Ever since 2017, I’ve been a regular Udemy course enthusiast, taking full advantage of their awesome sales with courses as affordable as $10.99. With an array of options spanning from design to coding, my sights were set on mastering a JavaScript framework like ReactJS or VueJS. But, life’s busy nature made it tough to fully commit to my learning goals, and despite eagerly purchasing courses with dreams of becoming a pro, my completion rate left much to be desired.

Unexpectedly, my professional journey took a twist when we needed to rebuild our company website without any development support. The site’s custom theme pushed me to hunt for a suitable WordPress course on Udemy, where I learned the invaluable lesson of not blindly following “Bestseller” courses but rather carefully reading through course descriptions to find the perfect fit. Enter Ali Alaa’s WordPress course, with a teaching approach that was refreshingly genuine and practical.

Diving headfirst into learning for two months, I embraced the challenges of being a WordPress newbie and not a PHP expert. Thank goodness for Stack Overflow, my trusty companion for finding answers! My perseverance paid off, and I gradually mastered the basics of the WordPress framework and PHP language.

Now, I confidently whip up customized WordPress themes from scratch, understanding every little nuance of the entire process. Gone are the days of relying on pre-made themes from design agencies, which were user-friendly but came with the downside of sluggish page loading times due to unnecessary files.

In conclusion, Ali Alaa’s course was an invaluable investment. While PHP and WordPress might not be the hottest trends today, they work wonders for personal websites like my own portfolio. Plus, I put my newfound skills to good use, building and customizing WordPress themes for my previous company from 2019 to 2022. I even had a hand in redesigning the website for Bizrate Insights and crafting the Bizcoin app and website for Bizcoin Survey, a subsidiary of Bizrate Insights.

Udemy has truly transformed my web development skills, and I’m eager to keep exploring more courses to take my expertise to even greater heights. Here’s to the journey of growth and learning that lies ahead!