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The Business of WordPress

The Business of WordPress

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

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Transcript

  1. View Slide

  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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