon codes before so searched Google to try to find a valid one to enter. I must have spent 30 minutes trying to find a valid and working coupon code before I gave up. As I already knew how to build websites, I thought to myself that there was probably an opportunity to build a coupons website that had valid content on it, instead of the sites I was visiting which always had out of date offers. The next day I started researching the market and spent a number of weeks developing the website and then launched in 2012--although it's only been this year that I've started to dedicate the majority of my time to the website and have expanded CouponChili.com to include many varied retailers.

2. What does the day to day running of the Coupon Chili website involve?

I've got a large checklist of future developments for the site which I try to work through with my programmers which is taking up a lot of the time at the moment. The pure basics of running a coupon code site, through, are what take the majority of hours in a typical day. This involves talking with the online retailers to get access to any new codes, adding them to the website, testing them, responding to customer feedback, and also reaching out to other websites online to find advertising opportunities.

3. How often do you update the deals on your site, including checking on the coupons and promo codes to make sure they still work?

This generally depends on the retailer. Most of them tend to release new coupon codes each month, so I tend to be at the busiest updating the promotions during week one of any given month. However, I am constantly looking to develop new partnerships with new websites, so on a daily basis I am adding new coupons and promo codes to the website to make sure that it's as up to date as possible with the latest offers.

4. When it comes to shopping, are there certain items that you particularly recommend as online purchases, rather than in-store buys?

Definitely. Obviously it goes without saying that any form of digital purchase will always need to be fulfilled online, but outside of that there are some items which tend to be best bought over the web. From my experience any form of computing equipment. There are simply no bricks and mortar stores that can compete with online retailers in this space. As an example, Coupon Chili works with Dell and has a range of offers on their XPS Ultrabooks and laptops. If you were to buy one of these in a physical shop versus buying online at Dell (with a Coupon Chili promotion) then the savings can be anything between $300 and $500. It simply makes sense.

5. What are the current best deals and coupons that are available on Coupon Chili that might appeal to our readers? 

From my perspective the Best Buy offers are great value for money at the moment, which is kind of cool considering it was because of them that I first got into this business! Other ones worth mentioning are RingCentral, Overstock, Tire Rack, BH Cosmetics, and Karmaloop--so a nice broad spectrum of retailer types there which should mean most people can find a bargain on the Coupon Chili website.

Thanks, Marc!