In today’s episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Christie’s conversation about switching from project-based work to subscription-based model. They also discussed how WordPress developers doing freelance work can focus on creating prototypes of productized services, how engaging in competitor research can help identify flaws in your own products, and the best way to test out what product to build during your free time. Episode Resources: Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:55 Transition to project-based work to subscription model 06:28 From building a $5,000 website to a $20,000 website 12:34 Prototypes of productized services 14:20 The best way to get into products is to do project-based work 18:03 Engage in competitor research, identify customer needs 23:57 Aim for enough people buying the product in any given hour  26:35 Moving from project-based to subscription-based  31:17 When you don’t need full service assistance 34:23 What's the smallest thing that you can do to figure out if your idea is good? 

WPMRR WordPress Podcast

E168 - Project-Based WordPress Work is Becoming Old-School

In today’s episode, we get to listen again to Joe’s chat with Chris Lema, Liquid Web's Vice President of Products and General Manager at LearnDash. He is a well-known blogger and public speaker, and leads the product teams to develop and launch Managed WordPress and Managed WooCommerce product lines.   Chris enthusiastically talks about the concept behind BeachPress and CaboPress, and what can potentially happen in these meetings. He also tackled the growth of e-commerce, how WooCommerce as an open platform creates more opportunities for a lot of businesses, and providing customers hassle-free access to plugin updates on their sites.   Episode Resources: Chris Lema is on Twitter and YouTube Leaders Blog Liquid Web Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:48 What is BeachPress? 05:06 Be in a conversation with people in your circle 07:21 The CaboPress 12:31 Bringing SaaS people to CaboPress 14:47 SaaS platforms that do e-commerce 19:49 Looking at period over period growth 22:45 Partnership with Glue 27:01 The building blocks of a great storytelling 33:16 Fun stuff and new pricing at Liquid Web 35:18 Having e-commerce played out on open platforms 38:33 The ability to update plugins automatically 39:55 Find Chris online 

E167 - Telling Stories that Close Deals (Chris Lema, Liquid Web)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Hristo Pandjarov, Manager of WordPress Initiatives at SiteGround - a web hosting company founded in 2004 that provides hosting for about 2,000,000 domains worldwide. Some of the services offered include shared hosting, cloud hosting, enterprise solutions, and domain registration.    Hristo shares what the roles and responsibilities he had and currently have since joining SiteGround, the advantage of building internal plugins versus acquiring existing ones, why site performance impacts the growth of hosting sites, and how consistency in quality has fueled the company through the years.    Episode Resources: SiteGround is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube   Hristo is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:06 Welcome to the pod, Hristo! 05:43 What’s a WordPress initiatives manager? 09:11 Different positions since joining Site Ground 14:02 Your passion will take you places 17:41 Focus is on site performance 23:32 Building plugins internally than acquiring external products 30:01 Many who built WordPress products weren't actually business minded people 39:44 Partnership with West Ham United 44:18 The most important value is quality consistency 45:46 Find SiteGround and Hristo online 

E166 - Why Being a Contrarian Works (Hristo Pandjarov, SiteGround)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Lucas Prigge, the Head of Sales at Kinsta - a hosting platform by developers, for developers. Kinsta has combined the fastest network and platform in the world (Google Cloud), and paired it with the best engineering team and the most experienced WordPress developers in the industry. The MyKinsta dashboard was built from the ground up specifically for WordPress, making site management a breeze.    Lucas shares his insight on sales such as the extensive training the sales team has to undergo, the meticulous sales process for new customers, finding the right CRM tool to manage clients and collect data, and the commission scheme that helps ensure that clients only get the best support.    Episode Resources: OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Kinsta is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Check Lucas on LinkedIn and YouTube  Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 05:54 Welcome to the pod, Lucas! 07:23 Background settings and program good for video recording 11:03 Kinsta helps people find the right hosting plan 14:19 Challenges of managing a multi language team 19:27 The key factor in selling and communicating 23:51 Sales process for new customers 30:06 Do businesses need to stick to making sales calls? 35:45 Every sales person undergoes extensive training 46:33 Single source of truth of your customer data 49:49 HubSpot is the lead CRM tool 53:54 The way you use a technology is what matters the most 59:33 Find Lucas online 

E165 - The Importance of Customer Journeys in Sales (Lucas Prigge, Kinsta)

It’s finally here! The WPMRR Virtual Summit 2021 is about to start! Joe shares today’s schedule and some exciting news to look forward to. Big shout out to all our sponsors this year. Some of our legacy sponsors include: GoDaddy Pro, WP Remote, GreenGeeks, Weglot, and Cloudways. Hop into the WPMRR Community and join our speakers as they discuss relevant and valuable topics.   Episode Resources: Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:56 Our legacy sponsors 07:48 Our growth sponsors 08:11 Our community partners 

E164 - [Live starting today] The WPMRR Virtual Summit 2021

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Miriam Schwab, the co-Founder and CEO of Strattic - an all-in-one static site generation and hosting platform that instantly optimizes WordPress by converting it to a static architecture. Content managers and marketers can continue to manage content in WordPress as usual, while developers get to bask in the glory (and enjoy the peace of mind) of a fully headless website.     Miriam shares her agency’s vision to provide a link between the WordPress functionality and the speed performance of static sites, what it was like to build a company while raising 7 children, and why they continue to offer a 30-day free trial to new customers.   Episode Resources: Strattic is on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter Miriam Schwab is on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 07:01 Welcome to the pod, Miriam 08:36 What is Strattic? 13:55 Site performance is important in converting visits to clients 15:29 It started from discovering static site generators  23:54 Managing an agency while raising children 28:30 Work at a pace that works for you, take baby steps 29:45 Funding is focused on product improvement and building additional functionality 33:54 Clients providing their customers high quality hosting company 38:30 Why offer a 30-day Free Trial? 44:46 Headless WordPress is no longer foreign but it’s not too common yet 47:55 The religious limitations of being a Jewish woman 50:54 Being a female founder becomes a challenge when it comes to fundraising 54:59 Find Miriam online 

E163 - Bringing Back Static Sites at a Massive Scale (Miriam Schwab, Strattic)

In today’s episode, we bring back Joe’s chat with the Founder and Director of Design TLC, Tara Claeys. As a seasoned website designer and developer with a marketing background going back over 25 years, she provides custom website and graphic design services, with a focus on creating effective, customized, user-friendly communication platforms for small schools, camps, and nonprofits.     Tara talks about the steady growth of her company, how she isn’t aiming for a 7-figure business anytime soon, keeping a happy outlook while working in several different projects, and choosing how to present yourself in social media.   Episode Resources: Design TLC Tara is on Twitter, LinkedIn Tara Claeys’ Website Hallway Chats Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:19 Welcome to the pod, Tara! 06:17 Joining PressNomics and other events 11:37 Rebuffing the Design TLC website 17:00 Bringing happiness in what you do 22:19 You don’t have to have a 7 figure business to be successful 27:19 Be physically responsible with managing your business funds 33:51 You only see people’s best moments on social media 37:05 People in the WordPress community are generally open 37:39 Find Tara online 

E162 - Proudly Staying Small Regardless of Popular Growth Norms (Tara Claeys, DesignTLC)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Gary Gaspar, the co-founder and CEO of Marker.io - a platform that encourages a simple way to report bugs on live websites and collect client feedback along the way. This 6-member team with over 2M feedback reported and 1,500 plus customers, continue to make it easier for people to report live website issues in real time.    Gary shares how he met his two co-founders at a totally unexpected place, shutting down the agency to focus on growing the business, the integrations they planned as they expand, and focusing more on conversion than website traffic.    Episode Resources: Gary is on LinkedIn, Twitter Marker.io New MRR Merch, discount code: AUGUST31 Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 06:35 Welcome to the pod, Gary! 07:25 Instead of a live chat, Marker.io utilizes capture screenshot with annotations 12:34 Why there are 3 co-founders 20:25 Shutting down the agency and going full-time  23:33 The value of owning your company despite having a low paycheck 26:57 It took a while to find the right product-market fit, future plans 30:18 Marker.io was built with integrations in mind 34:35 Original business structure attracted non-targeted customers 37:37 Build relationships with folks to reach more people in the community 41:58 It’s useless to do all the marketing channels 47:01 SEO and integration marketing works 49:24 Finding the right person to join the team 53:16 Giving the team a lot of creative freedom 

E161 – Successfully Shifting from Services to SaaS (Gary Gaspar, Marker.io)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Iain Poulson and Alex Denning of FlipWP, a private marketplace for buying and selling WordPress businesses. Buyers get vetted listings emailed directly to them, while sellers get access to quality buyers who understand their product and the opportunity they’re offering.   Iain and Alex explain how FlipWP offers a unique experience for both buyers and sellers, providing reasonable valuation for any business while ensuring that all deals remain exclusive to both parties, no middlemen. They aim to connect anyone to the right people to land a successful deal at 1% success fee.     Episode Resources: Delicious Brains WP Trends Pressing Matters Ellipsis FlipWP Alex is on Twitter Iain is on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit The 80/20 of Profits: Pricing and Margins in Subscriptions (Ben McAdam)   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:53 Welcome to the pod, Iain and Alex! 07:02 How did it start for FlipWP  10:29 What is FlipWP? 15:30 From a seller perspective, it's a combination of the maturity of the WordPress ecosystem 23:09  Finding a place where you can sell your business 26:42 Most FlipWP members are WordPress people 29:33 Utilizing leverage in the email lists and the newsletters after launch 35:59 Helping people with their business valuation 40:06 FlipWP tries to guide people to make sure what they are putting is reasonable 46:54 Some people are taking out competitors by buying similar business 48:42 FlipWP connects people, but buyers should their own research 51:41 The 1% success fee remains the same for now 54:17 Helping buyers get better access and sellers better prices 

E160 – Taking Advantage of the Hot WordPress Acquisition Market (Iain Poulson & Alex Denning, FlipWP)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Lesley Sim of Newsletter Glue, a WordPress plugin designed to help businesses or anyone connect their email service to WordPress so they can publish newsletters the way they publish blog posts. The first step is to connect the email service, write the newsletter in the block editor, and then send it.    Lesley discusses how it becomes so much easier to send newsletters using the plugin, the current growth of the company, planning your schedule while taking care of your mental health, and how to not get sucked in any social media platform.    Episode Resources: Newsletter Glue’s Website and Twitter Lesley is on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:33 Welcome to the pod, Lesley! 06:14 Aiming to make WordPress the CMS for newsletters 10:34 The plug-in is completely reliant on what happens with Gutenberg 14:00 The difference between patterns and templates when dealing with Gutenberg 16:25 Early adapters to the Gutenberg ecosystem 18:20 Current ARR range for Newsletter Glue 23:13 Future plans and current improvements in the works 30:04 Stay sane and prioritize mental health 35:51 Managing your daily schedule and allocating your time effectively 42:08 Getting active on social media and getting sucked into it 47:14 Enjoy your time on the social platform you enjoy using 52:43 Find Lesley online 

E159 – Getting Her First 100 Subscription Customers via 5 Highly Productive Hours per Week (Lesley Sim, Newsletter Glue)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Copyflight’s Todd Jones, a digital storyteller helping purpose-driven B2B entrepreneurs leverage storytelling to captivate their target market. His team helps businesses identify and develop their story, so that they can communicate more efficiently to their ideal client.     Todd talks about how his college football Top 10 blog evolved into learning WordPress, building sites using themes and widgets, the different web developing sites he came to know, learn, and practice, and what setting end goals mean for conversion copywriting.     Episode Resources: Todd Jones’ Twitter, and Facebook Copyflight is on YouTube Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:56 Welcome to the pod, Todd! 06:38 The story of the Redneck Coffee Snob 09:43 It all started with a college football Top 10 blog 13:35 Selling ad spots from doing exclusive content writing 17:35 Moving to Wordpress from Blogspot 22:17 Learning different web developer sites while working in an agency 26:45 Venturing into conversion copywriting 29:11 How to start learning conversion copywriting? 32:36 Voice of customer research 39:37 Find someone smarter than you and learn from them 43:11 Have you heard of Barcamp? 44:40 A good About page equals credibility 48:45 Everybody does like storytelling, even tech people 50:16 Find Todd online 

E158 – Writing Copy and Telling Stories that Convert (Todd Jones, Copyflight)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Rene Morozowich, a freelancer in the WordPress space who works with small and medium sized business and individual projects in building and managing service-based websites. She’s a Business Intelligence (BI) and SQL developer, a programmer, and an instructor at a community college who teaches credit and non-credit classes.   Rene shares her freelancing journey, from building a website from scratch, overhauling and managing existing websites, to offering client marketing services and how not to overwhelm your leads with your marketing campaign.    Episode Resources: Rene Morozowich’s website Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:21 Welcome to the pod, Rene! 04:26 The 24-hour WordFest 2021 06:19 Regrouping care plan for clients  09:08 No immediate plans to develop an agency 11:29 Freelancing started with one client 15:17 Having good clients but not a good fit long-term 21:14 An expensive learning curve 24:24 Creating proposals with varying packages depending on client needs 30:07 Stop paying to market cold leads 35:53 Don’t overwhelm potential clients with your email campaign 40:15 Why people get hesitant in doing campaign automations 44:22 Creating campaign headlines needs practice and some testing 47:13 Best practices to trim down cold leads 51:54 When people sign up for something, they expect something 53:45 Find Rene online 

E157 – Improving Email Deliverability, Open Rates and Personalization (Rene Morozowich, renemzw.com)

In today’s episode, we are going to hear Christie once again, back when she was still based in Hawaii. Joe and Christie discuss the perks and some of the downsides of working on a different time zone from the rest of your team, body clock adjustments to be able to function, and the importance of robust communication and the maximization of tools.   Episode Resources: Christie is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:32 What’s up with Joe? 07:02 What’s up this week, Christie? 13:01 Working away from home 15:41 Working in a timezone unlike any other across the globe 21:12 What’s a sleep nerd? 24:13 Working with your body when moving to a new place 27:41 Communicate, communicate, communicate! 34:09 Synchronous versus Asynchronous team work 38:09 Creating a work pattern based on your body clock 47:31 Talking to clients, taking online calls, meetings in pajamas 

E156 – Digital Nomading When You’re an Essential Employee (with Christie Chirinos)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Maciek Palmowski, one of the co-creators of WP Owls, a weekly newsletter focused on the latest and top WordPress news. He also works as a WordPress ambassador for Buddy Works - a top-notch performance into one solution for teams that want to painlessly introduce CI/CD and accelerate the development lifecycle of their software.   Maciek explains how the Polish audience has a completely different social media preference compared to the global community, the surprising challenges of  raising his son while working at home, and the customization of the $7 per month web hosting they are using for WP Owls.    Episode Resources: Buddy WP Owls Maciek Palmowski is on Twitter and WPMRR Community WordFest Live, register Here Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:21 Welcome to the pod, Maciek 04:23 What is CI/CD? 07:16 How WP Owls came to be 11:36 WP Owls doesn’t take an aggressive marketing approach 18:50 Outreach efforts and invite list 22:02 Analytics, growth, and iterations on the articles  26:32 Twitter is a very straightforward social media platform 36:20 WP Owls run an on a $7 per month custom web hosting 41:44 Raising a baby while in the WordPress space 47:04 Balancing work and raising a family 51:22 Find Maciek online 

E155 – Running a WordPress Newsletter in a Crowded Space (Maciek Palmowski, WP Owls)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Dan Maby of Big Orange Heart - a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities. The Big Orange Heart Health Hubs are designed to provide holistic support for the individual.   Dan shares how Big Orange Heart came from the challenges he and his team faced while handling a digital marketing agency, and the organization’s mission to help support the mental health of workers in a remote setting. They also discussed the upcoming WordFest Live, a virtual event to be streamed in six continents in a 24-hour period.   Episode Resources: Big Orange Heart Big Orange Heart Support Dan Maby Website WordFest Live, register Here Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:01 Welcome to the pod, Dan! 03:20 The funny story at the WordCamp US 2019  05:30 What’s keeping Dan busy 06:55 Big Orange Heart born from the challenges of handling an agency 08:36 Things take different priorities at different times of your life 10:34 Mental health is a challenging topic to talk about 14:26 Supporting as many network as possible 16:55 Varying levels of support for different groups of people 22:31 Getting a core group for individuals to get support together 25:35 Encourage the community in Slack to help 28:37 WordFest Live 2021: The festival of WordPress 36:12 WordFest 2021 to deliver within six continents in a 24-hour period 39:33 A diverse organizing team in the background across seven time zones 43:32 WordFest was supposed to be an annual event 48:11 The virtual setting has opened many more interesting environment 53:40 Live Streaming in-person previous events were leading to the hybrid event style 54:38 Find Dan online 

E154 – WordFest (July 23) & Mental Health for Remote Workers (Dan Maby, Big Orange Heart)

Christie is a product manager at Liquid Web. I started WP Buffs and we increase MRR every single month. And here’s the good news. We’re joining forces to bring you The WPMRR WordPress Podcast! If you’ve been looking for a WordPress podcast that’s entirely focused on growing successful WordPress businesses and monthly recurring revenue without taking itself too seriously, we’ve got your back.

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WPMRR WordPress Podcast

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