Speaker Highlight: Phil Gerbyshak

Confess to us your biggest moment of WP fail?

Once my .htaccess file got hacked, no doubt through my own fault. I probably installed some crappy plug-in that got hacked, and for about 96 hours, I couldn’t log in to my own site to do anything. To the outside world, all looked normal. To me, I was FREAKED OUT!

Do you use Themes & Child Themes, Roll your own, or both?

Themes and child themes, all the way. I have no time to roll my own, and the frameworks out there are AWESOME starting points!

What’s your favorite theme or theme framework? Why?

I love StudioPress for the nearly done child themes they offer. It makes it super easy for someone like me (a marketer) to create awesome looking sites.

Where do you see WordPress going in the next 2-3 years?

I see there being a paid version where everything is done for you except NOT hosted on the WordPress.com platform, with a good e-mail service that integrates into your site.

When was the first time that you really got excited about WordPress OR at what point did you decide to make it your career?

March 9, 2009 – I switched my main website from a TypePad blog to a self-hosted WordPress installation, with the help of my dear friend Jesse Petersen. OK, Jesse did most of the work. I just helped a little.