You might be wondering, Who made this course? or….. Why should I listen to this person? …..and those are valid questions!
A little bit about myself…
Hello, my name is Brad Williams. I have been working with Bootstrap for quite some time, before it was even a responsive framework and called Twitter Bootstrap. You can still download my free version of StrapPress (Bootstrap + WordPress.. Get it?) that is non-responsive on my blog here. As you can see, that was back in December of 2011 and was actually my first time integrating WordPress with the Bootstrap framework. Since then, I have made and maintained a premium version of StrapPress that is very popular and has a very large user base, but we can talk about that later…
I am not much of a designer and I like the fact that the Bootstrap framework provided all the CSS and JS to make a website look very professional, all while adding great functionality. Bootstrap is also one of the most popular repositories on Github and continues to get updated with new features and bug fixes. The framework really is impressive. Combine this, with one of the most used CMS’s on the internet (debatable) – WordPress, and you have a powerful website/theme.
In the beginning…
When I first started developing WordPress themes, I had no/zero experience with PHP. I knew some HTML and messed around with jQuery, but other than that it was a foreign language. The only experience I had with WordPress was downloading WordPress themes, activating them, and using the WordPress Dashboard to add pages and posts to make a website. I tried to make slight changes to things when I wanted something to look different, but that was it.
To tell you the truth, I still don’t know all the WordPress functions and probably never will! That is what Google and the WordPress codex is for…
My goal was to integrate Bootstrap with WordPress and learn something new along the way. Today, I have several websites that sell WordPress themes that I have developed, but I still learn something new about WordPress and Bootstrap on a daily basis.
Profiting from WordPress…
I don’t think it is necessary to share exact sales numbers from our WordPress theme shops. On the other hand, I want you to feel that the time and effort you put in learning and building WordPress themes can be very profitable. Not only that, but you will be able to use this skill set to do a number of other things such as, picking up other freelance website clients.
I will say that I didn’t know that PayPal sends out 1099-K forms if you receive over $20,000 in payments… Paypal is also only one form of payment that our theme shops accept.
Here is a screenshot from one of our theme shops. We use Easy Digital Downloads for our digital marketplace, which you will learn how to integrate and setup if you opt to create your own marketplace.
Note: The total sales numbers also include our free theme downloads.
Couple Projects…
You will be able to do everything you see here by the end of this course. The first thing we are going to build is my most popular Bootstrap WordPress theme, StrapPress. This is also a great theme to use as your base framework to build other premium themes and websites.
StrapPress is the perfect base framework for your other premium themes because it includes:
- responsive templates and features
- integration of Bootstrap
- different page templates
- custom post type for portfolio section
- custom homepage template
- theme options panel
- drag and drop builder
- WordPress functions to integrate different Bootstrap components
- integration of Font Awesome
- working with different widget areas
This includes just a broad overview of everything you will learn building StrapPress. There are an abundance of other lessons/skills you will learn building StrapPress.
When StrapPress is finished, you will start learning how to build other premium WordPress themes that have different features and components. These will include more custom post types, meta boxes for different types of content, Bootstrap JS component integration, and much, much more. You can see examples of these types of premium Bootstrap WordPress themes over at GentsThemes.com.
Once you have your premium WordPress themes built, it’s time to make a profit. This is the stage where we can get into building a marketplace or posting your themes on WordPress markets to start making some income from your work. Here we can discuss marketing and promoting your theme and how to drive traffic to your listings.
At this point, you will have all the knowledge and tools to build all kinds of WordPress themes. The sky is the limit.
What’s next?
I hope this has inspired you to build your own custom WordPress theme. If it has, lets get started! You are going to learn so much, and I even have some ways to help market and promote your work for a profit.
I am going to show you how I started and what you need to know to build your own premium WordPress theme with Bootstrap. I will walk you through the WordPress theme files, show you how to integrate Bootstrap, add features to your theme, and much more. If you like learning how things work and getting into the code, this will be right up your alley!