Unpopular opinion has it that the most popular cms is just an internet toy for websites. Well… it has managed to sustain more than 40% of the websites on the web, if the internet was a stock option by websites, WordPress has a sheer size plus a special place in my heart [insert_white_heart_emoji].
Welcome to follow along on my WordPress journey. Let me be your captain. Let’s go.
In the beginning:
My early days in WordPress were influenced by a friend, Emeka Daniel, who at the time worked on a handful of WordPress projects. We were both undergraduates, so it was easy to see how quickly he could spin up a full website with little or no coding. At the time, I already had my web development starter pack (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) fitted in, so the idea of building any type of website from scratch at any whim was almost a default approach.
The rest they say its history:
Fast forward to some days later in 2019, someone contacted me to build a journal library website with an ecommerce feature and more. In the multitude of counsel from one person, who happened to be Daniel, I opted to build the project with WordPress, and the rest, they say, is history.
Over the years, across my six years (as of the time of writing this) of website development, I have dabbled with several tools in the PHP ecosystem. Fortunately, WordPress is one of them. From my first drag and drop experiment to building a WordPress theme or tinkering with WordPress plugin development, that tinkering across these sides of WordPress did pay off.
Community, Writing and Memorable Moments:
Given back to the Community:
WordPress is a community driven, the number of WordCamps is a testament to that. That said, my friend shared the light with me, and I felt I should share the same with people in my space. In 2022, during my time in the mandatory national one year paramilitary service, I organized a three week program where I demonstrated to my colleagues the possibilities with WordPress and the benefits that abound for them.
“Yeap! That’s me.” You are NOT wondering how I came there ? Courtesy of WordPress
For a three week stretch, I had a wonderful audience who had businesses and services and felt I would show them how to take those into the online space. They were curious. Rapt with attention. Engaged and interested.
We started with an introduction to websites and website development, then went through the basics of WordPress while demonstrating an Elementor walk-through.
The rewarding feeling is getting to see people feel powerful enough to build their first website, dismiss the phobia or perception that it is difficult, and give them a launch pad to go and “ship.”
Writing:
Lots of experimentation has happened in my WordPress world and space. One of them was a website migration that I did. It involved migrating a WordPress site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. I had to write down my process. It was an expository one for me. One of the memorable moments was that migration. It was an exposition to not just about WordPress but how powerful WordPress works in the terminal.
In 2025, I was privileged to be a guest speaker for a Google Developer Event. And as you guess, the topic was how WordPress could be coupled with AI (Gemini).
Personally for me, in a broader scope, this event opened quite some handful perspective as to the future of WordPress and how it could scale with AI
Of many other things that has happened, I have managed to keep a heads-up on the WordPress community, how it positions itself to join the AI race and I am optimistic about the future of WordPress and the WordPress community.
Closing:
WordPress (WP) gave me the material to ship fast right before “shipping fast” became a trend. WordPress gave me my very first major client as an aspiring developer. While WP sits as the most popular CMS, it definitely deserves a sit at the front table of my software engineering journey.
Chidiebere’s Work Environment
We asked Chidiebere for a view into his development life and this is what he sent!
HeroPress would like to thank Draw Attention for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!
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