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How it started, How it’s going: My 4 years of journey with WordPress

It’s been 4 years since I permanently switched to WordPress. So I decided to prepare this post. I will evaluate what I have done from the day I started until now and make a self-criticism in some parts. Before my complete switch, I’ve tested myself in various ways on my web hosting, but I didn’t dare to leave my comfort zone. And if I was going to do it, I had the idea that I had to put out a high-level page, everything had to be complete. I have to say that now I know that my thoughts were nonsense. Finally!

When I first moved to WordPress, I was quite confused while choosing the theme I want to start with. I tried hundreds of themes and eventually set out with a theme that didn’t really appeal to me. I can say that my indecisive side showed itself as always. When I asked many people about their opinions about the look and feel, I got more confused. However, since I chose this theme myself and paid some dollars, I thought I should stick with it. After a year or so, I got a new theme. It didn’t take me long to get tired of it either.

Lost some posts on the way while moving

When moving to a new house, you definitely throw away items that you use less and no longer need. I also picked the ones I did not like among the posts and deleted them forever, making fun of the way how I used to write in the past. Looking at my posts from six years back, I still find them amusing. Wish they could stay.

Kept on looking at the numbers and got depressed

At first, I was very concerned about how many times my posts were read. I installed various statistics plugins and followed both article and page views day by day. When I saw a figure less than I expected, I got depressed and that was pointless. When I let everything go and focused on writing, I decided not to care about numbers. The less I cared, the more the numbers were growing up. I also learned that it is futile to expect high numbers without writing quality content.

Tried to make money online, kind of succeed

I’ve created a shopping page to sell my own skills and the services of a few friends I love. I’ve spent a lot of time and efforts on that particular page. But apart from the small amounts I earned from the blindless related software keys I distributed, I couldn’t achieve the success I was aiming for. After a while, as my audience got expanded, I became more known, and I started getting ads from small companies on my site. I was also expecting some money from Google Ads, but I don’t care anymore.

I’ve always cared about the technical details

Especially when I first started, the loading speed was my most important criterion. I changed my hosting provider a few times just for that reason. None of them were good enough to satisfy me. I took a plunge and deployed a VPS. Thinking logically, I decided that it was too much and not worthy for a small website. For three years, I have been continuing with a hosting with technical specifications that can be considered sufficient. The issue of speed is really important, but it’s no longer at the top of my priorities.

Now I’m concerned if my site is up to date and running with the least possible errors. I purchased the WP Rocket plugin for speed and performance. From time to time, there are great deals for annual renewals. I renew my subscription when if I can catch those deals. Since the theme I use is a premium theme, it receives updates periodically. I also get daily backups. I use UpdraftPlus plugin for that purpose. The free version works quite well for me.

Overal accessibility experience

WordPress itself is a quite accessible CMS, and there are many volunteers dedicating their time to improve the overall accessibility experience for the visually impaired users. I didn’t really have any difficulties managing my site using WordPress with NVDA on desktop and TalkBack and CSR on Android. However, I still use the classic editor, not because of the accessibility concerns but only my multilingual framework plugin doesn’t support the new block editor.

I use a few stock images as featured image for each post. I regularly consult my sighted friends to align them correctly and match them with my theme. Therefore this site is quite weak on the visual site, but still it doesn’t look that bad. At least that’s what I think anyway 🙂

I’ve been always up for criticism

I cared a lot about the feedback from my acquaintances and visitors who were kind enough to share their ideas. From time to time, I made changes and published posts in this direction. While I initially thought writing only about technology and personal articles, I expanded my point of view. That’s how my posts related to music, reviews, interviews and İnternet memories came out.

I cannot say that there were no destructive criticism. Sometimes they hit me so bad that there were times I thought of leaving everything and run away. Fortunately, these thoughts lived not for so long..

It’s started with a lot of dreams, but going steady

I have to admit, I couldn’t do a lot of the things I imagined, or I did it incomplete. And sometimes I lost my passion. I know I’ve missed my writing pace in recent months, but it’s because I’m completely lazy. From now on, I think I’ll go back to my usual interval.

I hope that this post can be a guide for those who are at the beginning of the road and are thinking of starting something new these days.

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Published inTechnology

3 Comments

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    • Salih Kunduz Salih Kunduz

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