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It’s been a while since i did the first Interview JR Farr from Mojo Themes. Today I’m featuring Oli Dale from WPLift.

Oliver Dale is the founder of Kooc Media, a startup company based in the UK.

He has been running a network of blogs / sites & has been publishing content online for 4 years.

Q: Could you tell us a little background about yourself & wplift?

Hello, I started out as a web designer for a large agency based in the UK – I have always liked working with open source software, I used to run one of the largest free forum hosting companies, based on phpBB. You can read more about me on my company site – http://kooc.co.uk/about

Q: How long have you been working with WordPress?

I started working with WordPress in 2005 when I ran a large web design blog, I loved how easy it was to build themes and customize with plugins compared to other CMSs ( like expression engine, drupal etc) so i have used it for every site I’ve built since then.

Q: What are the strategies you’ve been using to promote the WPLift blog?

At the start I focused on building good content and making connections with other bloggers in the WordPress area – that’s what I love about our community, everyone is friendly and keen to link out to each other and help each other grow. Its one of the things that is superior about the WordPress community, even if people are traditional “rivals” we still help each other.

Q: How you got the idea about creating a theme company (Theme Furnace) and when you will be launching it?

I have been running a number of successful plugins for WordPress for a while now, but my plan as a designer was always to launch a theme company – I just didn’t want to rush it, or put out a product I wasn’t proud of. I’m looking to launch themefurnace in the new year with at least 3 really high quality themes that I think the community will like.

Q: Behind the site, what powers WP Lift? Which plugins do you use, is your theme custom or off the shelf?

I designed and built the theme myself – It was built pretty quickly actually, I think I designed it a day and was built within the next 2 or so. I didn’t expect the site to get as big as it has done so I wish I had of spent a bit time on it now. I have a new version in development which should be a lot better – I’m launching that next year as well.

Plugins I use are :

• Akismet
• All in One SEO Pack
• BuySellAds
• Contact Form 7
• Content Slide Plugin
• Disqus Comment System
• Feedburner Circulation
• FeedBurner FeedSmith
• Google XML Sitemaps
• ILWP Simple Link Cloaker
• Limit Login Attempts
• Pippity
• Really Simple CAPTCHA
• Relevanssi
• SEO Tag Cloud Widget
• Sharebar
• Site Table of Contents
• SyntaxHighlighter Evolved
• Tweet old post
• Wiziapp
• WordPress Download Monitor
• WP-PageNavi
• WP AdCenter
• WP Super Cache

Q: Whats next for wplift.com?

As I mentioned, I have a redesign planned with new 2 great new community features ( I want to keep those secret for now:) ) Hopefully more great content, more authors added to the team and more growth!

Thanks Oli for the interview !