I was fortunate enough to witness the advent of the personal computer, and dialup …. AOL specifically. I bought my first PC in 1997 for $4,300.00 at CompUSA. Wait, what?! Calm down, some of you were there too. It had 32MB of RAM. You heard that right. My daily offerings were limited to Minesweeper, Myst: Nemesis, and Duke Nukem’ 3D. I had been a console gamer since I was 11 (Atari FTW!), but this was like a new life form. The world was instantly different.
One day, while playing Tombraider 1 on Playstation 2, my son’s dad was messing around with something that looked like a word processor program, but I was so wrong. It was a an HTML editor called HotDog. “For the love of cake”, what is this new voodoo? It was HTML code! He tinkered around for a while, so after he got bored I took over. It was not so easy. It required math skills that I will never possess, and I got pretty discouraged. Then, his nephew introduced me to Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dream Weaver. Things began to take shape. At the same time, I discovered Adobe Photoshop. Ok, now it started getting crazy. I dove head first into programs like Poser (3D modeling), Acid Pro, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. The digital evolution had begun.
I immersed myself in PC gaming and my design skills started suffering. Software AND hardware technology went into warp speed, and I was wasting away. I come from a creative family, and that creative hunger kicked in. I started working for a guy who basically let me learn on the job. It got me where I am today. A ninja was born. Scroll down to see a list of my preferred tools and work process.
As I mentioned on my homepage, I work exclusively in WordPress using the Elementor Pro website builder. This site is built with these tools:
The only complete design platform to offer pixel perfect design, yet produces 100% clean code. This is a paid plugin.
Toolset offers a fresh approach to building WordPress sites. It builds on top of WordPress. This is a paid plugin.
Adds advanced design capabilities and faster workflow features to the Elementor editor. This is a paid addon.
WordPress is open source software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog, or app. Free CMS
A family of professional multimedia creation and editing tools. This is a paid subscription.
I use a 15" MacBook Pro in dual monitor mode and lots of external hard drives. Best hardware for developing.
The battle isn’t won after a website is built. In fact, this is where the war starts! It takes a skilled warrior to navigate through the reeds of the digital algorithm. It takes certain tools, and a skilled team, to compete with the myriad of digital competitors. Some of the most important tools include SEM Rush, Yoast, Screaming Frog, HubSpot, and the whole family of Google tools like Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager. It would be a miscarriage of justice if I didn’t mention essential tools like iThemes Security, WP Rocket, JetPack, Autoptimize, and many other security and speed optimization tools that I use to make the dojo an impenetrable fortress. These are not names I am dropping to impress you, these are tools I use every single day with supreme precision.
Websites are not one-and-done, they are like cars (and sometimes people) who require regular maintenance and care. This is your online business card, your digital reputation, and your virtual brick and mortar. I am a skilled consultant-sensei who can help you achieve your digital nirvana.