In 2009, I realized that most WordPress tutorials were written for developers by developers. That's when WPBeginner was born, as a way to share my knowledge and teach non-developers how to use WordPress, because I could see the impact WordPress was starting to have on my life as a college student.
I started attending local WordPress meetups and WordCamp events around the US. I just fell in love with how welcoming and helpful everyone in the community was.
Some of my closest friends and co-founders of my various product belgium telemarketing data companies I’ve met at WordPress events. For example, I met Thomas Griffin (my co-founder at OptinMonster ) at WordCamp Atlanta. I met Jared Atchison (my co-founder at WPForms ) at the first WordPress Community Summit hosted on Tybee Island, Georgia.
As our WordPress product business grew, we began to contribute in more ways: speaking at WordCamps, evangelizing WordPress at other industry events, sponsoring local WordCamps, organizing local WordPress meetup groups, and even volunteering to organize WordCamp conferences.
At every stage of the journey, I believe the more we gave back to the WordPress community, the more we helped our business grow.
Today over 25 million websites use the software and plugins created by my companies .
This has only been possible because the entire WordPress ecosystem has grown, thanks to the WordPress Community. For example, WordPress’s market share has grown from 17.4% in 2013 to over 43.5% of all websites today.
As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats .
If you benefit in any way from WordPress, then you are part of the hidden WordPress economy that is worth well over $597 billion, and I believe it is up to all of us to nurture the ecosystem that has done so much for us.