This domain was going to be a rebrand at one point. It isn't anymore. Instead it's turned into something more useful: one place that points at everything else I build and run.
I'm Christopher Ross. I do WordPress consulting under my own name at thisismyurl.com, and everything below this line is either owned outright or built and operated by me alongside that work. Some of it is client-facing, some of it is a personal project with no business model attached yet, and I've tried to be honest below about which is which.
48 domains · 4 disclosed site pairs · dozens of plugins built, five on WordPress.org · on the web since 1996
Services
Fixed-price website design and local SEO for small businesses, same three sizes as the lead-generator sites below. Pricing and scopes live on the services page so this index stays a portfolio, not a second sales page.
Guides
Five free, plain-language guides on the questions that come up most for a small business trying to get found and get chosen online. No email required, no gate.
Local SEO basics: get found nearby
Your Google Business Profile, your details matching everywhere, and reviews that keep coming. Three jobs you can do yourself, no code required.
What actually makes a website convert
Ranking well and getting chosen are different jobs. The wording, button and form changes that turn a visit into a call, none of them a redesign.
Brand voice, without the workshop
Brand voice isn't agency mystique. It's just sounding like the same business everywhere someone finds you.
Technical SEO without the jargon
Every word on that technical-SEO quote, translated, plus the six checks you can run yourself before paying anyone.
Content marketing on an hour a week
You don't need to blog every day. One good piece a month, used four ways, beats a burst of ten.
Event sites
foundinniagara.com
Fall fairs and festivals in the Niagara region: dates, hours, prices and parking for each, checked again before the weekend.
News sites
Sixteen trade and genre news sites, fourteen live and two launching soon, edited and published by me. Software helps read and sort the day's news, every story is checked against its sources, and each site says plainly that my own business advertises there.
miningdispatch.com
Mining news, read for you. Each weekday an editor picks what matters and links to whoever reported it first, with a weekly digest every Monday.
haulerdaily.com
Trucking and freight news, read for you, in the same daily format for owner-operators, fleet managers and shippers.
slipreport.com
Marina and boatyard news, read for you. Slips, haul-outs, insurance and the season-to-season economics of running a waterfront business.
facilitydispatch.com
Self-storage operator news, read for you. Development, pricing and the lien-law details an independent operator actually needs, not REIT-scale numbers dressed up as the whole industry.
aftercarereport.com
Funeral home and death-care industry news, read for you. Consolidation, licensing, preneed insurance and the family-facing side of the trade.
dealerrowweekly.com
Farm equipment dealer news, read for you. Manufacturer earnings, floor-plan financing and parts and service, translated for the dealership floor.
splatterscoop.com
Horror film news, curated daily by an editor. New releases, practical effects, the festival circuit, and leaks checked before they're reported as real.
canconwire.com
Canadian film and TV industry news, curated daily by an editor. Funding, greenlights, labour and the deals that actually move a production forward.
secondbilling.com
Cult film and convention news, curated by an editor. Guest announcements that are actually confirmed, collectibles pricing, and the convention circuit.
sailcommons.com
Sailing and marina news from Canada and the US, read for a teenager with a borrowed dinghy, a parent, an instructor, or someone returning to the water, not the racing-press version of the sport.
glenridgegames.com
Tabletop and card game industry news, read for you. Publishers, distributors, hobby retail, licensing and the deals that move a catalogue, not game reviews for players.
carwashwire.com
Car wash industry news for owners and operators: consolidation, equipment and chemistry, memberships and pricing, water and permitting rules, every story linked to its source.
landleasereport.com
Manufactured housing community news for owners and operators: lot rent and regulation, financing, zoning, infrastructure, and tenancy law, every story linked to its source.
wreckerweekly.com
Towing and recovery industry news for operators: rotation lists, fees and rates, equipment, insurance, impound rules, labour and safety, every story linked to its source.
Launching soon
childcareledger.com
Child care business news for centre owners and operators: funding and subsidies, fee-reduction programs, licensing rules, ownership and consolidation, workforce and wages, every story linked to its source.
Launching soon
petservicesreport.com
Pet services industry news for boarding, daycare and grooming operators: ownership and consolidation, pricing, licensing and zoning, staffing, insurance, every story linked to its source.
Lead generators
Four disclosed site pairs (SEO cleanup beside a website build for the same market) plus onsite team training. Local pairs for Niagara and Kingston; industry pairs for campgrounds and family-law practices.
niagaraseo.com & niagarawebdesigner.com
SEO cleanup and website builds for small businesses across the Niagara region.
kingstonseo.com & kingstonwebdesigner.com
The same pairing, built for small businesses around Kingston, Ontario.
campgroundseo.com & campgroundwebdesigner.com
SEO and website work for independent campgrounds and RV parks. This one has a personal hook: I sail, and the off-season buying rhythm of a campground isn't far from a marina's.
lakeviewtraining.com
Onsite WordPress and Microsoft Office training, delivered at your office anywhere in Ontario. I've taught this stuff for years through thisismyurl.com, and this is the come-to-your-desk version of it, built for teams instead of individuals.
Ecommerce sites
annapolistools.com
CNC-machined and 3D-printed tools for small professional shops, plus custom hardware for sailors. Designed and made in Fort Erie.
Parked
shirtdock.com
A small tee shop: heavyweight cotton, honest pricing, shipped from Ontario.
Special content sites
thisismyurl.com
WordPress consulting, website builds, and migrations, done under my own name, plus the self-paced courses and workshops I still teach there directly. Most of what I write and think through in public happens here first.
lakeviewbrands.com
This page: the portfolio index for every site, plugin, and project listed here, so the whole set is findable from one address.
adsectator.com
Ad and marketing-campaign criticism, one write-up at a time: what an ad is actually arguing, whether it worked, and what it cost, read as a strategic document rather than reacted to.
shippedwords.com
Ghostwriting and commissioned writing from work that shipped, plus free columns for small newspapers. Samples first, paid services after.
ditchtheguide.com
Off-guidebook Ontario town guides, for people who would rather skip the tourist-guide version of a place.
geitoq.com
Weekly evidence reviews on learning and technology. Each Tuesday, one claim about how people learn with technology, the research behind it, and what the evidence does and does not show.
voidcharter.com
A Starflight-inspired text-command browser game. You never leave the starbase; you command an AI-piloted ship by typing orders at a terminal.
woodrescuer.com
Furniture refinishing in the Niagara Region: used solid-wood pieces rescued, refinished by hand and sold to support the animals at TAMS Sanctuary in Wainfleet. A side project, not a business.
Apps planned
wobblepatch.com
Calm learning games for children about three to eight, starting with a colour-matching game. No timers, no ads, no fail states. Planned for iOS and Android; nothing is in the App Store or Google Play yet.
WordPress plugins and themes
Free WordPress plugins and themes. Each plugin site has its own download; the catalogues for both live under thisismyurl.com.
editloft.com
A free WordPress editorial-workflow plugin, live now. A fresh fork of Edit Flow rebuilt for the block editor: custom post statuses, editorial comments that stay attached to the piece, and a calendar an editor can actually plan around.
wpshadow.com
A free WordPress plugin that runs five website checks from your dashboard: titles and descriptions, broken links, page speed, accessibility and security. Paid checks only if you ask.
wpchirp.com
A free WordPress plugin for what customers say and what to say back: a reply helper for reviews and comments, post ideas, review requests and a draft check. Paid review analysis only if you ask.
plugins.thisismyurl.com
Christopher Ross's WordPress plugin shelf: free GPL tools for media support, website checks, review help and editorial workflows.
themes.thisismyurl.com
Free full-site-editing WordPress themes from This Is My URL: newspaper, literary, portfolio, marina and more, built on the Colophon core.
Tools and platform
Free web tools that do not need WordPress, and the AI gateway the plugins and tools run on.
shadowsteward.com
A calm second opinion on your website: seven free checks (image, SEO, broken links, page speed, accessibility, titles and security) that explain what they find in plain language. No sign-up.
chirpsuite.com
Paste a review or comment and get three replies that sound like a person, plus a note on whether to reply. Five free tools, no sign-up; nothing is posted for you.
vortops.com
One API for the AI inside your products. Vortops runs the models, checks every key, counts every credit and shows what each product used. Free test keys, priced in US dollars. It is also the gateway the thisismyurl.com plugins and tools use.
In development or being repurposed
Names I have registered that are not released. None of these has a download or a release date, and each site says so.
In development
caevox.com
A WordPress podcast plugin: publishing and show operations plus an iTunes-compliant feed and episode schema. In development, not shipping.
In development
predicatio.com
Automatic disclosure blocks for WordPress: trademark mentions, affiliate links and sponsored content. In development, not shipping.
In development
scriborium.com
Column syndication tracking for WordPress. In development, not shipping.
Being repurposed
declamatio.com
This was going to be a podcast plugin. It is not one now, and the new purpose is not decided.
Retired
Retired
rodonic.com
My Ottawa web design and marketing company, which built sites for NGOs, charities and government. The page now points to thisismyurl.com and to this index.
The lead-generator pairs above are built around Niagara and Kingston because that's where I started, but the work itself isn't limited to either market. I do SEO and web design for businesses anywhere in Ontario, and for businesses outside Canada too, including the United States, the same way the campground and family-law site pairs already operate nationally. Sizes and prices are on the services page.