This blog was founded in January 2012 by Wil Ransz. The domain name wilsweb.com was not available, so it became wilwebs.com. And the initial tag line was “A Non-Geek Making Websites”.
My intention was to write about my experiences with WordPress for people like myself. People without any formal training in programming, but interested in making their own website.
I have been making websites since 1994. Back in the day when websites were coded in plain HTML and page structures were created with HTML tables. CSS had yet to be created.
Crafting websites was done with an HTML editor. Later, I also used WYSIWYG-editors like Microsoft Frontpage, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Nowadays, I prefer a simple text editor.
Early 2010, I started working with version 2.9 of WordPress. And my attitude was more like: Is WordPress the CMS that I am looking for, or does Drupal or maybe Joomla offer a better fit for me?
I have never really tried Joomla, but I did try Drupal. When version 3.0 of WordPress was released in mid 2010, I decided WordPress was the way to go for me. I have never looked back.
To date, I have seen probably 1,000+ themes. Do not believe me? At my blog ThemingWP.com, previously named WPReviewLab.com, I had published over 538 reviews of WordPress themes.
When the blog switched to ThemingWP.com, I slashed all themes that were non-responsive, retired by their authors, or from vendors I was no longer interested in.
A theme is a great way to change the look and feel of a WordPress website. However, usually I prefer to shape a site my way. That takes more than a child theme with custom styling.
That is why I became interested in WordPress theme frameworks, sort of super themes that allow you to create your own custom themes. Without coding, or with only little coding, often by drag-and-drop.
The purpose of a WordPress theme is appearance – presenting content. Most of the time, it takes more than good looks, to realise the website that you imagined when you started the web project.
Usually it also requires additional functionality. That is where plugins and a customised functions.php file come in. You can either comment out existing code, or add your own custom functions.
Plugins offer an easy way to extend the functionality of a WordPress website without coding. So besides, themes and theme frameworks, Wilwebs.com will also cover plugins.
And occasionally, I will also write about hosting. I have had shared hosting and reseller plans with dozens of hosting companies, and several providers of virtual private servers (VPS).
When you have any questions or suggestions related to topics covered here on Wilwebs.com, do not hesitate and let me know.