Howdy
I'm a WordPress Developer who writes cool shit.
No Fancy CTA needed. If you're here, there's a good chance you know of me already. Go ahead and click that button and let's get started. If not, read on to see how I can help you.
What I Do
Services
Wordpress Development
The bread and butter of my freelance work. I am a WordPress developer. You can hire me for anything WordPress related. Custom plugins? You bet. Custom themes? I can do that. Custom code for someone else's plugins and themes? Why not! Are you an agency looking to outsource part or all of a project? I do that. Are you a company looking to bring on a consultant to repair, optimise, and maintain your web presence? Sounds perfect.
WordPress Speed Optimisation
When your site feels sluggish, give me a call. I routinely work with clients to optimise their websites and squeeze every last ms out of their site that I can. I do a ground up, full website optimisation service. Which means everything from the host and the database to your code, plugins, themes and images. This is no 6 step system you read on the internet, it's my years of experience and critical thought put into your website that speeds it up.
X Theme / Pro Theme Customization
If you use the X Theme or Pro Theme by Themeco, I can help you take it to the next level. With years of experience using these systems and both customizing them and enhancing them for hundreds of users, you can be sure I'm the right guy for the job. From custom blog layouts and search results pages, to enhanced Woocommerce product pages and archives. You may even be familiar with the plugins I've created exclusively for X/Pro: Cornerstone Placeholder Images, Cornerstone Custom icons, and the ever so popular Global Blocks for Cornerstone (impressive functionality which Themeco has now rolled out into their theme).
Michael is the kind of guy you want to go into business with, not just work with. He, and everything he does, is the highest quality.Josh Motlong, joshmotlong.com
News & Shit
Latest Tips
Using Cloudflare with WordPress in 2021
September 27, 2021 | Speed OptimisationFor years I’ve championed the use of Cloudflare wo WordPress developers and business owners. That’s never changed. What has changed is Cloudflare itself. Bigger and better every single year, but that means we need an updated guide for you to reference. Here it is, no frills, just direct settings and screenshots for how I setup Cloudflare for optimal WordPress performance. ... Read MoreYoast’s “Enhanced Slack Sharing” feature… improved.
November 22, 2020 | PluginsThe recent Yoast update came with a cool new feature: Enhanced Slack Sharing. This isn’t magic, it’s using existing Twitter-based meta tags in the HTML to add extra data to previews. Slack uses these still (Twitter dropped support), hence the name. Here’s what it looks like: The extra meta tags added now give us an author and an estimated reading ... Read MoreDynamic Open Graph images using Microlink Cards
July 16, 2020 | Customizing WordPressThere’s one thing I dislike about blogging, and that’s creating a custom open graph image for each blog post. Even with a handy PSD template, I often forget. Worse yet, when I want to change them, I’m left editing all my existing posts. The good news is that there is a better way to do this. Dynamic open graph images. ... Read MoreShow the cart count and cart total in a Pro Theme cart element
August 24, 2018 | X Theme & Pro ThemeOne request many Themeco users have is related to the cart elements in the header builder. That request is simple: “How can I show a cart count or cart total in the Pro element?”. This post will answer that question.WordPress Hosting
A few years ago, I put out an in-depth article about high speed WordPress hosting. I took a backup of a live, content filled site that became my "real world baseline", as it had various images, dynamic elements, and shortcodes in it. I used this backup on several popular hosting platforms and performed in depth speed and load tests to determine how the the same site, with the same configuration, would behave on different hosts. Read the results here:
Cloudways
If you're looking for a discount, you can find my Cloudways Promo Code here.
GridPane
If you're looking for a discount, you can find my GridPane Coupon Code here.
X Theme and Pro Theme Plugins
Cornerstone Custom Icons
Enables the user to add their own custom icons to the built in Cornerstone and Pro Theme icon controls and elements, thereby removing the reliance on FontAwesome and providing a better opportunity for branding with custom icon sets on your websites. Works exclusively through the use of Fontello’s free icon font service. Updated regularly to work with new theme releases.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/cornerstone-custom-icons/
Cornerstone Placeholder Images
Placeholder.com Images element for Cornerstone and Pro Theme Builder. This plugin provides a quick element to insert placeholder images into your layouts for quick mockups or demo content.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/cornerstone-placeholder-images/
Global Blocks for Cornerstone
The original X Theme game changer, released in early 2017. I had been using this set up internally on client sites, but when the Themeco community started asking for the same functionality, I released it in a plugin.
It became so popular that Themeco adopted the functionality and the name into their own builder, to ensure their entire customer base had access to it.
You can see the original plugin here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/global-blocks-for-cornerstone/
Elementor Plugins
Custom Icons for Elementor
Enables the user to add their own custom icons to the built in Elementor icon selectors, thereby removing the reliance on FontAwesome and providing a better opportunity for branding with custom icon sets on your websites. Works exclusively through the use of Fontello’s free icon font service. Updated regularly to work with new theme releases.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-icons-for-elementor/