A web designer and WordPress theme developer par excellence, Adam Mills is one of the most well-known web designers in the United States. He is the owner of ‘Bottomless Design’ – a web development agency known for its cutting edge designs and budget friendly solutions. He loves to keep himself updated with the latest WordPress developments.
With more than 8 years of experience in web design development, his main motivation to work is to help small businesses achieve their goals. He is a true WordPress enthusiast. He is a passionate Graphic Artist with a flair to develop creative web designs that are simple yet innovative and trendy with a minimalist approach.
During an interview with Cloudways, Adam Mills shares his views about the popularity of WordPress, his secret of success, theme development etc. He is also optimistic about the the release of WordPress 4.3 with enhanced password protection mechanism. He also shares some good advice for those who want to start their career in WordPress.
Cloudways: Who came up with this name ‘Bottomless Design’? What was the strategy to start a design and development agency?
Adam Mills: I chose the name Bottomless Design as a way to represent endless creative potential. I’ve always had an interest in creating new things, and ultimately started Bottomless Design as a means of helping small businesses achieve their branding and website goals.
Having worked on WordPress websites for several years with clients, and always having an appeal towards front-end design, developing WordPress themes seemed like the next logical step for me.
Cloudways: You are a theme developer. How often do you update your themes? Do all your developed themes support the latest version of WordPress?
Adam Mills: I like to stay on top of the upcoming WordPress releases and always test my themes for compatibility with the latest version. I tend to update my themes as needed to ensure future compatibility with WordPress versions, and as needed for bug/support fixes.
Cloudways: Being a developer, there may have been many options available to you. What made you choose WordPress? How WordPress changed your life?
Adam Mills: WordPress is dominating the web market with 23.9% of the market share. That’s a huge number for the internet. When I made the switch from HTML-based sites to WordPress, there was already a large movement in this direction, and it’s only increased since then.
By committing to WordPress, I’ve been able to build more attractive sites, which are mobile friendly, and offer more features—all at a better value to the client. This is a win-win situation and has definitely been an important factor in my success.
Cloudways: Mostly WordPress folks are optimistic in choosing themes and consider WordPress repository more than WordPress agencies. What are your views on this practice?
Adam Mills: The WordPress repository has greatly improved its offerings and it’s breadth of selection over the last few years. Depending on your needs/goals, it’s definitely possible to find a very nice theme from there to build your website.
If you’re looking for something beyond the free repository, boutique theme shops (such as myself) tend to be the next step up, which then offer more customization options at an incredibly reasonable price, and tend to not be as bloated as what you’ll typically find on ThemeForest.
Cloudways: Everyone has a life other than work. What does Adam Mills do in his spare time? Any interest in TV shows, sports, music?
Adam Mills: Of course 🙂  I love to spend time with my wife, explore nature, and travel. I’m also an avid comic book reader.
Cloudways: WordPress communities always welcome everyone with open arms. There are many active communities on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Have you joined any? What are your views about these communities?
Adam Mills: Yes, I’m a member of the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, which I find is a great resource for news, education, and troubleshooting. It tends to cultivate a wide variety of engagement and attracts numerous insightful comments for a diverse range of topics.
Cloudways: WordPress throws out an update after every four months. Up till now, there is no major release that has addressed the security of WordPress sites. Don’t you think WordPress core team should also come up with a full-fledged product to make WordPress secure?
Adam Mills: Fortunately, the next scheduled release (4.3, expected 08.15) is planning on strengthening passwords as a feature, which is one of the first steps in any good security plan.
It would be nice to see a solution against brute force attacks incorporated into core, but thankfully, there are good plugin options for that. As far as a full-fledged product towards WordPress security, there is the excellent iThemes Security Pro plugin, or services such as Sucuri.
Cloudways: A great number of people are joining WordPress daily. People from other platforms are also shifting to WordPress. What do you advice to these newbies?
Adam Mills: First of all, welcome 🙂  There are lots of great resources for getting familiar with WordPress. WPBeginner is fantastic for tutorials. WP Tavern is great for the latest news. WP Elevation offers an extremely well-rounded way to improve your WordPress and business skills. Also, signing up for newsletters, such as WPMail.me can be a very convenient way to get updates. Twitter is also an amazing resource, as most WordPress developers are active there as well.
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Cloudways: Everyone has an inspiration. Name 10 of the most influential people who have inspired you the most in the WordPress industry. How these people are helpful to WordPress community?
Adam Mills: There are so many amazing people worth following in the WordPress community. The 10 who have had a positive influence on me include:
- Chris Coyier (CSS-Tricks)
- Joost de Valk (WordPress SEO by Yoast)
- Chris Lema (ChrisLema.com)
- Tom McFarlin (TomMcFarlin.com)
- Matt Mullenweg (WordPress)
- Shane Pearlman (Modern Tribe)
- Devin Price (WP Theming & Theme Options)
- Justin Tadlock (Theme Review Team)
- Emil Uzelac (Theme Review Team)
- Pippin Williamson (Pippins Plugins)
You can follow Adam Mills on Twitter.
Waseem Abbas
Waseem Abbas was WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves to help people with their WordPress worries. He is a self-proclaimed "food explorer".
