HISTORY
My name is Christien Paul and I have been developing WordPress websites since 2007 which gives me more than 10 years experience as a freelance WordPress consultant.
I started my business in my home town of Toronto, Canada and then expanded into the French market with partnerships in Montreal, Quebec.
It wasn’t long after that I was getting referrals south of the border. I now have clients in Florida, New York, California, Colorado, North Carolina and it’s still growing.
LIFESTYLE & MISSION
In 2016 I got on a plane headed for Paris, France and now have clients in Holland, France, Switzerland, Africa and even Australia! Suffice it to say, I have become a digital nomad. So despite the fact that I am based in Toronto and pay taxes to the CRA I work remotely.
PERSONAL BRANDS
I have developed multiple brand names for different industries such as WPMD which caters to clients from New York to Los Angeles. I also have the WP Chef which is targeting the bilingual markets in Canada and Europe. Last but not least, is EPKhosting.com which is a WordPress platform made for musicians across the world.
Did I mention that I am a singer/songwriter and first learned to build websites for my own band when I was a teenager? I used to keep that a secret but not so long ago a client Googled my name and told me they decided to hire me after discovering my music because they took it as proof of my creativity separating me from all the other WordPress experts who were rather “square”. After learning that I decided, why not let the world know that I am more than a geek.
Last but not least is my production company Nautical Progressions where I spent years making videos for both entertainment and corporate clients such as Dell, Live Nation, Telus and many more. Truth be told I won gold for “best video” at the Canadian Online Publication awards two years in a row while working with IT World Canada.
IDEAL CLIENTS
Google has been my best friend for many years now giving me a client-base of A list clients including but not limited to RE/MAX, Peelle Door, M.M. Dillon, Ignite PTRS, THP Agency, The Sky Guys and many more multi-million dollar companies that have been loyal to me for years.
My ideal client is a small to medium-sized business with a single point of contact that is well organized and a DIY type of person. I like having bi-weekly meetings using screen sharing software either to train my client on WordPress best practices or strategize the next plan of attack for search engine optimization.
FAVOURITE PRODUCTS
When it comes to WordPress products I’ll admit to having my favorites. WPMUdev.org is one of the world’s leading forum of WordPress experts and several years ago they asked me to be one of their guest authors.
I shared my perspective on how WordPress was the best platform for independent musicians and from there EPKhosting.com was at the top of Google for phrases like “Web Hosting for Musicians”.
But the real reason I love WPMUdev.org is because of their plugin library. They literally have everything and give you unlimited access for a monthly subscription. I have also recently started hosting my own websites with them but prior to that, I was a member of WP Engine whom I will always love and recommend to clients.
WP Engine is the first of its kind to offer managed WordPress hosting. All that really means is they take care of your core WordPress updates, optimize the server for WordPress performance and have a tech support team that can actually answer questions related to WordPress!
Moving onto page builders… it’s a tie. Until the release of Gutenberg, the WordPress editor was less sophisticated than Microsoft Word. Now with the introduction of Gutenberg, they have a half decent drag and drop page builder… but it doesn’t compare to premium page builders like WP Bakery or Beaver Builder.
WP Bakery is the backbone of thousands of WordPress themes you’ll find on themeforest.net and other theme libraries. Their page builder keeps getting better and better and you can get a lifetime license to software updates for $60 USD!! Mind you that’s for one single website.
I’ve recently switched to the Beaver Builder plugin which is a newer drag and drop page builder. I think it has a more user-friendly interface and has fewer quirks… you see it is always the same out of the box even if you switch themes, unlike WP Bakery which doesn’t always have the same features when you switch from one theme to another.
The catch is Beaver Builder is a minimum of $100/year for ongoing software updates but you can use it on as many websites as you like. So for a WordPress developer like myself or anyone who has multiple websites, Beaver Builder is actually more affordable than WP Bakery.
