How to Become a WordPress Developer

Would you like to pursue a career as a WordPress developer?

The most prominent freely available content management system on the internet is WordPress. Millions of websites use WordPress as a blogging platform. Still, it also incorporates web content such as forums, media galleries, mailing lists, online and eCommerce-centred businesses, and much more.

Because WordPress is an open-source content management system, anyone with a basic understanding of the internet can construct and build websites with it. They can use WordPress to set up a WordPress site, upload a theme, and add plugins for their website.

Because WordPress is such an extensive content management system, it is used by many people daily. WordPress is a very user-friendly platform, but customizing it requires knowledge of software development and computer programming. This is when WordPress programmers come into play. My name is Steve Sims an expert freelance WordPress developer in the UK, and hopefully my guide will provide you with a good starting point.

What you’ll Need

I would recommend that you purchase some web hosting space and a domain name initially so you have a dev space that you can install WordPress and start to familiarise yourself with it’s menu system and how it works.

A lot of web hosting packages now include an auto install option for WordPress, so you should be able to get yourself up and running with a basic setup fairly quickly for a small outlay. Once you have your install ready to go, you’ll probably want to start experimenting with your layout. The standard themes that are included with WordPress are very basic. A great free theme with lots of options and demo sites for you to import and play around with is WpAstra, so check that out.

You’ll soon discover that the default WordPress block editor, isn’t very easy to use and won’t provide you with the design options you need. My recommendation would be to install the Elementor page builder and build your pages using this. It’s a ‘wysiwyg’ system and essentially you can drag and drop content onto your page. It also works really well with the Astra themes mentioned above.Check out the video below:

Other page builders are available, such as Divi etc, etc. and there are endless WordPress themes out there, but the above combination seems to work well. So, that’s you all set up and ready to experiment. You can now create pages, posts, install WordPress plugins to enhance your pages and add features to them, such as sliders, chat boxes, or a shop. Woocommerce is my recommendation for this. Read on for more of an overview about what options are available to you going forward and what area of WordPress development you might like to specialise in…

How to Become a WordPress Developer

Recognize the Skills That Are Required

It would be best if you grasped the foundations of WordPress before you can maximize your potential on the content management platform. In time WordPress developers can achieve this by mastering HTML, CSS, PHP, MYSQL, and other programming languages. It will be pretty advantageous to know at least one of these languages. At the outset, you can start smaller by starting with a book like WordPress for Dummies.

Study WordPress to the best of your ability

There are virtually infinite WordPress courses available online, covering topics such as how to upload and adjust plugins and themes, the various types of plugins, and how all the components of a WordPress website interact.

Decide Which Area of Development You Want To Concentrate On

There are various WordPress developers, so it’s crucial to decide which one to specialize in and become an expert in. People want the best, and if you’re the best at creating plugins or themes, you’ll never be short of work.

WordPress is a flexible platform that necessitates a high level of technical understanding. The secret to success is specializing in one aspect of WordPress rather than being competent in all aspects of WordPress. WordPress developers put in long hours and face several problems, therefore focusing on one area and mastering it will lead to WordPress success.

Be Prepared For Difficulties

It’s never easy to work with software. You will encounter troubles with the presentation and functionality of web pages. This might result in website outages, coding issues, and even system crashes. There are skills to master to prevent bugs or resolve difficulties more quickly, but security is also a worry.

In the digital age, having a website hacked or having personal information stolen is a considerable concern. You may take steps to prevent this and make your website as secure as possible. It’s also crucial to back up all of your data so you don’t lose hours and hours of labor.

Set Up A Development Environment For Plugins

Doing is the best way to learn. Once you’ve mastered plugin or theme development, you should put what you’ve learned to good use by testing and troubleshooting. Working on live websites can have negative consequences. Therefore it’s advisable to test in a more controlled setting to avoid causing new issues.

Expect to pay for web hosting if you want to gain experience creating on a live site. It’s not prohibitively expensive, and there are many hosting review and advice websites where you can get customer-approved, cheap hosting.

Get Involved With the WordPress Community

It’s critical to make contacts with other WordPress users if you want to be successful. WordPress powers millions of websites, which means millions of individuals are behind them. A WordPress user community may help with project development and support, as well as provide a venue for discussing WordPress trends and networking opportunities.

These WordPress abilities and processes to master are necessary for becoming a WordPress developer. In addition, there is no set time restriction for becoming a WordPress developer. It’s never too late to learn something new.

WordPress Developer Scope

In today’s world, WordPress has considerable potential. WordPress is a very famous platform in the world of website design right now, and some training in WordPress can assist in improving your skills.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a free, open-source platform for building websites. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) created in PHP that utilizes a MySQL database more technically is the most user-friendly and powerful blogging and website-building platform available today.

WordPress is an excellent platform for various websites. It’s a flexible CMS. You can utilize it for everything from e-commerce to portfolio websites to business and blogging. WordPress is an excellent choice for both large and small websites, as it was designed with usability and flexibility in mind.

Types of Developer

Core Developer- A core developer is a developer who works on the WordPress core program. These developers delve into the code and create or recommend modifications to the WordPress core, which impact the entire platform.

WordPress Theme Developer- WordPress theme developers design themes for WordPress websites. This lets users create a unique look and feel for their WordPress sites by customizing the colors, layout, and style of all of their WordPress posts and pages.

Plugin Developer – Plugin developers work on your website’s WordPress plugins. Plugins are software programs that can improve and expand the functionality of your WordPress website.

WordPress Developer Scope In Future

Why can WordPress developers expect to make a lot of money? Because you can sell a variety of WordPress goods and services as a WordPress developer.

For example, India has a vast population, and digital is rapidly expanding there, so you can make money by making WordPress websites or plugins and then providing WordPress hosting, support, or repairs. If you’re not a coder, consider using a template-based approach to create economic WordPress websites.

Why WordPress

1. Teamwork

WordPress has a large user community that helps one another. WordPress, themes, plugins, and other topics are covered in subreddits. Furthermore, there are a plethora of websites dedicated to WordPress education (like the MOJO blog). These are excellent resources, but the most crucial factor to remember is that a single large team creates WordPress.

Some students are already using WordPress’s community features to share ideas and solicit comments from their viewers.

2. Problem Solving

You’ll have a goal in mind when you start developing a website. I’d want a portfolio website with that extraordinary scrolling movement. This is known as parallax (an excellent example of a parallax picture may be found in the website header). You’ll need to conduct some research, discover a plugin or snippet of code, and learn how to integrate it into your WordPress theme.

Even understanding the fundamentals of WordPress requires you to conduct research, experiment, make judgments, and solve problems. Many businesses prefer these abilities as “soft skills.” They’re not your batting average; they’re much higher. Learning these skills will assist you in developing a successful procedure. Having a procedure that works is quite beneficial. It’s required.

3. Organization

Laying up a website, writing pages and blog posts, and understanding how to improve your SEO or search engine optimization all necessitate planning. You may be aware of the website navigation menu.

You must consider flow and site experience to make these valuable to your readers. What do you put on your home page if you’re an artist, for example? And how can you show your process by breaking down the project? You learn to prepare ahead and be proactive when there are so many moving parts.

4. Communication

Using WordPress to create a blog gives you a powerful way to practice communicating. Writing, according to Stephen King, is “no different than a sleep routine.” More practice, reading and being.

Writing for your website is not limited to blogging. From buttons to headers to email registration forms, there’s copy everywhere. A strong sense of visual communication is also required. You will learn to be clear, concise, straightforward, and confident due to this procedure. It also transfers well to public speaking, interviewing, emailing, and other situations.

WordPress Tutorials

There are a wide range of videos, courses and instructional websites that you might need to refer to in your day to day work when using WordPress. WpShout is a useful site for WordPress tutorials and of course YouTube is a go-to place for help and advice with WordPress development.

Wherever your journey takes you, you’ll be sure to have some fun along the way and hopefully this article has given you a few useful pointers to help you take the first steps.