A Reintroduction to Me and My Website

Over the past few years my life has completely changed many (MANY) times. As a result of this tumultuous state, I let my site get hacked by not keeping it updated, I failed to launch the business I started, and by the end, I had nowhere to live.

When I had nothing, I began rebuilding my life with my website.

At the beginning of 2018, I began the redesign. I think on some level, I hoped that by recreating this site, I could recreate myself. Instead, it simply led me down the rabbit hole that helped me find my niche.

Now, this new site is finally transforming into a complete online representation of myself and my testing ground for a new creative outlet. Eventually, it will sync with everything I do across the internet. But, that’s when I understand a LOT more about WordPress, the internet, and web development.

Here’s the plan….

The Old Stuff

In the past, this domain has mainly been a place for my travel writing and photography. That won’t change. Except now, that’s only one small piece.

All of my old content got kind of annihilated when I lost this site to a hacker a few years ago. But, at least I still have the files! The articles were floating around as old posts, but as of today they are gone. Soon I’ll start editing and republishing those old pieces with new photos and information.

That means we all get to relive some of my adventures, rediscover old photos, and more. Even if you followed my old blog, you’ll want to see the updated pieces. If you didn’t, prepare to be amazed. First, I need to finish setting up a few things.

New Stuff

In April 2018, I finally found some stability in my life when I discovered the WordPress community. I’ll share more on that in a future post. But, this opened up a whole new world for me. I found my people.

Since then, I started working for Impress.org, a GREAT plugin development company, and I even speak at WordCamps. Impress.org created the donation plugin I use on this website as a tip jar. So, if you want, you can tip me for my work. 😉

Since I am the Content Writer at Impress, I’ve added a little RSS feed here for everyone to learn more about the company, the team, and some of the work I do. It’s been a blast working with the team and I’m coming up on my one-year anniversary with the company!

Because of my new-found niche in WordPress, I will start adding a lot more things to my blog about it. As I learn, I will share. There are already a few templates and WordCamp Slides on here. It’s an exciting time to learn to use WordPress.

In fact, this whole website will be designed and updated out in the open for everyone to see with the new WordPress editor, Gutenberg, and Astra Theme Pro. I’m finally at the point where I’ve solidified a style I like. I went through a lot of them. Now, I’m telling everyone to watch my progress.

Why am I Designing Openly?

People call what I’m doing, “cowboy coding.” It’s not recommended and it’s really just not wise. But, in my case, there is a reason. As I go, I will not develop pieces on this site offline or in the background (except for major changes that might break everything). For design, progress, and content… I’m leaving it open. You’ll notice right now I have some ugly pages, some unfinished pages, and some messed up posts.

If you know how to look, you’ll also find a WRECK of a plugin directory.

I am aware that having these issues on my site affects my SEO, but for now I don’t care. Designing this website openly is important to me for a few reasons.

1. WordPress has changed. The new editor disrupted the WP ecosystem and I want to learn it in-depth. While I learn, so is everyone else. So developing this site in the open with the new Gutenberg editor is my way of showing the learning process and sharing things I discover transparently.
2. I’m new. When I started in the WordPress community a little over a year ago, I knew very little about WordPress… even though I had been working with it for years. By sharing my experience going from simple content writer to building custom websites, coding, styling, and experimenting, I’m hoping to inspire others to do the same.
3. I want to show how easy AND how hard it can be to use WordPress. You can get a site running in 5 or 10 minutes if you use a default theme, but a custom site almost always is constantly under construction. Now that WordPress has changed the editor, testing and showing off everything about it is one of my goals.

Essentially, it’s all about transparency.

More Changes Coming

I mentioned that this site will represent me online, but that means a lot of things on it will change in the future. It will evolve as I do. And, I have a LOT of content built up from the past ten years that I need to put online. TaylordInk.com is next. It’s my new poetry outlet and former creative agency. Right now, it’s a blank slate.

As a new “web-developer,” the things I do here might be wrong. I will make mistakes and things will break. That’s okay though, that’s why I keep backups. Everything I’m doing here is self-taught and learned through WordCamps. Or, learned by observing at Impress.

Expect this site to continue to evolve over the next year or so as I learn and explore the world of website development. Truthfully, I hope this site will evolve with me forever.

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