26+ WordPress Gift Ideas

Today, July 26th, is my birthday. Unless it’s hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, there’s nothing I really want for my birthday. At least not traditional stuff like shoes, music, movies, or other items under $50 or $100…

I want WordPress stuff for my birthday

To be honest, I geek out about WordPress. All programmers, tech support people, bloggers, designers, and others who specialize in a niche have unconditional love for whatever they live and breathe day in and day out. Like any healthy relationship, it’s one of passion and frustration, filled with joyous and hard times, bundled into an emotional ball of overall awesomeness.

I’m very grateful that I get to work with WordPress-related stuff most days because I love the community, constant development, and creativity. I can’t see a better way to celebrate my birthday than to give me a gift that provides utility, joy, and saves me from spending my money.

How I ask for the things that would make me the happiest — WordPress stuff (or photography equipment) — is the hard part. What can I suggest to those determined gift-givers (family and some friends) that is WordPress related but not terribly difficult or inconvenient for them to buy?

The list

Here’s my list of WordPress-related stuff that someone could gift to me or give me cash and a Post-It Note on it dedicating it to something specific (at least that way I know they put some thought into it):

Tangible Stuff

• Cash — suggest a specific item to buy
• A pre-paid credit/gift card — like cash but less likely to burn a hole in the recipient’s pocket
• A card, with a fun story about how awesome my blog is and how you read it every day and can’t wait for new posts to go up… even if it’s blatantly untrue
• WordPress Swag, Zazzle, or Cafe Press goodies — WP clothing, coffee mugs, etc., a nice, traditional choice
• Smashing Magazine books — general and WordPress-specific resources
• Any book about WordPress — Amazon gift cards can be used for Kindles or eBooks too
• A WordCamp pass — one of my favorite ideas
• Geefts.net — gifts for web geeks (added Aug 12)

Digital Stuff

• PayPal credit/money — often used to buy WordPress stuff
• A domain name or web hosting — maybe a short URL
• WPMU DEV subscription — duh!
• Google AdWords — get that business off the ground
• WordPress.com upgrades — too bad gifting went away — for those who prefer WordPress.com
• Tuts+, ThemeForest, or CodeCanyon credits
• .NET magazine or digital subscription — or a bookazine
• Creative Edge gift subscription
• Adobe Creative Suite subscription
• Pandora One or Spotify Premium — because if you listen to it all day, ads get very annoying
• Netflix or Hulu gift subscriptions
• Facebook gift card — because everyone but me seems to play games, a good way to get a break from all that WordPress work
• A WordPress.org Commercial Theme — or any other theme you might like (and send a link to)
• WordPress Fix It — get any WP issue fixed for $39, good to have around in a hard time
• CrashPlan — secure cloud backup and online storage, so all your hard work isn’t lost by accident

Next Steps

If you’re a premium, pinky-finger-in-the-air plugin, theme, or service provider (that’s a compliment by the way), I suggest you start some sort of gifting program.

On the consumer-side of the table, it’s a lot easier to pull the trigger on a premium extension when I’m not the one paying for it (cue maniacal take-over-the-world laugh now). I’d love to email a link to a WordPress Registry, (this kind, not this kind) full of items from vendors happy to receive money from someone else and assign the license and goods to me! (Cut me in if you steal my business idea!)

What can you really do?

Unfortunately, your best bet is probably cash, PayPal, or a pre-paid gift card (Visa, American Express). That way you can spend it on whatever premium WordPress products you want, maybe even write it off as a business expense. Or just tell them about the tangible stuff and enjoy your swag.

What WordPress stuff would you want for your birthday?

If this list does it for you, feel free to send your mom a link to this post and tell her, “Just pick something.” (like I did)

Credits: gift in hands by asenat29, wrapped gifts by Steven Depolo,

Tags:

• wordcamp