Well that’s another year about to come to an end. It went way too quickly don’t you think? It was definitely a challenging year for me, but there were still several highlights that I took out from 2018.

2018 In Review

Premium plugins go live

I finally have released my first premium WordPress plugin. Social Share is available now to download over on my new store Mongoose Marketplace. While this has been a bit of a soft launch, 2019 will feature several new plugins and a fresh look for the site.

Gutenberg comes to core

After more than two years in development, the new block editor has finally been introduced into WordPress core. It is generally known as the “Gutenberg editor” as the new editor is phase 1 of the Gutenberg project that will revolutionise WordPress.

I shared my thoughts on the new editor back in November in a post that gained a lot of traction on Twitter after it was shared by the legendary Matt Mederios. The resulting discussions led to it even being featured by WP Tavern.

If you’re looking to learn how to develop with the block editor I’d highly recommend Zac Gordon’s Gutenberg Block Development course, I’ve been going through it and it’s super helpful.

Monthly blog posts

One of my goals for 2018 was to publish a new blog post at least once every month. It definitely helped boost my reach as the users visiting my site increased by almost 4 times from 2017 and pageviews increased by more than double. I’ve got much more content in the works so make sure you stay tuned.

Newsletters

I’ve had a mailing list for this site for quite some time but I’d never sent out any emails. That changed a few months ago, and now whenever I publish a blog post it’s automatically sent out to my mailing list soon after. If you’d like to be notified when I publish new posts you can follow me on social media or subscribe to my newsletter.

Interviewed on the Hallway Chats podcast

I didn’t get to speak at any WordCamps this year (although I did MC at WordCamp Brisbane) which was frankly quite disappointing. However I was invited onto the Hallway Chats podcast. It was so great to be able to share my story and this was probably the highlight of my year.

Getting back into sports

Growing up I never had the opportunity to play club sports, which was very disappointing for me as a kid. But this year that all changed, thanks to the additional time on my hands thanks to working remotely, I was able to play both AFL and cricket this year. It’s been so great getting back into playing sport again, I’ve made heaps of new friends and I’m getting fitter and stronger again.

AFL

At the start of the year I joined the closest football club to where I live, the Ormeau Bulldogs. I also filled in a couple of games for some other clubs in the division above us. I struggled to get through games initially but in the second half of the season I started to really find my feet and got my leap back. I also scored a goal which was one of my aims for the year. I’m also now a committee member for the upcoming 2019 season.

Cricket

I have also started playing cricket for Coomera – Hope Island, where I’m playing in the Fourth grade side. I’m hoping to get into one of the Third grade sides before the end of the season, and eventually at some stage make my way to the First XI. I also filled in one game for Victor Harbor’s first XI after training with them at the start of the year but didn’t end up playing any games.

First full year of parenting

Sure he may not be my biological child and I haven’t had to live with crying all through the night and changing dirty nappies but a troubled teenager is probably even harder. I hadn’t anticipated Kyle living with me for this long when he first moved in but I’ve completely fallen in love with him and he’s like a son to me now. It’s not easy but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Looking towards 2019

2018 laid a good foundation for the direction I want my life and career to head, and 2019 will be focused on building on that foundation. So here’s what you can look forward to from me this coming year.

• More plugins – I have a number of plugins that are currently in the works and I’m aiming to have close to a dozen available for sale on Mongoose Marketplace. My existing plugins will also be rebranded.
• More WordCamps – there’s expected to be about 6 WordCamps in Australia in 2019, and I’ll be aiming to go to and applying to speak at most of them.
• More content – I have plenty of new blog posts that are close to being ready to publish.
• Fitter and stronger – I’m hoping to spend a lot more time on getting healthier and working off this dad bod and improving my skills in the sports I play.

Plus there’s some more things that I’m still working on that I’ll keep under wraps for the time being.

Here’s to a successful 2019