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 tend to be more rewarding — financially and creatively.

For a while, I was deeply involved in the Belgian WordPress community. Together with Veerle Verbert, I co-organized 90+ WordPress Meetups and 2 WordCamps between 2014 and 2020. These days, my community contributions have taken a back seat.

Funny enough, my first impression of WordPress was lukewarm at best. Back in 2008, it only had posts and a clunky horizontal admin nav — not exactly love at first sight. But a couple of years later, a football club hired me to build their website, complete with a league standings table and match listings. Way beyond my coding skills at the time. One fantastic plugin later, I was hooked.

Besides WordPress

It’s a bit sad to admit, but I work incredibly hard with WooCommerce and WordPress — which doesn’t leave much room for free time or hobbies. The wilder ones are behind me now: 3 years as lead singer and guitarist in a cover band called Me Like You, and 2 years doing stand-up comedy. I’ll come back to those later in this blog.

To unwind, I love cycling with my wife, soaking up the atmosphere on a sunny terrace, or enjoying a great dark beer in a cozy café. It might sound strange coming from a Belgian, but the Netherlands is one of my favorite countries. We try to visit as many cities as possible, always with an overnight stay. We’re making good progress! It’s handy we live close to the borders of the Netherlands.

It gets even stranger (sorry), but I love to shop (yes, I’m really a man) although I’m totally into e-commerce. Probably a side-effect of sitting alone all week in my office. Yeah, just another excuse.

The Christmas-fool: you found hoim

And every year I look forward to November and December — as a true Christmas market enthusiast. The best ones are absolutely in Germany. I’m completely mad about them!

During the Christmas months, our house is also transformed into a Christmas merchandise store (without anything actually being for sale). 2 Christmas trees: 1 for the stable and 1 for the presents. And my pride and joy of Christmas: a real Christmas village with cute little houses, a cable car, multiple levels, an ice skating rink, a train that runs underneath the village… you name it. Yet still tasteful, absolutely no kitsch. Well, everyone has their quirks.

Voilà, now you know me. Do you trust this madman now?