The Business of WordPress

A presentation by John Turner of SeedProd (http://seedprod.com) on the Business of WordPress - Exploring the emerging WordPress Economy

Transcript

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2. The Business of
   Exploring the emerging WordPress Economy
   @johnturner
   

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3. Who am I?
   Developer → Marketer → Bootstrap
   Entrepreneur
   Author of:
   Ultimate Coming Soon Page Plugin
   Ultimate Maintenance Mode Plugin
   Founder of:
   

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4. Why listen to me?
   ● 15 years in web development
   ● 6 years WordPress development
   ● Built a variety of products in various
   languages: asp, asp.net, cold fusion, php,
   python
   ● Lots of failures
   ● Author of the Coming Soon Pro plugin.
   

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6. ● Hosted verticals: wordpress.com, happy
   tables, restaurant engine, wedding, small
   business, bands
   ● Hosted services: Managed Hosting,
   Security, Backup, SEO, WordPress Valet,
   Manage WP, WP101.com
   ● Themes: WooThemes, StudioPress, Elegant
   Themes
   ● Plugins: Gravity Forms, WooCommerce,
   Coming Soon Pro
   ● Freelance
   How do people make money with
   WordPress?
   

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7. WordPress Market
   ● 62 Million WordPress Sites
   ● 20-25% of new site are WordPress
   ● As of 2011, over 100,000 new WordPresses
   are created every day.
   ● 17% of the the top 1 Million Websites
   ● 120 plus languages
   source: http://yoast.com/wordpress-stats/ and
   http://en.wordpress.com/stats/
   

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8. Who are the users of WordPress and
   who can we sell to?
   ● Do-it-yourself end users
   ● Fortune 5 Million
   ● Enterprise
   ● WordPress Assemblers
   ● Theme and Plugin Developers
   

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9. How much money can you make?
   ● WooThemes 2 Million per year 2010
   http://mixergy.com/adii-rockstar-interview/
   ● Kresi 2 Million
   http://notes.envato.com/authors/kriesi-wins-the-race-to-2-million/
   ● SEO Smart Links $80,000
   http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/how-i-made-80000-with-a-single-wordpress-
   plugin
   ● Nivo Slider $200,000 16 months
   http://gilbert.pellegrom.me/nivo-slider-the-story-so-far/
   

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10. How do I get started research ideas?
    ● Scratch your own itch.
    ● Sell something you've already made or a
    byproduct.
    ● Look at the WP.org forums.
    ● Look the through the plugins repo.
    ● Look at themes.
    ● Look at current services.
    ● Niche Products
    

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11. Validate your idea!
    ● Ask People
    ● WordPress Forums
    ● Build a simple plugin or theme and release it
    for free
    ● Sell it before you build it.
    

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12. Executing your idea
    Two Options:
    1. Build it yourself
    2. Hire someone
    ● oDesk
    ● 99 Desings
    ● Themeforest
    ● Twitter
    

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13. Sales Site and Accept Payments
    ● 99Designs
    ● Themeforest
    ● Build it yourself
    ● Paypal
    ● Stripe
    ● ejunkie
    ● Easy Digital Downloads
    ● Sellwp.co
    ● Marketplace: Themeforest, Codecanyon,
    Mojo Themes
    

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14. Traffic and the Math
    Say you want to make $1000 per month
    You need to make an average $33 per day
    Product Price $49 ~ 0.7 or 20 units per month.
    Conversion Rate
    Total Conversions/Total Views X 100 = Conversion Rate
    20/ ? = 0.02
    

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15. Pricing your product
    ● One Time Payment / 1 Year Duration /
    Recurring / Per site Packages
    ● Membership Site
    

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16. Marketing your product
    ● SEO organic and in the repo
    ● Release free version
    ● Blog Post
    ● Contact Bloggers and Affiliate Marketer
    ● Sponsor and speak at WordPress events
    ● Pay-Per-Click
    ● Mailing lists, niche advertising, social media,
    video sharing, partnerships, and podcast
    

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17. Measure results, rinse and repeat
    ● Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking
    ● A/B Testing: Optimizley
    ● Advanced Metrics: KissMetrics
    

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18. Supporting your product
    ● Don't use just email
    ● Zendesk
    ● Helpscout
    ● UserVoice
    Support metrics is a key to making future
    pricing and product decisions.
    

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20. Quotes
    "People are happy to pay for things that are
    good. Don’t be afraid to charge for your
    services." Jason Fried
    http://productpeople.tv/2013/02/27/ep15-jason-fried/
    

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21. Resources
    ● Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY
    ● Kissmetrics Blog
    http://blog.kissmetrics.com/
    ● Start Small Stay Small / Microprenuer
    Academy - Rob Walling
    http://www.startupbook.net/
    ● Unicorn Free - Amy Hoy
    http://unicornfree.com/
    

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22. Questions?
    Find me at:
    http://www.seedprod.com
    http://www.sellwp.co
    @johnturner
    

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