Returning to My Roots as a WordPress Master

Hey guys, so, first off, I’m just happy to share that I’ve made a decision this week to upgrade this blog site into my own official Personal Website. For those that have been following my blog since my very first posts, you’d know that when I first started writing/journaling on this site, I had zero intentions about the future of this site. I was also candid about the possibility that at some point, I might walk away from it entirely. When I first decided to make a return to blogging/journaling a few months ago, I only intended for this to be something temporary. Kinda like a phase in my life I suppose. It was meant as a way for me to “document” my journey through this current phase. That was all it was to me at that time.

But as I continued writing, this weekly activity also helped to bring me back to my roots as a content creator. I was reminded of why I’ve always loved writing (long before I had any idea that writing or creating video content would be a natural gift/talent). By doing something that I loved, something that I was so passionate about growing up, it was one of the very few things in my life that really helped me to clear my head (bring focus to certain things), and it became like a compass for me.

This Is My First Personal Website in Over a Decade

Just to provide a little context, I haven’t maintained a personal blog/website for a rather long period of time. I kinda stopped doing that in 2015. I honestly cannot remember when was the last time I maintained a personal blog either. For almost a decade, I have been more focused on trying to set up my own Professional Website. When I say Professional, I am referring to a focus on my freelancing services and other work-related subject matters. Eventually, I stopped blogging and I also stopped creating content related to gaming (something that I did before I decided to be more “professional” if you will). In my mind, by trying to focus on something that’s more professional, it meant that I had to separate my personal interests with what would be deemed “professional”.

For years, I actually struggled to manage both my professional and personal interests. But if I have to be honest, both of my professional and personal interests share something in common – my love for writing and creating content. That is at the very core of why I’m so good at what I do. But when I start to split those interests up, I always felt like I wasn’t at my 100%. I always felt like something was missing. And whatever I did, it’s never quite 100% either.

This has taken me years to figure out. But I have finally reached a point in my life/journey where I finally understood that the best way for me to shine, is to just be me. I just need to do me. You get what I mean? The whole reason why I even thought of creating a more professional website in the past is because of what I thought others will think and feel about me when they visited my websites. I cared more about other people’s perception of who I am, more than just being myself.

This is also the main reason why I have decided to turn this temporary blogging site into a long-term Personal Website. This is going to be a website that is about me. It will include everything that I love and stuff that I am passionate about – both professionally and personally. I believe it is time for me to just BE ME.

Using the Government’s financial aid to Pay for My Personal Website

I’m not sure about other countries and their governments. But I am thankful that our government has decided to help its citizens by doing a financial payout to each citizen in the month of Dec. These are considered extra funds, and hence, I felt it was okay for me to use a portion of it to upgrade this temporary website into a Personal Website. A portion of those funds will then be added to my regular budget to pay for the more important stuff.

I initially had a few thoughts on what I would love to add to my new Personal Website. I thought about getting a Premium WordPress theme, and also the Yoast SEO plugin. For nearly a decade as a content creator, I have been supporting and using Premium WP themes. I have also been supporting Yoast for about the same length of time. Then I remembered that when a subscriber pays for WP Premium, it usually always includes a set of Premium themes out-of-the-box. So that way, I can now save on the initial costs of paying for a Premium WP theme. As for the Yoast SEO, I realized that I can wait because my existing subscription doesn’t expire until January 8, 2023, which means I can still use it for now.

I’m Also Returning to My Roots as a WordPress Master

To be frank, I’m not entirely sure if the phrase “WordPress Master” is something official. Probably not. But I picked up this phrase from other bloggers and content creators a few years ago after I began receiving recognition as a featured tech blogger. Folks in the community that follow me used that phrase when they were introducing me as a speaker, presenter, etc. That was how I got the official/unofficial title of “WordPress Master”.

The biggest part of the reason why they would call me that was because of how good I am at using WordPress as a platform (including my ability to customize the website, construct my own plugins during the early days, and so on). I’ve written plenty of tutorials on that back in the day. I guess that was the benefit of being a software developer by training, and also having a deep passion for UX and UI.

But something changed along the way. As time went on, I began to rely a lot more on premium plugins and WP themes. The more I relied on those things, the less work I had to do to make those websites really good. In the application development world, we always encourage devs not to create something from scratch if they can just reuse a preexisting solution. It’s just more cost-effective. I mean, if you can save some time and money, why not right?

So…I think somewhere along the way, I started to become lazy myself. I stopped caring so deeply about wanting to make my websites great. It didn’t suddenly just stop ofcourse, but it was more incremental through the years. I gradually…just…paid less attention.

This decision to turn this blogging site into a Personal Website is going to be my chance to return to my roots as a “WordPress Master”. With a much lesser reliance on Premium Themes and Plugins, I’ll be turning my attention over to the more basic, out-of-the-box features of my WordPress Premium subscription. Let’s just say that I’ll be focusing on making the best of what I have. It also means I’ll be doing some learning along the way as well. I may or may not decide to create my own plugins at some point if I feel that I can do something better on my own. But if I have to, I may resort to using those free plugins too. We’ll see.

What Can Be Expected From My Personal Website

Just like any website that we create, we have to think about who our target audiences are. And as such, it helps to define how to want to place/structure our content. Like I’ve mentioned before, this is still a website about me, so I’m going to write stuff and post videos about the topics that interests me. And based upon what interests me, that helps to define the kind of audiences I expect on my Personal Website.

Right now, I can think of a few major categories of content that will appear on the main menu section of my website. There will be sub-categories ofcourse, but I won’t dive into those right now. So, here’s what you can expect from my Personal Website:

• Agile & UX – this page will very likely be a list of content that is related to my professional interests/passions. There will be ties/links to my freelance services as a consultant and trainer. And yes, perhaps blog articles on related subject matters too. I haven’t decided on how I want to link the sub contents yet. I’ll be putting some thought into that when I reach that point.
• Gaming – this category of content should be really straightforward. Long before I started making technical videos and written tutorials, I was first publishing written tutorials and video recordings about certain video games that I loved. That was really where I started before I received my first opportunity to record technical videos.
• STEAM – Even though I only rediscovered my passion for tinkering in 2018, this interest in STEAM has long been with me growing up as a kid. I’ve always loved taking things apart, and trying to figure out how they work. I’ve always loved electronics and robotics as a kid. And then in recent years, STEM started to become a thing. The only difference between STEM and STEAM is the ‘A’, which represents “Arts”. I prefer using the acronym “STEAM” because it provides a better representation. As time passes, and with more money in my bank, I intend to gradually invest more into various electronics kits, dev kits, tinkering kits, robotics kits, and so on. With those electronic dev boards, and robotics kits, I will also upload contents to this website/youtube and write about them.
• General Blogging – How can I forget this category of content, right? Writing about my general day-to-day, or weekly thoughts and reflections is going to be a major portion of this new Personal Website. As my personal situation improves over time, I may also include “IRL” related content too. Journaling and self-expression have always been a major part of who I am as a person. If this is a site for you to get to know me and read about who I am, then the general blogging section of this website is going to play an even more important part than the other three categories of content.

Those four categories of content are mainly what you will be able to find on my Personal Website.

Final Thoughts Before I Take a Break From Writing

So yeap, that’s really all I have for my updates this week. It’s Friday already, so I think I’m going to get ready to enjoy my weekend. It’s more likely that I’ll be spending the next week or two, focusing on updating and improving this website and it’s contents. So you won’t be hearing from me (unless I have something major to update you guys). If for some reason, you are visiting my site in the next couple of weeks and you see something that looks weird, chances are, I am in the middle of making my improvements. So I ask for your patience. I am really looking forward to resume my writing and also to start recording and editing videos again soon!