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If your website feels expensive to change, fragile to operate, or unclear on what to fix next, this is the work I do. I help teams stabilize WordPress systems, protect rankings while making changes, and leave behind operations the team can run without constant external support.
I built my first website in 1996, in Notepad on a dial-up connection. I went professional in 1998 and adopted WordPress in 2007. It has been my core platform ever since. The work I take most often is the awkward middle of a site’s life: delayed migrations, brittle publishing workflows, and sites that need to get faster without breaking what already works.
I live in Fort Erie on the Niagara peninsula and work with organizations across Canada. Most projects are remote. Locally, I work with businesses and training teams across St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara Falls, and Fort Erie that want practical systems rather than performance.
Outside the day job: father of three who are starting active lives of their own, with more pets than people in the house. I volunteer with at-risk youth and help fundraise for The Ass Menagerie Sanctuary (TAMS), a donkey rescue in Wainfleet, Ontario. An avid sailor, a devoted woodworker, and a recovering photographer who now writes about the web instead of pointing cameras at it.
Who I have worked with
You rock. Do u think this will suffice the Google adsense gods?
Nancy Mace, then editor of FITS News (now U.S. Representative, SC-1) — email, June 2011, after a same-weekend site fix that cleared AdSense review.
Of course, I’ll always know who to tap if I need a WordPress guru!
Tim Bink, then Managing Editor at Postmedia (Canada.com) — email, March 2012.
Recognizable names from the last two decades include M.L. Campbell, Sayerlack, Sherwin-Williams, Postmedia (Calgary Herald, The StarPhoenix, canada.com on WordPress VIP), the National Post, the Government of Canada, Corel, and Ferrero. Published case studies sit on the portfolio: M.L. Campbell Training Centre, M.L. Campbell Website, Sayerlack Website, and o.canada.com. The pattern is consistent: stabilize architecture first, take editorial friction out second, and only then push on discoverability and performance.
What clients ask me to fix first
- Publishing workflows that depend on one person and break when they are away.
- Theme and plugin stacks that are hard to update safely without regressions.
- SEO foundations that look complete on paper but fail in crawl, index, or internal-linking behaviour.
- Handoffs where teams receive code but not operational clarity.
What I do
The work falls into three pillars. Most engagements lean on one and borrow from the others.
Build and repair WordPress systems
Custom development, migration work, and cleanup passes for websites that have become difficult to run. Plugin architecture, technical SEO implementation, and editor workflows that survive staff changes. Current scope of paid work →
Train teams to run what gets built
Workshops, mentoring, and delivery support for teams that need confidence after launch. Most programs are remote and Canada-wide, with periodic in-person sessions in Niagara. Training programs and upcoming sessions →
Speak and publish in the open
I am building a speaker track around WordPress and learning-tech communities, with WordCamps, meetups, and education-sector audiences in scope for 2026. Alongside the talks, I publish free plugins and templates, practical calculators, and long-form writeups on the blog. The free work shows clients how I think before they hire me. Speaking topics and booking →
This is absolute gem of a presentation by Chris Ross which proves yet again that you can still earn a decent wage by providing VALUE to people for free. awesome job Mr. Ross.
Lorne Fade, 9thsphere.com — comment on WordPress.tv, March 2012, on Make a Living by Giving It away for Free — WordCamp Toronto 2011.
How I work with teams
- No black-box delivery. You see the reasoning behind architecture and content decisions. That makes handoff easier and prevents recurring rework.
- Maintainable over clever. Readable code, predictable publishing flows, and infrastructure that survives the next plugin or core update. Clever solutions tend to break in someone else’s hands six months later.
- Built to be operated by your team. Documentation, walkthroughs, and training are part of delivery. The goal is independent operation, not dependency.
- Direct scoping. If a full rebuild is unnecessary, I will tell you that on the first call. Smaller jobs done well are usually the right answer.
Background
- Web delivery since 1996 (30 years), with 19 of those on WordPress and a track record across newsroom, learning, and government surfaces.
- Corporate training and LMS delivery, including the M.L. Campbell Training Centre: a WordPress + LearnDash system in production since 2020 that grew learner attendance ten-fold over its life.
- MA Candidate in Learning and Technology from Royal Roads University, applied directly in handoff and team-enablement work.
- Technical SEO and performance implementation focused on production architecture, structured-data quality, and internal-link systems.
- Open-source publishing through GitHub, plus ongoing documentation on the blog.
If you are new here
- Portfolio for delivery examples and company context.
- HTML5 Search for WordPress for plugin-level implementation quality.
- Construction calculators for practical publishing without lead-capture friction.
- WordPress pre-launch checklist for operational QA discipline.
Talk to me
If you are dealing with a difficult WordPress build, a migration that needs cleanup, or a training need your team has been postponing, the fastest path is a short call. Book a 20-minute discovery call, or send me a note with what is blocked, what has already been tried, and your timeline. I read inquiries myself and respond directly.
If you want to know why I work the way I do, the stances page names the positions I’ve taken and what each one rules in or out. Outside billable work, mentoring time is open to at-risk and remote builders.