Hopefully, if you are reading this, you are already familiar with the WordPress Support and help forum. However, sometimes you may desperately need one-on-one support with the actual developer or designer of a plugin or theme.
When seeking advice, the most important aspect to consider is to form queries in a way that will allow the developer or designer to know what you want and all the information they need to help you.
In general, you want to be clear, concise, complete and kind during the time of asking for queries.
Before you ask for support, use Google. Make a concerted effort to search for a solution to your issue. This will help increase the clarity of communication with the developer about your problem. This helps to find and solve the problem more quickly and ultimately means saving you money.
Whenever you ask a plugins and theme developer for support for your products, please try to understand the number of questions they receive daily, job requirements, social life, and various other factors, they may be able to answer your question. Or may not even be able to accept.
They may also have a backlog of emails, which leads you into the queue. Also understand that if your question has already been addressed in support forums or theme/plugin documentation, you are less likely to get feedback. Generally, when a theme/plugin developer receives enough for the same question, they will post information publicly for the benefit of other users.
Make sure you supply valid contact information. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to contact someone, but could not because of an incorrect or incorrect email address in my contact form. Obviously, this will get you back in the long run, or impossible.
Realize that if you are asking for free help, then you have to respect the time they are devoted to the free theme/plugin and for the extra time you are asking them to spend with you. Supply them with as much information as possible.
Here is a list of standard information that is very helpful in dealing with a problem:
- If you are hosting WordPress on Windows Server instead of Linux, and / or on IIS instead of Apache, this should be the first thing we see them do. This is often the source of issues in WordPress installations.
- Tell them the name of the theme/plugin you are having a problem like Wplms, Divi, Edumodo and many more. Many developers and designers have many contributions to the WordPress community.
- Offer the author your WordPress version and active plugins and their versions if a plugin conflict is likely.
- Test for your issue in every browser and operating system you have, and tell them about the combination you used like internet explorer, opera mini, Mozilla Firefox, google chrome. You can help a lot by doing this part for them.
- In Notepad, create a file named anything. Type, issue you are facing with your WordPress site.
In this, upload it to your server, and point your browser to its location. You should look at various bits of information about your hosting environment, which can be useful in helping you. Give the link to the developer. * For technical users only.
- Tell the developer the name of your hosting company.
- Create a new FTP / SSH user and WordPress admin. If they ask for login information, they are given temporary accounts. Remove when finished.
- Do not include additional information. Stay focused on the problem. Something else is going to make the process long and end.
- Be polite Incorrect: “Hey Buddy, your …! # $ There is a problem with the plugin/theme.” what gives? Right: “Thank you for your great theme/plugin, [name here], I’m a problem…” and I’ve tried … Can you find the time to help me? “
- The developer should avoid spamming. If you send an email and do not receive a reply within 5 minutes, it does not mean that you should send another email. This will probably turn you down or off the queue, rather than at the head of the row.
- Do not call the developer on the phone unless expressly authorized otherwise. Just remember how someone will call you at 2 in the morning when you are sleeping, or at 2 in the afternoon, when you are working.
If you see an error message, copy the entire error message and include it in your initial support query. Often times, these error messages help reduce the problem for quicker resolution times.
The more clear and concise information you provide, the faster you can expect to receive an offer.
Final thoughts
Remember that this is a vibrant hood of some people. You are ready to pay for the support of the request ahead of time. Most developers recover with the help of a few small things, but each developer has a different point in which they would like to pay for the extra help that they are providing.
Remember that the more respectful and grateful you are to a developer, the more they will be willing to help you at little or no charge.
