One of the things that the Internet has made possible that we couldn’t have seen even a decade ago is the proliferation of self-publishing that would happen.

And in this instance, I’m not talking about blogging. I’m talking about self-publishing in the form of eBooks and the like. I mean, looking at anyone with a Kindle that has targeted advertisements (I had a previous version like this), you can see offers for books that are being published by those who have no publisher other than themselves.

I’m not here to argue whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a thing, and it’s something that I think is worth looking to especially in our space.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Tonya Mork

I mean how many people do you know that have self-published material in some way? Off the top of my head, I know Tonya Mork has published material as has Chris Lema.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Chris Lema

It’s kind of neat. And I suppose this is the part where I’m supposed to say something like:

And coming in just a few weeks, I’m going to have my own eBook published!

But that’s not [exactly] where I’m going with this. Instead, I want to talk a bit about memberships on this site and what we may call the independent WordPress developer, the independent WordPress freelancer or the indie WordPress developer or whatever term you like the most.

The Independent WordPress Developer

If you’ve been a member of this site for any length of time, you know that I’ve worked on covering topics such as:

  • The Business of Programming
  • Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress
  • WordPress Development Environments
  • Using Visual Studio Code
  • Unit Testing
  • …and more.

But I’ve not put together anything that helps someone who’s working strictly for themselves use all of the above.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Visual Studio Code

That is, I’ve often written from a place of someone who may be working with a team – be it contractors or someone at work. Furthermore, I’ve also written specifically to those who may have little-to-no experience with all of the above and are looking for ways to use them.

So What’s the Problem?

I’ve never actually talked about how to create a set of tools, consistent practices, and ways to maximize code quality all the while defining a workflow conducive to all of that.

Naturally, this raises a question of why not? To which I don’t have an answer other than I simply have not done it. So in an attempt to provide answers to those types of questions, I’m going to be doing two things.

And if you’re a member of this site, you’re already going to have access to much of this. If not, then you’re going to have to wait for a little while.

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And the Solution Is…?

I’m going to be writing a series of posts geared specifically to those who are self-employed or freelancers on the side, or who work as a team of one.

Ultimately, these are people looking for a consistent way to build high-quality solutions in WordPress for others. Further, this is for those who are looking for tools that they can spin up for each project and apply regardless of what it is they are building as long as it’s with WordPress.

By the time the series of posts is complete, I’m going to take the feedback I receive from each paying member, update the posts, and then compile each post into a section of the book. Then, for those who opt not to participate in the membership of the site, they’ll be able to purchase the book.

The series (and thus the content of the book) will include the following:

  1. Tools, Processes, and More for The Independent WordPress Developer
  2. Local Development for the Independent WordPress Developer
  3. Databases and Tools for the Independent WordPress Developer
  4. Installing WordPress for Local Development
  5. Native WordPress Debugging Tools That Don’t Require an IDE
  6. Reading and Understanding WordPress Error Logs, Part 1
  7. Reading and Understanding WordPress Error Logs, Part 2
  8. Basic Debugging Within WordPress
  9. Installing Xdebug, Part 1: The Xdebug Module
  10. Installing Xdebug, Part 2: The IDE
  11. An Introduction to Debugging for WordPress Developers
  12. Debugging for WordPress Developers: Stepping Around Code
  13. Debugging for WordPress Developers: Changing Values at Runtime
  14. Understanding Coding Standards

The order is subject to change, of course, but this is something that’s meant to provide a set of tools and a repeatable workflow applicable to any WordPress-based project and is specifically geared towards those who work independently of a team or organization.

Note this is not a programming book and it’s not aiming to teach you the fundamentals of any language, design pattern, or framework. Instead, it’s meant to give you a set of tools that you can use to build solutions and do so with a degree of quality that will serve both you and your customers well as you continue to work with them.

Feedback?

As usual, I welcome all feedback to this and you can send it directly to me using this page. I may not respond to each email, but I promise to read each of them.

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If you are an independent WordPress developer looking for an applicable, repeatable, and suite of tools to help you write the strongest code possible, then this content is geared specifically towards you.