Neerav Bhatt's short 5-10 minute presentation for Wordcamp Australia 2008

1. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com “ The Best $5 I Ever Spent”

2. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com I Donated $US5 to Matt in mid-2004 because I was impressed with WP v 1.2-mingus

3. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com I realised that Wordpress used on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Platform <div style=&quot;display: block;&quot;> <h3><a name=&quot;popular&quot; id=&quot;popular&quot;>Most Popular Articles</a></h3> <ul> <?php query_posts('cat=17'); if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> <li><a class=&quot;title_pop&quot; href=&quot;<?php the_permalink() ?>&quot; title=&quot;<?php the_title(); ?>&quot; rel=&quot;bookmark&quot;><b><?php the_title(); ?></b></a> &nbsp;&nbsp; <b><?php comments_number(__('(No comments)'), __('(1 comment)'), __('(% comments)')); ?></b> <br /> <? $excerpt = the_excerpt_rss(); ?> </li> <?php endwhile; else: ?> <p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p> <?php endif; ?> </ul> </div> = Reliable content publishing system allowing me to tweak the code as I wished

4. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com First blog posts were to save useful information for my own use… but traffic to the blog grew and I realised other people found the information useful

5. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com So you’re wondering why donating to Wordpress was the best US$5 I ever spent

6. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com Wordpress has connected me with like minded people & new friends around the world Ben from Colorado , USA wearing www.roadlesstravelled.com.au t - shirt I sent him

7. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com N ot a public i ty seeker by nature but when my Wordpress blogs bec a me popular , media coverage created a reputation for me that had unexpected spin-off benefits

8. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com I ’ m a technology loving geek l ike most (all?) people at this Wordcamp conference Because of my blogs I’ve been able to review cool new gadgets & get media passes to events eg: CEBIT SEO/Internet marketing conference

9. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com Advertising revenue from my blogs + spin-off income from consulting gigs + other work gained from my reputation as a blogger has meant I can earn a great living while helping people solve their information needs

10. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com I know people will ask so: “No Google Adsense isn’t my only blog advertising revenue source ” Other major sources include: Direct Ad Sales and Affiliate links to products/services I recommend

11. Wordcamp Australia 2008 - Neerav Bhatt - www.neeravbhatt.com For all these reasons giving Matt $US5 for creating Wordpress is “The Best $5 I Ever Spent”