Wordpress | Post Status Draft Podcast

As Corey Maass and Cory Miller move further into their experience of launching a WordPress product in public, they delve into the insights they’ve gained and the obstacles they are facing. Listen to their perspectives on building a community around the product, overcoming challenges, handling feedback, and implementing effective marketing strategies.Top TakeawaysThe impact of technology on personal and professional lives: Technology has revolutionized various aspects of our lives, from communication and information access to work and productivity. This brings about the benefits and challenges of living in a digitally connected world, including privacy, cybersecurity, and work-life balance issues. .The role of mindfulness in the digital age: Mindfulness practices can help individuals navigate the challenges of the digital age, such as reducing stress, improving focus and concentration, and promoting healthy technology habits. Integrating mindfulness into daily routines and setting boundaries with technology is

Learn from Corey Maass, the go-to on WordPress product design topics, and Cory Miller, a master on the business of WordPress. They discuss finding the balance in the small and big pictures of product development, highlighting the process of trial and error.Top TakeawaysCourage Under Fire. After what feels like a miserable failure, it’s vital to keep trudging forward. Great product design takes time to build and grow in the space you are putting it into. Keeping your passion alive and remaining consistent in your efforts will eventually lead you to success.The Impact of Thoughtful Design. Developing a product is of course based on meeting some kind of user need, but it’s important to consider if you are really going to make that user’s life easier with your product. When the end user is your top priority, your product will shine, and you’ll be proud of the direct impact you made in someone’s everyday life.Finding the Spark in Your Product. Focusing on the overall product journey is key for great product develo

Learn from Corey Maass, a master of WordPress plugins and apps, and Cory Miller, a marketing, business, and WordPress experience guru. The two discuss the intimacies of partnering on a product and how solopreneurs can benefit from support. Top Takeaways:The Value of Partnerships. Starting a business can be a lonely experience. Having someone to bounce ideas off, talk through tough subjects with, and celebrate successes with makes a significant difference. Having that collaborative support system can make managing a business more enjoyable and streamlined, which is a huge benefit, especially for startups and small businesses.Discussion vs. Decision. It’s important to be intentional with communication considering the stage you are in when you are improving a product or creating something brand new. Being vocal about whether you are still discussing or whether you are ready to make decisive moves is critical to keep the process moving forward without missteps.The Art of Failing. Understanding that taking risks a

The talented team from Modern Tribe joined Cory Miller for this critical discussion about accessibility in WordPress. They highlight accessibility as a non-negotiable aspect of web development and provide guidance for leaders, developers, and designers to ensure your websites are accessible to all people.Top Takeaways:Why Value Accessibility? Accessibility ensures all people have access to the things we create. It can’t be an afterthought or something for the web dev team to figure out. It must drive the entire creative process and serve as an anchor to ground our teams and our work.Requirement vs. Challenge. Most creative projects work within a set of requirements. These don’t prohibit the creative process. Instead, they challenge us to enhance the things we build and make them better than we might have without thinking through and within these constraints.It’s All Around Us. We think of accessibility as a new idea, but in so many spaces, it’s the norm. We have curb cutouts and braille signage. We see this e

Learn from Corey Maass, a master of WordPress plugins and apps, and Cory Miller, a marketing, business, and WordPress experience guru. The two discuss the intimacies of partnering on a product and how solopreneurs can benefit from support. Top Takeaways:The Value of Partnerships. Starting a business can be a lonely experience. Having someone to bounce ideas off, talk through tough subjects with, and celebrate successes with makes a significant difference. Having that collaborative support system can make managing a business more enjoyable and streamlined, which is a huge benefit, especially for startups and small businesses. Discussion vs. Decision. It’s important to be intentional with communication considering the stage you are in when you are improving a product or creating something brand new. Being vocal about whether you are still discussing or whether you are ready to make decisive moves is critical to keep the process moving forward without missteps. The Art of Failing. Understanding that taking risks

In this episode, Corey Maass and Cory Miller focus on preparing Crop.Express for launch. They discuss building launch assets, utilizing a freemium model as a path toward a premium product, and future possibilities.Top Takeaways:Value of a Soft Launch. This is a great way to test the waters and get initial feedback. If you utilize a soft launch, you need to be willing to make changes and improvements based on that feedback before you fully launch.Building a Sustainable Premium Product. Start by setting up a basic website and integration to attract customers. Establishing a freemium model allows you to identify what users will value enough to pay for and provides space for your plugin to become a recommended tool for users, agencies, and hosting providers as a premium product.Feedback as Fuel. Gathering input from customers and agency owners in the WordPress ecosystem can help you understand the barriers to adoption, like already established workflows, the challenge of installing and learning a new tool, and li

Brandon Dove, co-founder of Pixel Jar, joins Cory Miller to discuss his WordPress plugin, AdSanity Plugin. They dive into the nuance of advertising, evaluate the benefits of free and paid plugins, and talk through the challenges and opportunities available to agencies who invest in product development while providing other services. Top Takeaways:Recurring Product Revenue. While it can be challenging for an agency to balance custom service work with product development, having a product that generates recurring revenue can provide a cushion and diversify the overall business revenue. AdSanity is a successful example of this, and the team is working on dedicating more resources towards the product to even out development between the two sides of their business. However, it can be difficult to maintain free plugins without generating revenue, and it's important to consider how to incorporate them into the business model.Value vs. Spam in Advertising. For many people, advertising has become a four-letter word, s

Brian Gardner initially found WordPress as a blogger. His journey led him to found Studio Press which eventually became part of WPEngine. Brian and Cory flashback into what was and lean into the potential future of WordPress.Top Takeaways:Workflow Education. Getting adoption for workflows can be challenging. Agencies may resist changes to their workflow even if the change may bring significant benefits. Investing in education is key. Contributing to WordPress education by testing things and hosting workshops and demonstrations can ensure the project as a whole succeeds.Scaling is the Safety of WordPress. Many of the page builder softwares are not built for much beyond brochure-type sites. The extensibility of WordPress makes so much possible for businesses looking to deliver excellent customer experience or expand their site capabilities.Competition vs. Cooperation. Today there is far more competition in WordPress. In the early days, competition existed alongside cooperation. We were competing while we shared

In this episode, Corey Maass and Cory Miller share the results of submitting their WordPress plugin, Crop.Express to the repo. As they continue to build their product live, they develop branding, messaging, and strategy to validate their business and cultivate an audience.Top Takeaways:Expanding Outwards. Repo offers inherent discoverability for WordPress products, but cultivating broader awareness is necessary for a product to succeed. Creating brand assets, a website, and a newsletter create conduits for growth.Feel Out Your Brand. Be cautious not to box yourself in with branding. Consider what feeling you want people to get when using your product. Go a little deeper and have a little fun exploring the solutions and feelings you hope to offer as you create your branding. Move from literal to conception to better understand what defines your business.Ring the Bell. Identify your customer’s problem and keep talking about it. Invite ideal users to talk about it. Leverage your personal platforms to highlight t

In this episode, Corey Maass and Cory Miller share their initial version or MVP of the product they are building, Crop.Express.  Together they work through enhancing UX, selecting the right business model, crafting marketing messages, and more.Top Takeaways:Work Out the Workflow. You will teach people how to use your product with demos or tutorials. While you want to make adjustments to improve UX, you don’t want to constantly change the workflows for your product. Being thoughtful on the front end can result in better usability and less change.Business Models. Building a product also means determining a business model. Offering some functionality for free can gain exposure for a base product. Adding a pro or paid version with increased value to deliver a better end product for a customer.Focus on Feedback. As a product builder, you work to anticipate pain points and solve for them. With a quality product, you will solve real struggles for users. But there is a reason users are uninstalling. Accessing their i

Learn from Mark Westguard, founder of WS Form, a powerful, next-generation WordPress form plugin. Mark and Cory discuss how AI is starting to integrate into the world of WordPress and how the WP Form software is leveraging its power. Top Takeaways:Harnessing the Power of Open AI. The possibilities are endless with the revolution of AI as an open-source tool. Making the most of its capabilities allows WordPress users to create more intuitive and integrated content, like better fields and options in WordPress forms.Create, Edit, Moderate. AI should be seen as an assistant working alongside you to help generate your content. You’re still essential in the creation process, and it’s important not to rely on AI 100% for accuracy. You can get creative prompts, edit for grammar or spelling and generate unique images, but moderating that content is essential.The Future is All-in-One AI Integrated Tools. Limiting time spent running around to different AI software is good for business. So how can that be accomplished? B

In this episode, Cory Miller and Arnas Donauskas, Web Hosting Product Owner at  Hostinger, talk about what it means to truly value customer obsession. This core value has shaped Arnas’ career path, from his roots in customer service to creating products to provide simple website restoration and security for principal vulnerabilities.Top Takeaways:Customer Obsession. Users are facing daily challenges that need real-time solutions. Think about their problems. Value their feedback. Sometimes clients are limited because we haven’t kept up with the speed of evolving technology. Approaching things from a user perspective to prioritize and build products creates optimal impact.Removing Manual Work. Wherever possible, we are working to automate things to provide more easy buttons for clients. Automating things, creating single-click solutions, and providing the best examples and guidance to reduce users' steps to accomplish tasks.Possibilities with AI. Everyone is eager to see how AI will change the industry. Cory an

Learn from the owner of Freemius, Vova Feldman, as he talks with  Cory Miller about the opportunities for indie developers, how to best bring products into the industry, the importance of community, and more.Top Takeaways:Living in an Open Source Ecosystem. Developers don’t need to reinvent the wheel. With such a large ecosystem of products, finding a secret niche spot to develop your product isn’t always the best or even attainable solution. Doing something better than the next company is sometimes all it takes for great success.The David and Goliath Struggle. It’s obvious that there has always been and will continue to be an unbalanced level of success between independent WordPress product owners and large companies. But that’s not to say there isn’t room for everyone; there is. An independent startup can move much faster into achieving short-term goals and growth than large-scale established companies can with a heavier workload and slower forward movement.Valuing Community Over All Else. The WordPress com

In 2001 Bradford Campeau-Laurion began his career in publishing technology at Forbes Magazine, which evolved into utilizing WordPress in the enterprise market. Today he leads Alley Interactive, an agency focused on publishers, non-profits, museums, and brands. Brad shares his extensive experience in publishing technology and his view of the strengths and challenges within the enterprise market of WordPress.Top Takeaways:Shifting to Paywall Content. Perhaps a major misstep in early online publishing was setting the expectation of free content. Now print subscriptions are down. Publishers can’t secure advertising without extremely high volume. And consumers are hesitant to pay for online subscriptions. WordPress Creator Economies. Within WordPress there are software and content creators. Software creators the directory to serve as a centralized community and marketplace. Content creators face a bigger challenge to find their market because there isn’t a collaboration tool and algorithm like a social platform dr

Mario Peshev had an interest in technology from childhood. After working as a software developer, he transitioned into WordPress and founded his own agency, DevriX. They coined the term “WordPress retainer.” It is the mantra fueling their operations and one they hope other agencies will adopt. He joins Cory Miller to dive deep into the how and why of WordPress retainers, sharing his experience and his hopes for the future of WordPress.Top Takeaways:WordPress Retainers: Business doesn’t have to be feast or famine. Several other industries utilize retainers because they provide consistent revenue and secure client commitment for ongoing work. The entire world is living around monthly costs. Not aligning your service-based business with that model is counterintuitive. Essentially it is just selling hours in bulk, turning services into products. Allotting 10% for project management while using the rest to prioritize and execute projects. The longevity and security enable you to plan, diversify, hire well and grow

In this episode, Corey Maass and Cory Miller discuss the origin of the WordPress product they are creating. Together they explore the benefits of partnership, the challenges of being a creator, and what it takes to build viable solutions. This is only the beginning of their process and partnership, but it’s loaded with experience and insight from the journeys they have had within WordPress that brought them to this moment, as well as takeaways they’ve discovered with their new undertaking.Top Takeaways:The Power of Partnering: Many entrepreneurs aren’t interested in partnership. But they create an opportunity to own and contribute the things you do well alongside someone who has other skill sets, strengths, and experiences. Partnerships offer space to practice open dialogue while showing respect and gaining perspective. They are a great solution for all the things you can’t do, don’t want to do, or shouldn’t do.Build for a Need: Sometimes we create things believing we have brilliant ideas that will attract an

Tiffany Bridge has been working in WordPress almost since the beginning of WordPress. She is the Product Manager for WordPress eCommerce at Nexcess and talks with Cory Miller about their hosting services and products, specifically highlighting the benefits and capabilities of Store Builder. They dive into optimizing UX in WordPress, the benefits of open source, and more.Top Takeaways:WooCommerce Simplified with Store Builder. As you know, WordPress and WooCommerce love to hide settings in layers of menus. Nexcess saw the struggles people had in trying to set up eCommerce sites and created StoreBuilder as an easy tool to go from zero to having an online store. This removes the initial learning curve required to get started in Woo and sets up a DIY tool for merchants.A Platform to Grow with You: One of the great things about setting people up on WordPress and Woo as they start businesses is the flexibility available for future growth. If their model totally shifts, they can just uninstall a plugin and add anoth

In this episode, Jannis Thuemmig, serial entrepreneur and founder of WP Webhooks, dives into the world of automation and Open AI with Cory Miller. Together they look at what is currently possible within the world of integration and automation within WordPress. Then they lean into what is unfolding as Open AI finds its way into the mainstream and discuss what this might mean for the WordPress community.Top Takeaways:Integrations & Automations to Save Time: Everyone is in need of some kind of automation. Our main goal is to save time by creating automations wherever there are pain points. Rather than doing things manually, WP Webhooks enables you to automate them within your dashboard.Avoiding Automation through Software: Using software as a service partner means hosting your data on their platforms. Using Webhooks for integration and automation allows you to keep things on your server and within your complete control.Possibilities with Open AI Integration: Webhooks is focused on using Open AI as an advanta

Winstina Hughes  is a long-term community member and organizer within WordPress. She joins Cory Miller to discuss Support Inclusion in Tech, an effort to increase representation of minority and underrepresented speakers at WordCamp by providing needed financial support. This offers everyone in the WordPress community the chance to share their expertise and to contribute resources, so everyone has the opportunity to engage.Top Takeaways:Creativity is our common bond.: WordPress is the playground where we all came to tinker and build for fun or business. It is the software magic where we discover what new things we can do each day, how to make ideas become reality, and how we might leverage what we learn to create a better world.Ripple effect of inclusion: When you provide the ability for a large group of people to participate, travel, and network, the impact extends beyond the WordPress community to create the bigger changes we want to see in the world. This is our community magic.Fifth Freedom in WordPress: W

In this episode, Cory Miller talks with Matthias Pfefferle, creator of Activity Pub, about the growing potential for decentralization through innovation within WordPress. Current social networks have stripped creators of agency and power. The threat has been more acutely felt with the recent transitions within Twitter. Recognizing what is at stake and moving towards innovation could not only create needed solutions but could also propel the future of WordPress.Top Takeaways:Decentralization: So much of the power of WordPress is rooted in decentralization. The silos created by social media platforms leave users without agency. The potential and appetite for decentralization is increasing along with the tools to make it a reality via the Fediverse, Activity Pub, and more.Portable Social Networks: If you are blocked or banned from a major social network, you lose your content and contacts. The need to create portable social networks so you can move your audience and retain your content if you opt to or are force