Becoming a top WordPress developer requires a hard work – very hard work. If you are looking for a shortcut to becoming a professional WordPress developer, then you are wasting your precious time because it is going to take a lot of time, effort, determination, and energy.
Installing WordPress, or reading a few tutorials or customizing a few themes doesn’t make you a good developer. Such people can call themselves a WordPress expert because they may know more than the common WP user. However, becoming a top WP developer needs more than a basic knowledge. They bring innovations and contribute to the WordPress Community by introducing unique and productive work procedure into their field.
In order to become a topmost WP developer, you need to bring innovations into the WP development process that can take the WordPress community to the higher level.
Why to become a Top WP Developer?
There are many reasons for becoming a top developer:
- Money
The demand for the best and reliable WordPress developer is high, and clients are ready to pay more for those developers who are perfect in their field.
- Get the opportunity to work with best clients
When you are the best WordPress developer, then you can also choose the BEST client for whom you want to complete the project. You have the freedom to say “NO” to the projects you don’t want to, and can say “yes” to the projects you want to.
- Have the influence
Becoming the top developer means you have the influence or the potential to change the future of WordPress that is built around it.
Well in this blog post, we will explore the eight steps that can help you become a top WordPress Developer.
1. Sacrifice and Determination
Before becoming a WordPress developer, you need to take off the unnecessary distractions out of your life. You need to eliminate time-eating habits like sports, television and socializing. If you want to achieve your professional goal, you need to sacrifice these things and bring determination and focus towards your work.
2. Read as much as you can
In the beginning, you need to read the material that is available on WordPress for an hour per day. With the passing time, you can expand your reading time as you can explore new things about the WordPress. When you commit to mastering WordPress, you can begin your journey by searching out the high quality of resources depending on your specialist area. Here are some of the reliable resources:
- WordPress Codex
The WP Codex is a community-edited repository where you can learn everything about the WordPress. You can start with the basics and master the WordPress interface, learn the WP semantics and read more about the theme design and development of plugins.
- WordPress blogs
You can search out and follow the best blogs about the WordPress. In fact, you can also subscribe for their feeds. Try to read them frequently and give feedback to their authors.
3. Spend time with right crowd
In order to become one of the topmost WordPress developers, you need to spend more time with those who are at the top. Read the blogs of the world best developers and follow their twitter account, give a genuine feedback on their ideas. You can also visit to WordCamps to meet the developers.
4. Understanding the Technology
If you want to be a great developer, you need to understand the technology passionately. You may already have some technical knowledge about the languages that compose the structure and style of WordPress, but still you need to upgrade your technical skills by the changing time.
The four major languages are CSS, HTML, JavaScript and PHP, and there are various online tutorials that will help you grasp an in-depth knowledge and keep your skills up-to-date with the cutting-edge amendments.
Another way of understanding the WordPress technology is by following the development discussions that you can easily find on make.wordpress.org. You can also follow discussions about the core, themes and plugins for newbie.
5. Practice
Embed what you are learning into practice. Use your knowledge and represent it on your own WP sites. After reading a tutorial follow it by your own. Make sure that you make copies, but do experiment to know your capabilities, skills and knowledge. You can simply track what you have learned from tutorials and other sources and record your insights and break-through for future preferences.
6. Obtain Experience with WordPress
At this stage, you can take your knowledge and learning experience into the real world. First, look out for clients with whom you want to work with. During this period, you might face challenges and difficulties but you need to stick to your basics and gain real experience by working on WordPress. In fact, you can also create a WordPress theme that you can use for your clients as well. Ask for a feedback from your clients and see if there are any changes or modifications.
You can also build a plugin and learn about writing bug-free code in WordPress. At last, ensure anything you develop is safe and secure as this could destroy your reputation in the market.
7. Become Active by joining the WordPress Community
Now, you need to establish your identity as a professional WordPress developer by becoming an active member of the WordPress community. This will definitely build your unique identity, credibility and people start trusting you as a top-notch developer. You should write tutorials and publish them for web users.
In fact, you can also volunteer to give contribution to Codex. Become active by answering questions on the official support forums to the new WordPress users or owners.
Plus, go to upcoming WordCamps and look out for new opportunities that can help you build reliable image in the WordPress community. In fact, you can also become an organizer of WordCamp.
8. Dedication and Responsibility towards the Community
If you want to stay at the top as a WordPress developer, then you need to continue the process of learning, set targets, become active and show a dedication and responsibility towards the WordPress community. WordPress is the open source software and it provides transparency that gives the opportunity to develop its dimensions and can bring innovations into the WordPress development framework.
Conclusion
Becoming a top-notch WordPress developer not only requires the technical skills but also needs dedication, ability to do hard work, and energy. It begins with a focus on education and then one can take their education into real-world experience. But after becoming a top WordPress developer, one needs to understand their responsibility towards the WordPress community.
