Creating valuable WordPress products and services

BUILD IT RIGHT,
AND THEY WILL COME

IT TOOK ME YEARS TO LEARN HOW TO BUILD MY FIRST WORDPRESS PRODUCT...

FIRST, I WORKED IN IT, THEN AT AN AGENCY, THEN AS A FREELANCER...

... AND THEN I STARTED BUILDING FREE PLUGINS.

MY IDEAS DIDN'T REVOLUTIONIZE ANYTHING...

...BUT THEY DID SOLVE PROBLEMS, AND PEOPLE LIKED THEM.

SO I BUILT PRO VERSIONS.

...AND EVENTUALLY A BUSINESS.

MANY HAVE ANd MANY WILL...

SUCCEED

IN THE WORDPRESS INDUSTRY

HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS 

IN BUSINESS?

Just YOURSELF?

A SMALL NUMBER OF FOLKS?

an ENTIRE COMPANY?

KNOW YOUR 

WHY

THE BOTTOM LINE IS

SET YOUR 

AND ALWAYS 

GOALS

KNOW YOUR MARKET:

WP: AN ESTABLISHED LEADER

WP: A BIG PIECE OF THE PIE

Interesting StatISTICS

  • 48% of Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs Are Managed With WordPress

  • 74.6 Million Sites Depend on WordPress

  • 56 LANGUAGE Translations of WordPress

  • WordPress Is Most Popular With Business Websites

59 percent of very small businesses still don’t have a website.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/techflash/2015/09/godaddy-majority-of-very-small-businesses-still.html

A LOOK A FEW WP BUSINESSES

COMPANY  DESCRIPTION
Automattic - $45m in 2012 Hosting/Products
WP Engine - $120m valuation Managed Hosting
Gravity Forms - $5m+/year Products
Yoast - $2m+/year Products/Services
WP Rocket - $90k / month Product
WP Popup Maker - $2k / month Product

WHAT DO YOU 

SELL?

PRODUCTS?

SERVICES?

  • Themes
  • Plugins
  • Tools 
  • Development
  • Design
  • Consulting
  • Optimization
  • Support

FIND YOUR NICHE

WHAT's YOUR

IDEA?

BEAT UP YOUR IDEA

WHO WON THE FIGHT?

THE IDEA?

BUILD YOUR

BRAND

Give Branding:  v1

Give Branding:  v2

Give Branding:  v3

Give Branding:  v4

NEVER SETTLE

PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Don't Do it yourself if you can't

Minimum Viable Product

MVP

KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL MVP 

  • Focus on the simple implementation of your product
  • Start with a minimal set of features
  • Release and listen to your users

VALIDATE YOUR MVP

  • Products solve problems. Does your MVP solve the initial problem?
  • Question everything.
    • Does it make sense to launch now? 
    • Pros / Cons of now vs later
    • ROI of now vs later
  • Never stop iterating

QUALITY DEVELOPERS

  • Facebook WordPress Groups (AWP + WordPress Freelancers)
  • Local WordPress/PHP Meetups
  • WordCamps like this one!

 

QUALITY DESIGNERS

  • Dribbble.com
  • Behance.net
  • Envato Studio & 99designs (proceed with caution)

NEED HELP?

JUST ALWAYS REMEMBER...

YOU CAN

DO IT!

@innerwebs

THANK YOU!

PHOTO CREDITS

  • StartupStockPhotos - http://startupstockphotos.com/

  •  https://s3.amazonaws.com/StartupStockPhotos/20140808_StartupStockPhotos/82.jpg

  • FreePik http://freepik.com

  • http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/meeting-around-the-desk_756218.htm

  • http://www.officelovin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-London-Soho-19.jpg

Made with Slides.com