I am Laura Nelson and I’m the content marketer at WooCommerce. I live in Brighton in the UK. It’s a lovely seaside town about an hour away from London. I originally moved there for university and have been living for around 15 years now.
I moved from Dorset, which is in the middle of nowhere. There are just lots of farms and trees and the countryside and it’s beautiful. But there wasn’t much going on.
When I moved to Brighton for university, I fell in love with the city and the vibrant community that lives there. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else now!
The Journey Began
My digital life before WordPress was pretty nonexistent. I came out of the university and went straight into a digital marketing agency that used WordPress.
When I was at university, I was really into Video Games. My dissertation was on how women are represented in video games and their marketing materials.
So I started up my own blog and I used WordPress for that. And that experience actually helped me get my first job.
Unfortunately, that website is no longer in existence as it got hacked – I wasn’t clued up on security back then! But it gave me a solid start with WordPress.
The Need for Content Marketing
Originally I thought I wanted to be a journalist, but then during university went on work experience at a blog aimed at new parents.
I was writing content for new mums about how to look after their babies and stuff – not a topic I knew about so it involved a lot of research!
But I loved how I could write a piece, and then five minutes later it’s out on the internet for the world to see.
I’ve had various roles in marketing and a lot of them have been very broad. So I’ve done a bit of event organizing, SEO, and paid ads, but it always comes back down to content.
I’ve been at WooCommerce for a year and a half, and the marketing team has changed a lot, and I see myself very much in a brand guardianship kind of role.
So in addition to writing content, I love educating people and empowering people to be able to do it themselves.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
We’ve got a big team at WooCommerce. I can’t write everything, so I very much see myself taking on this role where I help others be able to write content that’s good to share and give back to the community.
That’s how it creates value among my team members.
Advice for Business Owners
The best advice I could give is to keep updated with what’s going on in technology and its advancements, as we need to adapt things to what’s going on globally.
This is especially important for content marketers as that knowledge and data will influence the ways we use our words.
It’s always good to have your own personality in your style of writing, but it needs to adapt your tone to be suitable for use by different companies and audiences.
And I think the best way to learn how to do that is to consume as much different content as possible.
Stay in Touch
WordPress & Beyond
I think Gutenberg will get stronger and more vital to a point where anybody can start and build their own website.
They don’t need a digital background anymore –they’re really empowered to have full control over their website or store. This is already starting to happen, but in five years, I would at least hope it’s going to be a super polished version of that.
I may look biased, but the fact is that WordPress rules all of the content management ecosystems because of its community and ease of use.
My Love for the WordPress Community
I love the WordPress community. The first WordCamp I went to was WordCamp Europe in Vienna in 2016, and two weeks later, signed up to help organize my local WordCamp.
Two years later, I took the lead organizer role at WordCamp Brighton. And I’ve also been involved more in organizing local WordPress meetups. I try to attend WordCamps and meetups as much as I can.
Laura Nelson at WordCamp Brighton 2018
I’ve made such great friends in the community but I want to call out Tess Coughlan-Allen. Tess is a fellow marketer – we first met at a WordCamp and are now good friends.
We try and get a photo together at every WordCamp we go to, and we have a lovely montage of photos from all over the world. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to make WordCamp Europe 2022, so I’ve really missed her!
Me and Tess at WC19 in Berlin
After the Pandemic, WCEU22 was the first physical WordCamp Europe to meet & greet people around the world and listen to their stories. And, I was lucky to be one of the speakers speaking about “Creating a paid newsletter subscription in WordPress“.
And, a big thanks to Mustaasam for featuring me on WPfounders. That’s all because of the community.
Laura Nelson with Mustaasam at WCEU22
How I Keep Myself Updated
Twitter is just over my feed, I follow a lot of people in the community. But also I’m a big fan of newsletters.
There’s “TheRepository”, which I actually helped out with when it was first started. It’s now run by the awesome Rae Morey, who shares a weekly digest on what’s happening in the WordPress space.
MasterWP is another great newsletter out there focusing on WordPress.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
I got a cat about a year ago. My cat takes up a lot of my time. He’s called Mochi. He’s very cute and features in my talk today.
Mochi Watching My WordCamp Europe Talk
I and my partner am really into board games, and video games. I’m a massive nerd. I play Dungeons & Dragons every week with a group of friends.
Laura Nelson Playing Board Games
I generally spend trying to use my holiday time to go to festivals. I’m really into live music. I’ve got two festivals booked this year, and next year I’m hoping to go abroad as well.
I Reward Myself by
I have a very sweet tooth, so it’s usually cakes and other delicious sweet treats on a daily basis! For bigger milestones, I love going out for nice dinners, taking short breaks in and outside of the UK, and spending quality time with family & friends.
