After months of design and development, you’ve finally released a theme to the public. You take a deep breath, sit back, and admire your work of art. Exactly three minutes later, a user tells you that they love your theme, but they’d just like to know how to add a third sidebar, a new widget area in the footer, and give the whole thing more of an art deco vibe. You freeze like a deer in the headlights. What now? Providing support for your themes offers tremendous opportunities to educate people, from explaining how to make a child theme to teaching simple CSS tweaks. It also presents challenges, like writing easy-to-follow setup documentation for a complex theme, or handling requests for help outside official support channels. This session will look at how to support your theme well while making users happy and staying sane – a winning combination in the world of theme development.

1. Kathryn Presner
WordCamp NYC 2014
@zoonini
#wcnyc

2. Kathryn
Presner
Happiness Engineer
Automattic Theme Team

4. Be Nice
empathetic, human, professional

7. Be Patient
even with thread-hijackers

10. Gauge Skill Level
beginner, expert, in between

14. Think Outside
The Theme
plugins, other themes

18. http://macmanx.com/2014/06/04/custom-fonts-without-plugins-for-wordpress-themes/

19. Offer Resources
Codex, tutorials, hire someone

21. Foster Community
let volunteers help, acknowledge

23. Provide Docs
FAQ, screenshots, screencasts

26. Be Realistic
enhancements, bugs, older
browsers, uncommon devices

30. Limit Channel-
Switching
different thread/forum/venue

32. Refer Out
if better expertise elsewhere

34. Best Practices
child themes, custom CSS plugin

38. Happy Users =
Happy You

40. What About You?
your biggest challenges?

41. Where to find
Presentation
slideshare.net/zoonini
Fonts
Arvo & Lato
Kathryn Presner
Web: kpresner.com
WordPress.org: zoonini
Twitter: @zoonini