This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Kyla from
WPExplorer. We learned more about the company’s beginnings, its mission, and the future of the industry.
Please present WPExplorer to our audience.
WPExplorer is part WordPress blog and part WordPress theme development. On the blog side, which is mainly run by Kyla, we share WordPress-related tips, guides, case studies, product reviews, and seasonal deals. On the development side, which is AJ’s side of things, we’re an established brand that creates high-quality WordPress themes and free plugins.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea, and how has it evolved so far?
WPExplorer was started by AJ in 2010 as a sort of hobby blog. He had recently started learning about WordPress so he started a blog about it to share what he found. At first, he wrote basic guides, which became more detailed and even included a few free themes as he honed his development skills.
Eventually, the blog turned into his full-time job as he started creating premium themes for Mojo Themes and later Themeforest. As the business grew, it was eventually time for Kyla to join in to take over the blog so AJ could exclusively focus on the themes. In the years since we’ve added a few people to the team, AJ has started getting into
free plugins and we have enjoyed being able to work on our business.
What services do you offer?
While we do not offer any services, we do have a flagship product – the
Total WordPress theme. It’s a multipurpose and e-commerce ready theme with a visual front-end page builder, font manager, translation support, theme customizer, dynamic layouts, and more.
It also happens to be our best-selling theme, so it should be no surprise that AJ is constantly adding new features and optimizations. His most recent
Total update was a complete recode to Vanilla Javascript, the addition of quick-insert section templates as well as new theme elements.
What is the mission of WPExplorer?
Our mission is to help WordPress users at all stages of their journey – whether they’re a beginner just getting started, a web designer looking for a powerful theme for client sites, or a seasoned pro on the hunt for new resources.
What separates you from other similar websites/companies?
What sets us apart is that we started as a small business, and we still are (if you reach out to us you’ll be talking to AJ or Kyla). Many of the blogs and theme/plugin stores that started when we did have since sold out to bigger corporations (which is great for them since that’s what they wanted to do). But we’ve been lucky enough to make a business out of our passion and are proud to have kept it that way.
How do you envision the future of your industry?
We think that WordPress, like the rest of web design, will likely focus more on UX – specifically user engagement (via interactive elements / live chat or similar), AI, and accessibility. But hopefully, you’ll visit the
WPExplorer blog in the future to see!
