About
I have been in the IT sector for the last 17 years. Starting out as a Computer Technician in my early career and working my way up to a Network Engineer. In 2008 I started developing WordPress websites and e-Commerce stores for my own business. I enjoyed it so much I started to develop websites for clients.
I could still remember one of my first websites was for Kathu Gazette, a local news outlet in a small town in northern South Africa. Their site was hacked and only received about 500 visitors a month. After I design and developed their new website for them they started to receive over 15000 visits per month in the first 3x months.
In 2011 I made a career switch to software and website development(Official). Not only did I developed WordPress CMS based websites, but I also developed on Drupal, Joomla, Prestashop, and custom build MVC applications(Desktop and Mobile).
I acquired my PHP, MySQL, C#, C++ certification(with distinction) via the University of South Africa called UNISA for short. My other programming languages I acquired through self-learning which includes Javascript, jQuery(library of Javascript) and the basics like HTML & CSS.
I have just over 16 years experience managing my own businesses in the IT sector from Support to Retail and now Web-based Development.
While pursuing my career I also worked for a few software companies to enhance my skill set and experiences. One of these companies was WooThemes where I was a WooCommerce Support Ninja.
After WooThemes I became a WooTheme's affiliated WooWorker to provide custom strategic solutions to WooCommerce clients all around the world. I also provided support, maintenance and custom development on existing WooCommerce extensions.
I later joined Codeable and became a Certified WordPress Expert striving to deliver on excellence and quality. Something I did before I joined Codeable and the reason I got accepted.
From 2014 up till July 2018, I was doing contract related work via Codeable.io. Codeable.io is a marketplace for WordPress related work. While helping clients through Codeable, I completed over 170 completed 5-star rated projects.
As from July 2018, I am stepping away from marketplaces for good. It was nice for the time being, but not my cup of tea. They eat away at a given budget for a project and collect as much as 30% in royalty fees. This is damaging for a customer that is just starting out a new business. With Marketplaces, you also run the risk of not getting paid which can be disastrous for a business. For example, if you completed a 2x month project and did not receive payment...and on top of that, you have a family to support.
Now I am back to freelancing and running my own business, Tickdbox and freelancing on antondevilliers.com.