Amber along with her fiance are responsible for codesnipp.it which is a fantastic resource you should really check out.
She also blogs regularly and her writing has appeared on sites such as Freelance Folder, she also writes a Web Development blog over at her portfolio: Amber Weinberg
Hi Amber, so tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
Hi Paul ^_^.
I’m a freelance web developer who specializes in front-end development and WordPress. I’m 24 years old and have been making websites for over 10 years now, and freelancing full-time for just over a year. I’m based just outside of Nashville, TN (and no I’m not country! 😉 ) I like to read a lot of books and watch cool shows like Dexter and the Tudors…although I don’t get a lot of free time.
Why WordPress, Why is it right for you?
WordPress has been the easiest CMS I’ve ever used. I tried Joomla once, but the admin was so complicated I could barely figure it out, which meant none of my clients would be able to. Doing even the simplest of development tasks was such a pain. The admin in WordPress is easy enough for any client to grasp quickly. Development in it is super easy. I actually charge the same price whether I’m coding a static site or WordPress site. Plus the community and plugins make it easy to bolt on just about any functionality.
What plugins are a MUST have for your WordPress installs?
It really depends. I actually try to use the least amount of plugins as possible, to make it easy to move to the client site, so I’ll normally try to code something in, rather than use a plugin. The plugins I do use the most was WP Pagenavi and All-In-One SEO.
What’s next for WordPress in your opinion?
Hopefully they’ll add some additional functionality. The most important in my opinion is fixing the import script. When you use WordPress 3.0’s custom menus, they save in the DB, but when you’re exporting/importing WordPress to the client site, the menus don’t move over and you have to recreate them. This is normally a big pain because I often don’t use custom menus unless the client’s navigation is huge.
Your responsible for codesnipp.it, what prompted you to launch this project?
My fiance is the lead programmer for CoreCommerce and I wanted to do something fun with him in our spare time. After thinking it over, I realized that there were no social sites for developers.
When your open your browser what web page do you load first?
Depends on which browser. I use FireFox for development, which first opens my xampp local site. I use Chrome for browsing, which opens Chrome’s awesome shortcut page.
Outside of work, what other interests do you have?
I work a lot, but I have a ton of interests. I love reading, cooking, interior design, crafts, movies, camping and pretty much anything else.
How’s life as a freelancer, any negatives?
It’s awesome and I would never go back to a full-time job. Like everything, it does have it’s negatives, but the positives far outweigh them. The biggest negative for me is being kind of lonely, even with two dogs and a cat, so I try to get out and work at a cafe once a week.
Whats the one code snippet you use daily in your projects?
<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Thumbnail', true);?>
For some reason I can never remember the post meta snippet 😉
Anything else you want to tell us about, something your working on etc..?
My biggest tasks for the month were finishing up the public version of Codesnipp.it and finishing up the mobile site for Audible. Now that those are mostly done, I’d like to finish up several coding books, including Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and jQuery Novice to Ninja by Sitepoint. Those are two areas I’d really love to explore professionally.
A Big Thank You To Amber
We would like to thank Amber for taking time out to speak with WPzine. Amber has been an absolute pleasure to speak with and we wish her luck with all her future endeavors.
You can view Amber’s portfolio here: amberweinberg.com or connect with her on Twitter here @amberweinberg