VaultPress by WordPress is Here

Posted on March 31st, 2010 by John Sostak

VaultPress by WordPress

VaultPress is a new Automattic service which Matt Mullenweg is promoting as more then another WordPress backup plugin.  Arcade does WordPress development, so when we were told we could beta test VaultPress, everyone gets excited.

This is exactly what WordPress needs.  We use WP as a website CMS, and it is a wonderful website content management system.  While originally a blog publishing platform, it has grown.  It is a solid solution for most sites we build.  There are some holes in WP, such as the admin panel, the open source plugins permissions settings are also said to be vulnerable.

Arcade has had sites hacked, and we host our clients sites, and cannot stress security enough.  Akismet, Bad Behavior and WP Backup are not enough.  We also do independent backups, and it appears VaultPress will take over this task for us.

In the time being, we are going to continue our standard, lock down security, and wait for our VaultPress beta API.  When we receive it, we will give a solid review of all the features, and how we apply it to our sites.  Please visit the VaultPress blog to learn more about what Matt and Automattic have been building over the past 9 months, VaultPress.

Tags: security, wordpress

Can you work from home…effectively?

Posted on March 14th, 2010 by John Sostak

Toni Schneider is a partner at Automattic. Toni just put a great post up on his blog, 5 reasons why your company should be distributed.

In Silicon Valley, distributed means the employees are home based.  It is a new term for me, but not a new concept.  Wordpress has created such a passionate community, many members contribute for no financial gain whatsoever.  I am not surprised this works well for them.  The Wordpress community is a movement that I am a part of.  It is rewarding to contribute to making software that is improved by each member that touches it.  Matt Mullenweg and Toni and all the Wordpress community members have a reason to be proud.  WP is the anti Wall Street.

I asked Toni some pretty specific questions, like how do you keep people from freelancing, and how do you motivate them.  He gave me a very thoughtful response, and it has me thinking it is time to try it again.  My reluctance lies in the nature of Arcade Digital employees.  We are primarily a marketing company.  Our team is committed, but small.  If we grow, can we trust an entry level Internet marketing assistant to write articles, do submissions, and stay away from pirating music and laying on the beach?

Toni’s advice was to do projects first, before you commit to full time employment with benefits and stock.  I’ve thought about this, but haven’t tried it yet.  I will when we hire our next Internet marketer.  I can assign him-her to a couple clients, and ride it out for 90 days.  Month to month.  Internet marketing and social media lends itself to goofing off.  If we can determine that the marketer is not, we have a keeper.

Check out P2, by Wordpress.  It is a Wordpress theme that is real time blogging.  I am going to install it and see if it can help us manage the work being completed by each of us.  Arcade already uses Basecamp, this may compliment it, like Campfire was made for by 37Signals.

I need to wrap my arms around how to judge how much social media marketing should be done in a reasonable week.  The analytics are easy, but the intangibles of marketing are difficult to quantify.  Marketing is hard work, and it takes a lot of effort to manage an effective social media campaign.  It would be easier to manage SEO and SEM.

What has been your experience with distributed companies?  Have you been a home based employee, or do you employee home based Internet marketers, and public relations managers?

Tags: Home Based, social media, wordpress