Hi, my name is Dave Loodts.
I’m a WooCommerce conversion specialist.
Read more about me here and this blog.

  • It’s impossible to contribute financially to WordPress

    Automattic always has its eyes on the big fish — hosting companies (rightfully so), well-known plugin builders. They contribute by paying employees or freelancers who work on WordPress core. Many even have their own community managers to keep things running. But how does a small fish — like me — make a financial contribution to…

  • WooCommerce should be an E-CMSS

    WordPress is widely considered a CMS — a content management system. Clean, simple, makes sense.But what exactly is WooCommerce then? At Checkout Summit 2026, I asked James Kemp a straightforward question: “Why don’t we have a VAT number field in WooCommerce core?” There is a company name field. So a customer fills in their company…

  • WordPress Security: The 7.0 Elephant in the Room

    Let’s be honest — WordPress has had a security image problem forever. And WordPress itself is fine. It’s the plugins and themes causing trouble. You can ignore that, sure. Or you can actually care about it — especially if you’re leading the WordPress world, and especially when the community’s top security voice is literally saying…

  • How to destroy a WordPress brand

    So, Liquid Web has officially wrung the neck of the LearnDash brand. And Kadence. And a bunch of others. Some people will tell you the brand isn’t dead — it’s still on the Liquid Web website somewhere. Technically true. So is my gym membership, and I haven’t been there in months. But what even is…

  • Checkout Summit was amazing

    It may sound blasé, but I knew in advance that this event was going to be great. Why? There’s always something special about a very first edition.With a very first edition, everything is new for everyone. New environment, new group, new format, new organizer. And what happens in your head when something is new: you…

  • My Blogging Method: 300 Words Max

    Apparently, there’s a trend in WordPress land: endlessly long blog posts. Honestly, they put me off sometimes depending on the topic. No matter how interesting your blog post may be, I just sometimes can’t deal with it, for several reasons: So my blog is exactly what I would want to read myself. Something simple and…

  • Why this blog?

    Sure, imposter syndrome is definitely there. What do I have to say, really? During Checkout Summit 2026, I did notice that my words, or knowledge, can actually change things. Or shift opinions. Including my own. Someone told me: “Yes, but Dave, you’ve been doing this for 20 years.” Damn. Holy sh*t. Time flies when you’re…

  • About me

    My name is Dave Loodts, based in Belgium. I’ve been building websites professionally since 2006 — though my very first site goes all the way back to 1998. Yes, I’m that old.Since 2016, my focus has shifted almost entirely to WooCommerce. Designing pages stopped exciting me, Gutenberg didn’t exactly rekindle that spark, and e-commerce projects…