Get to know Lisa Ghisolf a little more. She will be speaking about “The good, the bad & the ugly of finding & keeping work as a freelancer” at this year’s WordCamp Milwaukee.

What performance tips would you give to other pros (as related to speed, scalability, security, plugins, backup, etc.)?

Backup daily!!!! It’s the single most effective way to get your site back online after a security breach or… heaven forbid, you mess up the code.

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

I’m addicted to Elegant Themes, especially reskinning the framework and creating something new and different, but still getting security updates and good support.

Favorite plugin or least favorite plugin?

WP Super Cache is the bane of my existence.

If you could change one thing today about WP, what would it be?

Clean up the support forums, and same with the codycanyon plugins + WP repository. It’s all too confusing.

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

More streamlined, and more Buddypress integrations.

Tell us a story where you saved the WP day for yourself or on a client project. What made the difference for you?

This happens daily! I rely on a really strong WordPress community who’s been there, done that, or who’s going through the same issues at the same time, to keep me ahead of the curve.

What’s the biggest misconception you encounter about WordPress, and how do you clear it up for your clients?

Still, it’s just a blogging platform. And massive sites run on it! WP needs to share more of these showcase sites.

If you were interviewing another WordPress developer for a job, what is the first question you would ask and why?

What’s the biggest issue you solved and how’d you go about solving it?

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

I saw a programmer using it to build a website I had designed for a NFP and saw its awesome capabilities — and this was back in 2008. I knew it was the future, especially in comparison to other CMSs out there.