This website is a custom WordPress installation on a hosted service (currently Register365). I am using the Avada theme from ThemeFusion (requires a paid license), which has been heavily customized using custom graphics, fonts, PHP code, plugins, and my own photographs. I highly recommend that if you are building a public WordPress site that you purchase a professional theme (e.g., from themeforest) as they greatly enhance the features available in WordPress and help your website to provide support for mobile/tablet devices — saving you hundreds of hours of custom development.
If you plan on customizing a professional theme, make sure that you research the topic of child themes. I only edit the child theme, which allows me to upgrade the parent theme without losing any customization. Upgrades of the professional themes are required quite regularly and are often necessary in order to remain compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
Some of the important WordPress plugins used on this site are: Crayon Syntax Highlighter, Easy Table, Fusion Core, Google Plus Badge Widget, WP GitHub Tools, Amazon Link, YouTube Channel, Redux Framework, WP-SpamShield, and Advanced Code Editor.
One of the most difficult aspects to configure on this website is caching. I have optimized this website using script minification, html minification, page caching, object caching, database caching, browser caching and I am currently experimenting with content delivery networks (CDNs). My advice on this topic is to test, test, and test again after you have set up caching. Everything looked fine on my computer, but external viewers were not seeing comment updates etc. The Tor browser is a great way of getting an external geographical view on your website. If you notice any strange update problems with this website then please let me know via the About Author page.
The photographs are edited and optimized using Adobe Photoshop, and all illustrations (including circuit diagrams) are created using Adobe Illustrator.
Now to answer the question… Hard work!