I am Blake Whittle, and I am the owner of ClikIT & Infinite Uploads. I have lived in Illinois, USA my entire life, and I attended Illinois State University and majored in Management. At Illinois State is where I met my wife, learned more about the world, and joined a large network of alumni. While at ISU, I founded ClikIT in my freshman year of college!
The Journey Began
I’ve always wanted to have my own business, even from a young age of 5. Here is a picture of me when I was 9 years old, selling the vegetables I grew. Fast forward, and I discovered WordPress when I was 14 years old. I was always a “techie” beginning in the 6th grade, and had a fascination for Apple products. This evolved into high school where there were a little bit more technology courses, and I stumbled upon WordPress in a web design course in high school, where we learned HTML & CSS. I excelled in that class, and the teacher actually referred me to a local realtor who needed some website work done, and the site just happened to be built with WordPress. I thought it was awesome, but how little I knew at the time, it’s a miracle I didn’t crash the site!
I remember trying to download the wp-content folder as a backup onto my parents computer on a 3mbps download DSL connection before I began the work. I remember it was hosted on GoDaddy, and it was my first webhost. I stuck with WordPress because it’s the easiest and most powerful solution for creating websites….and it was better than Dreamweaver. Who remembers that?!
I didn’t discover the WordPress community until 2023 on X, which has been a blessing. I know there’s millions of people who use WordPress that aren’t even aware such a community exists, but I’m glad I found it.
The Need for “ClikIT”
ClikIT Logo
I actually am from a small rural town of about 12,000 people. There were not any major competitors in the area, and carrying my skills from high school into college, I founded ClikIT. We started off as someone for everyone, as we offered IT support, app development, web design & development, and phone repair. It didn’t work out very well, and I was trying to find our niche. My passion though was always the web. It can be done from anywhere, it involves a blend of technical skills & design skills, and I liked seeing things come together.
Eventually, we niched down into just doing WordPress web design & development in 2021. At ClikIT, we focus on solving problems, not just creating websites. Everything we do we think: How can this bring the greatest ROI to our customer?
Even more, we deliver consistency, which is very rare in this industry. I’ve spent hundreds of hours developing our processes, writing out our SOP/training center on everything from how to respond to clients to our coding standards for our team members to follow. Consistency is key!
Throughout my journey, I’ve faced a number of challenges. As a business owner, it just seems that most of the challenges are one after another. The moment one is solved, another one comes up. The challenges have ranged from upset clients to getting a bad eye infection on my way to WordCamp US. It’s important to learn to roll with the punches, always keep pushing forward, and don’t let one specific thing take too much of your mental energy.
Our full range of services includes Web Design, Web Development, Quick Sites (affordable and quick websites), and ClikIT Care (website maintenance).
In November of 2024, I bought Infinite Uploads, a WordPress SaaS that is an all in one media offload solution for WordPress. This marked a pivot in our business, as we diversify our offerings into a WordPress product. We’re still the only all in one offload solution for WordPress. All the other products out there are great, but you must set up and manage everything yourself. That’s not the case with Infinite Uploads.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
Blake Whittle and his Team
From Left to right: Jhennyfer Garcia (Web Designer), Blake Whittle (Owner), Sagar Savaliya (Web Developer)
Advice for Business Owners
If you’re starting a WordPress-based business, I would strive to start a plugin/product company. It’s going to take a lot longer to get going and get off the ground, but you’ll set yourself apart from the millions of other agencies and freelancers out there. You’ll build a recurring revenue business that allows you true freedom, and it’ll be fun. With that being said, consistency is key. Show up every day and make a 0.01% improvement. If you follow this, you don’t need to have the next billion-dollar idea.
WordPress & Beyond
We’re investing all of our resources into Infinite Uploads. We’re still full steam with ClikIT, but any and all forms of sponsorships, content marketing budgets, etc are being put into the Infinite Uploads plugin. We’re investing heavily in content marketing & SEO. Beyond that (as you should have multiple client acquisition avenues), we’re investing deeply in relationships with agencies.
WordPress will be here in five years and beyond. Given the recent controversy, it’s caused many to hesitate on WordPress, but it’ll be here. What won’t be here though in 5 years is as many agencies. I believe that agencies are on the decline due to AI. I’m not saying agencies will be dead, but agencies that offer no strategic value will decline. There’s millions of agencies, so even a decline in agencies will still leave us with millions of agencies.
Automattic’s new WordPress AI website builder is super cool. Not useful yet, but it will be coming, and fast. I do see all of the other AI builders such as Wix, SquareSpace, Shopify, and GoDaddy as major competition to WordPress and something we all need to keep a close eye on.
Stay in Touch
My Love for the WordPress Community
I love the WordPress community. I attended my first WordCamp in Portland, Oregon, in 2024. I think it’s much easier to make connections in person than it is online. Online, we’re inundated with everyone wanting our attention, trying to sell us things, wanting to set up a 15-minute call, etc. But in person, walking up to someone to introduce yourself is super easy and instant. Talking with someone at WordCamp US in the “hallway track”, they saw 2 other people they knew, and introduced me to them. It’s truly a network.
Within the WordPress community on X, I interact with a wide number of people, but I especially enjoy interacting and talking with Ajay D’Souza, Katie Keith, EZ Smith, Ryan @ InfluenceWP, and Aaron Edwards.
Aaron Edwards & Blake Whittle at WCUS 24
I love how many websites, blogs, and podcasts there are for WordPress. From WP Founders and The Admin Bar to The WP World and the WP Minute, each one is special in its own way and contributes meaningfully to the community. Infinite Uploads proudly sponsors many of these platforms, and we’re committed to giving back to support their efforts.
How I Keep Myself Updated
I am a daily reader of Reddit, X, and my email inbox from newsletters. Some of my favorite newsletters are from WPMU DEV, The WP World, The Admin Bar, and Post Status.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
I enjoy tracking storms! While it isn’t a free time thing, because storms happen at all hours of the day, I love weather. I run a weather page with 26,000 followers and have a livestream to cover our area when severe weather hits. My job fortunately allows me this flexibility. I used to go in my car and chase the tornados, but ever since I got married and got a nice car, I don’t take that risk anymore.
I’m also getting a little bit into lawn care. Not an expert, and would barely call myself even a beginner, but with springtime coming, having a nice lawn free of weeds and dandelions is something I’m placing higher on the things I value.
I Reward Myself by
This is a hard question, because I rarely reward myself, but when I do, I love to go out to eat or watch my favorite TV shows on my couch with my wife. Some of my favorite TV shows include Chicago Fire/Med/PD, The Rookie, 911, SWAT, and King of the Hill. I also love Marvel movies!
