Beware of Wandering While At Wealthy Affiliate
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A little post on my recent experience with WordPress, Elementor and ChatGPT.
After my recent adventure, which is still not quite finished, of building a new website, and my ignorance of editors in general, I thought it best to share my experience so others can take notes.
It all started as I needed to build a new local site for my niche work in my field, and how I went in search of what I thought I needed, a template, but I soon found out that a theme is not the same thing. So what I thought were the same are not. So a theme is the first step in choices, then the template part. Then you have to choose your editor.
Anyway, all the time I was trying to figure this out, I enlisted the help of Chat GPT 4.0, paid version, and this is where my next major learning curve kicked off.
So just a quick recap, I had no idea theme and template meant different things in this field, and that the wrong inputs to Chat would get the wrong suggestions back and take me off in a different direction. The latter relating to the advice to use Elementor, I thought this had been given to me because it related to the theme/template choice
But I absolutely loved the template so I went ahead with the recommendations. Hmm, I soon realised that I wish I knew far more in general and that I could have used WordPress for this action. It seems there are other restrictions too when you when you go this route, like you can’t use many of the resources of WordPress, like patterns. But these I did not even know about until I had seen Eric's WordPress recent class!
So, the moral of this story is, I wished I had known or seen more at WA, or perhaps I should have asked more questions, and got second opinions of Chats' recommendations.
Don’t get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed the total learning experience, but I do wish someone had set off a flash bang warning earlier to save me a lot of time. 🤣😂🤣😂
If you are considering moving in a similar direction with a new website, do a lot more research than I did unless you have lots of time to spare to learn as you go!
I hope this is useful to someone, even if it's only one!
Rob
Recent Comments
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Hello Rob, I spend so much of my time is 'rabbit holes'. Sometimes due to getting 'pulled in' and sometimes, like you, I start off on the wrong foot and finding my way back is difficult.
It is always a learning curve though and I rarely make the same mistake again (there's always the exception though!)
I'm pleased it all turned out rosy for you in the end.
J
Hi Jackie,
I never really understood the term rabbit hole when I started out here. I do now and I try my best to control the rabbit hunt!!
Rob
Hi Rob,
Loved reading your post! As someone with an IT background, I have to admit—it never really crossed my mind how confusing the difference between a theme and a template can be when you’re just getting started. Thanks for sharing your experience and highlighting this!
A theme sets the overall design and styling of the site (like the global look and feel), while templates are more like reusable page structures or content layouts within that theme. And yes, editors like Elementor can add another layer of both flexibility and complexity, depending on how you use them.
Appreciate you sharing the experience—this will definitely help others who are exploring WordPress and builders like Elementor for the first time.
Looking forward to seeing your finished site!
Hi Winnie,
I think I should be saying glad to have you back! yes, I think no matter what our fulltime profession has been, we all tend to automatically think everyone else knows many of the things we do, and nothing is farther from the truth in my experience.
Rob
It never dawned on me that themes can be confused as templates. Good catch! For years, the themes I use have different templates like full page, left sidebar, narrow etc.
Editors, I've never been a fan of. Particularly, Elementor because it always compromised speed. It's far from lightweight (or it least when I tried it, it had a tonne of features I never needed).
I stuck with the Classic Editor for a while but now seeing what can be done with the basic (Gutenberg) block editor, I don't see the need for an editor plugin. A columns block seems plenty.
Also, parent themes and child themes. When customizing a theme like with Custom CSS or directly editing the functions.php file, theme updates overwrite changes so make a child theme first so edits don't get deleted.
I forgot about that when I put an author bio in the functions file, the theme updated, and my codes were gone. No biggie as the theme had an author bio box but it didn't work with HTML so formatting was stripped. I'll make a child theme one day. Until then, there's no point modifying the theme.
Hi Robert,
It sounds to me like you are a lot more advanced than most here, custom CSS code would be me like walking in a minefield. I have copied an pasted a little with ChatGPT's help.
But when I weigh it all up it is no different to me reel of ways, styles or techniques for my past stone masonry world, most would not understand a thing I said.
Thanks for your insights, much appreciated
Rob
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As someone whose website was built on elementor and when I took control of it found elementor didn't do what I wanted and I had to totally rebuild my site from scratch, I can certainly empathise with your situation.
Steep learning curve but glad it worked out well in the end.
Hi Karen,
Yes, it's just about there now and I am pleased with the results.
Rob