miscellaneous
Meet the WordPress Plugin Developer: Szabi Kisded
What is your name and where in the world are you?
My name is Szabi, i am from Romania and i live in Cluj-Napoca.
Can you tell me a bit about your background?
I graduated in Computer Science, here in Cluj-Napoca, in 2011, and since then I’ve been developing software. I started with C and C++, then moved to C# and currently PHP, HTML and JavaScript.
Are you a full-time plugin developer or is it your bit on the side?
I develop plugins full time. I currently have 100 WordPress plugins for sale on CodeCanyon, and another 7 plugins in my private plugin shop, here on my site.
Why did you decide to put your development efforts into WordPress?
Because I started some new websites and I found that WordPress was the easiest way. At that point obviously I didn’t have everything I needed, so I tried some plugins. But I realized that I needed something more customized for my purpose, something specific, so I thought “I am a PHP developer, why don’t I develop what I need?” That’s how I started. Also, after putting my first plugins for sale on CodeCanyon, I saw it’s real potential, and continued to work on new plugin ideas.
How much experience do you have working with WordPress?
About 4 years specifically with WordPress, but I’ve been a developer since 2011 (although, first years were more focused on software testing).
Can you tell me a bit about your plugins and why you wanted to develop them? (e.g was it to solve a problem you encountered, was it for someone else, or did you just wake up inspired one morning?)
I needed traffic to my website, and also saw on many forums on the net, that other people also have this problem. I couldn’t find any plugin that matched my requirements, so the only way was to develop one, and to make it exactly how I wanted. This is how I came up with Newsomatic. Many other plugins from my portfolio share a similar story.
What other plugins have you worked on?
I’ve worked on many other plugins, however, I mention just 4 of them (to not bore you guys):
- Echo RSS Feed Post Generator: it allows you to import content from any RSS feed out there. It also can create custom RSS feeds for your blog.
- FBomatic Automatic Post Generator and Facebook Auto Poster: import posts from Facebook pages and groups, and also automatically post to your Facebook pages (however, this plugin got heavily restricted by Facebook API policies, because of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal).
- Youtubomatic Automatic Post Generator and YouTube Auto Poster: import videos from YouTube, and also auto posts videos to your YouTube channel (unique on the market plugin).
- Crawlomatic Multisite Scraper Post Generator: crawl any website and import content from it (JavaScript execution supported – unique on the market feature, once again).
Do you have a favorite plugin?
Newsomatic of course, and also Youtubomatic and Crawlomatic – these 3 are the core plugins I use on many of my niche websites, to generate valuable content for them.
Any chance of a sneak preview of future plugins?
At the moment I am planning to develop a plugin that allows you to automatically post to Skype, each time you publish a new post.
Tell me a bit about your development setup and process. What’s your work space like? Why?
Since I develop WordPress plugins at home, my office is basically my room. Just a chair, a desk and my laptop, that’s what I need. After developing some plugins I started to optimize my time by creating a standard default plugin – that is my starting point. It’s a plugin template that contains the basic functions and files that I always need in my plugins. All I need to do is to change some default names and values, and then I can start adding custom code for the particular plugin!
What are your essential programs, accessories, toys for developing? What helps you get the work done? Are there any pieces of software you think you should use but you don’t?
For developing the plugins I work on, I use Notepad++. I don’t use a web development editor, I strive for simplicity. Although it is just a basic text editor, I think Notepad++ is absolutely great, it’s just an editor for web languages, no WYSIWYG involved, but with great basic features, that I got used to and I love. I am not sure of what I should use beside that, maybe something like PhpStorm but I haven’t really needed it yet.
Do you have any favorite plugin development snacks or habits?
Well… yes, I watch a lot of YouTube videos, trying to learn about self improvement, passive income ideas and growing and managing a business. Also, as a distraction, I use to read manga, and watch anime. My favorites are One Punch Man, Attack on Titan, The Promised Neverland, Death Note, and many more.
What else do you do apart from develop great WordPress plugins?
During the day I have my day job – I am a father of a 3 year old little girl called Maya, and this takes up most of my day. Beside that I do some sports, in particular I love calisthenics – outdoor during the summer, indoor during the winter.
Also, I am growing my YouTube channel – I see great potential in YouTube for spreading the word about my business. Also, it is easy to monetize, so I find it really great.
I also create online courses, and add them to my online course shop (and also plan to publish them on Udemy).
Another thing I fill my free time with is writing articles on my blog and creating premium content for my membership website. I invest quite a lot of time and work to provide new valuable content to people who sign up for the premium articles I publish.
In the rest of my free time (the little that remains after doing all the above), I read books and watch online courses to make myself better at what I do.