How to build an Alexa Skill in WordPress with Tom Harrigan

Picture of Kane Simms
Kane Simms

About this episode

In this episode, we’re going to show you how you can build an Alexa Skill from right within WordPress.

WordPress powers almost a third of the internet and now millions of websites running WordPress can all have a presence on voice. It’s all thanks to VoiceWP, the WordPress plugin that lets you build an Alexa Skill from within the most widely adopted CMS on the planet.

You can create Flash Briefings with ease and even have Alexa read the content of your website. We all know about audio books, but this could be the first opportunity to have your website content turned into audio form and read aloud as soon as its published, without you having to go through much effort at all. It’s super simple to set up.

Our Guest

VoiceWP was built by our guest, Tom Harrigan, Partner and VP of Strategic Technology at Alley Interactive, a full service digital agency that specialises in helping publishers succeed online. We speak to Tom about VoiceWP, which is allowing brands such as People.com and Dow Jones’ Moneyish.com build Alexa Skills and establish a presence on voice with ease.

And you can use it too, because it’s free and super-simple to set up.

So, if you use WordPress as your CMS and you’re interested in testing the waters in voice, or if you’re looking for a starting point Alexa Skill building, then this episode is for you.

We’re speaking to Tom about:

  • Where the idea for VoiceWP came from and how it was built
  • What is the plugin all about and what features does it have
  • Who’s using it right now and who is it targeted at
  • How can you get up and running with the plugin and try it out for yourself
  • What does the future look like and what’s coming up

Links

Listen on:

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iTunes/Apple Podcast player

YouTube

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Host

Kane Simms

A strategic AI advisor who, for the past decade, has helped business leaders and product owners transform customer experience using conversational and generative AI.

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