Everyone and their brother claims to know WordPress, but do they really?
Mention WordPress nowadays and there's a good chance that someone will respond with "I love WordPress!". It's a great blogging platform and I like it too. It's easy to use, easy to install, easy to add a theme, easy to make quick sites without a ton of programming knowledge, yatta yatta yatta.
Thing is it seems most everyone in the Tech world claims to be some sort of a WordPress expert. In fact, a lot of people NOT in the Tech world appear to think they're WordPress experts in their own minds. What is the result all too often? Keep reading my friend.
The price of easy: too many crappy websites
I see people claiming to be professional WordPress designers who just make child themes off of existing themes and claim the work as their own. Some people produce a nice looking template, all too often it turns out to be a colored background with a giant banner image. Tisk, tisk.
I get emails from people who have broken their sites because they tried to do a bit of programming themselves, yet when I offer to fix it for them in a jiffy for a price they run away claiming they can figure it out on their own or ask their 'expert' cousin to fix it for them for cheap. Sometimes the site ends up fixed, sometimes it doesn't. Either way, sorry to say, the result usually ends up being something that was only done sort of right and still needs help. It's fine if they choose that path, I need to make money and I can't work for free. However, tisk tisk again for the crappy work that all too often results from this.
I see people with free plugins that sort of do the job but don't quite work right for what the website owner needs. Sad thing is they're too naive to notice. You try to explain why it doesn't work right for them and offer to help, yet they're usually the do-it-yourself type people who think it's perfect the way it is or they try to find another plugin.
I see people pay close to $100 for a commonly used WordPress theme that promises a lot and looks like a lot of other sites but comes with a lot of work, yet they could spend $20 or less on a theme at themeforest.net for a nicely designed, feature-rich template that still looks like a lot of other sites out there. Really, if you're going to throw down more than $50 on a WordPress theme, why not have someone like me design it for you so it's custom, your own design, AND works specifically for your needs? For that kind of money, you don't want your site looking like everyone else's and you deserve to have a site that works right.
There are a lot of other problems with a majority of WordPress sites out there. Bad social media strategies, poor design layouts, hard to read color schemes, themes that don't work well on smartphones or tablets, etc.
Each time I see a WordPress site that needs help it breaks my heart. I usually have a good idea for what the person needs to do to make the site better, and I usually estimate a short time of work it would take me to do it.
A solution: new services by yours truly
This leads me to my new service I'm working on. It will be a nice package for a WordPress theme with lots of extras, way more than what you get with freebie themes or those cheap crappy ones. Plus you end up with a custom theme, so you won't end up with a site that looks just like every other person who used or purchased the same theme used by hundreds/thousands of other people.
I'm also going to have a service where I help fix sites that don't want re-designed themes. This will be more for fixing specific issues or adding on cool features to existing themes that the site owner wished came with their theme.
Do you want in on it? Of course you do! You could be a blogger who isn't a coder, a coder who doesn't do WordPress themes, or a designer who needs someone to build out their site. There's a good chance you need my help and soon I'll be offering it.
Just sign up using the new form I added to this blog post a short ways below or head over to the contact page and ask me to add you. I'll notify you when I'm closer to launching this great service, and you'll most likely get it for cheaper than other people because you'll be on my list.
Go on, do it. You know you want to.
