I didn’t set out to become a WordPress developer.
In fact, when I first became involved with WordPress in 2007, I didn’t even know what WordPress was.
It started because my daughter wanted to be a figure skater.
That may seem like a strange beginning for a nearly 20-year journey with WordPress, but that’s exactly how it happened.
It All Started at an Ice Rink
In 2007, I had moved to Florida with my youngest daughter. One of her dreams was to become a figure skater.
We found a local ice rink, she got on the ice, and she loved it.
Before long, she was taking lessons and eventually joined a skating club. Since I was her parent, I became involved with the club too.
I jokingly called myself a “skater dad.”
You hear about soccer moms. Well, I became the skating version.
The club relied heavily on volunteers, and because people knew I had a technical background, someone eventually approached me about helping with the club’s website.
They basically said:
“We don’t really have anyone maintaining the website anymore. Is that something you could help us with?”
And I said yes.
The problem was that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
My First Look at WordPress
Someone had been maintaining the club website before me, so they helped me get logged into the administration area.
That was when I first learned the site was built using something called WordPress.
I had never used it.
I really didn’t know much about building websites at all.
The person helping me showed me a few basics:
- How to log in.
- Where the content was located.
- What a theme was.
- How to edit some of the existing information.
And then I started experimenting.
At first, I was mostly changing text and updating information about the skating club.
The WordPress editor reminded me a little bit of Microsoft Word, which made it less intimidating. I had worked in business for years and was already comfortable with programs like Word and Excel.
WordPress felt like editing a document — except the document was being published on the internet.
That fascinated me.
YouTube Became One of My Teachers
Once I became curious about WordPress, I started trying to learn everything I could.
I watched YouTube videos.
I read articles.
I searched for answers whenever I ran into something I didn’t understand.
There were WordPress tutorials on YouTube even back then, although WordPress looked very different from what we use today.
Slowly, I started improving the skating club website.
I changed the layout.
I adjusted the colors to better match the skating club.
I experimented with themes.
I learned about plugins.
Eventually I started learning CSS, HTML, PHP and some of the code running behind WordPress.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but WordPress had become a hobby.
And eventually, probably an obsession.
Other People Started Noticing
As I improved the skating club website, some of the other parents noticed.
One parent approached me and said something along the lines of:
“I’ve seen what you’ve done with the skating club website. I have a website for my business. Can you help me with mine?”
It turned out their website was also built with WordPress.
So I helped them.
Then another parent asked.
Then someone else heard about what I was doing.
Most of these people were small-business owners, and they needed help with things like:
- Updating their websites.
- Changing the design.
- Adding information.
- Fixing problems.
- Making the site easier for customers to use.
At first, I wasn’t charging anyone.
I was doing it because I enjoyed it.
It was a hobby, and I was helping people at the same time.
Word of Mouth Changed Everything
Eventually the people I helped started referring other business owners to me.
Someone would say:
“Rob worked on my website. You should talk to him.”
I didn’t think of it as marketing.
I didn’t know anything about lead generation.
My professional background was accounting and finance, not marketing.
But I was learning something important:
A good website could help a business.
And if I could improve the website, I could help the business owner.
Before long, I had worked on several WordPress websites.
I still wasn’t thinking of myself as a professional WordPress developer.
I wasn’t even keeping a portfolio.
I was simply helping people and learning as I went.
Eventually Someone Paid Me $1,000
One of the moments that really changed things happened after I had worked on somewhere around ten WordPress websites.
A business owner liked what I had done with their website so much that they paid me $1,000.
I hadn’t gone into the project expecting that.
At the time, $1,000 felt like a lot of money for something I had originally started doing as a hobby.
Looking back today, the amount of work I had done on that website was probably worth considerably more.
But that wasn’t the important part.
The important part was realizing:
Someone was willing to pay me for something I had taught myself to do.
That was a major turning point.
I Became a Self-Taught WordPress Developer
I never went to school for web development.
There wasn’t some master plan where I decided to become a WordPress developer.
I learned by doing.
I broke things.
I fixed things.
I watched tutorials.
I read documentation.
I experimented.
I worked on real websites for real businesses.
Over time, I became much more comfortable working behind the scenes in WordPress.
Design was never really my strongest skill.
I’m more technical than artistic.
If someone showed me what they wanted a website to look like, though, I could usually figure out how to build it.
And that ability became stronger with every website I worked on.
I Never Expected to Enjoy Programming
There’s actually an interesting twist to this story.
Many years before WordPress, I took a computer programming course in college.
This was back in the era of punch cards and mainframe computers.
Programming was incredibly tedious.
You could spend hours trying to get a very simple program to work.
For one project, I created a basic blackjack game where you could play against the computer.
I received a good grade on the project, but I remember finishing the course thinking:
I never want to do this again.
Computers and programming seemed far too complicated.
Years later, WordPress changed my perspective.
Suddenly I was learning CSS.
I was looking at PHP.
I was modifying code.
I was figuring out how plugins worked.
Technology had become much more accessible, and WordPress gave me a reason to learn it.
WordPress Has Changed Tremendously Since 2007
The WordPress I started using in 2007 looks very little like WordPress today.
Themes have changed.
Plugins have changed.
Hosting has changed.
Website design has changed.
Mobile devices completely changed how websites needed to work.
Page builders arrived.
The block editor arrived.
Managed WordPress hosting became much more common.
And now AI is starting to change the way websites are designed, written and managed.
Some things have become easier.
Some things have become more complicated.
But overall, WordPress has come a very long way.
And I’m still using it.
Why I Still Recommend WordPress
There are plenty of other website platforms today.
Squarespace and Wix are two obvious examples.
They can absolutely make sense for some people.
But WordPress still gives website owners something I value tremendously:
Flexibility.
WordPress itself is open-source software, which means the core software is available without a licensing charge.
You still need hosting to put your website on the internet, and many themes, plugins and services cost money.
But you aren’t locked into one company controlling your entire website.
You have a tremendous amount of freedom in how you build it, host it and expand it.
That flexibility is one of the reasons I’ve stayed with WordPress for nearly two decades.
My Role With WordPress Has Changed
I’m 65 now.
I’m not interested in spending endless days and nights building websites the way I sometimes did years ago.
What interests me much more today is sharing what I’ve learned.
That’s one of the reasons I’m building WPEdge Solutions around education, practical help and WordPress consulting.
After almost 20 years, I’ve encountered a lot of WordPress problems.
I’ve seen websites break.
I’ve seen plugins conflict with each other.
I’ve dealt with hosting problems.
I’ve watched WordPress go through major changes.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself.
And all of those experiences taught me how to look at a WordPress problem and start narrowing down what might be causing it.
Some problems can be fixed in a few minutes.
Others require some detective work.
But experience makes troubleshooting much easier.
Why I Started WPEdge Solutions
WPEdge Solutions is my way of giving some of that experience back.
I want to:
- Share the things I’ve learned.
- Teach WordPress in simple language.
- Help people solve website problems.
- Talk about the mistakes I’ve made.
- Share what I’m still learning.
- Explore how technology such as AI is changing the way we work with WordPress.
My YouTube channel is a big part of that.
If someone has a WordPress problem, I’d love for them to find one of my videos or articles through a search and discover an answer that helps them.
And if I haven’t explained something clearly enough, I want people to ask questions.
Sometimes a good question becomes the idea for my next article or video.
I’m Still Learning Too
One thing you’ll rarely hear me call myself is a WordPress expert.
I’ve been using WordPress since 2007, but I’m still learning.
That’s because WordPress keeps changing.
Technology keeps changing.
Now AI is changing things again.
I think continuing to learn is part of the fun.
That’s also a big part of what I want WPEdge Solutions to be about.
I’m going to share what I know.
I’m going to share what I’m learning.
And I’m going to share what happens along the way.
Come Along for the Journey
My WordPress journey started unexpectedly at an ice rink in 2007.
Almost 20 years later, I’m still here.
A lot has changed — both with WordPress and in my own life.
And I think the next part of the journey might be just as interesting as the first.
If you’re managing a WordPress website, building a business website, learning WordPress yourself, or simply trying to solve a frustrating website problem, I hope something I share here can make the process a little easier.
And if you’ve been using WordPress for a while, I’d love to hear your story too.
When did you first start using WordPress?
Leave a comment and tell me how you got started.