At the MattReport, we’re always looking for new and interesting ways folks have launched their WordPress business.

Some people believe that there’s no difference in a WordPress business, than say, a banana stand — I disagree.

Enter Eric Hamm creator of the Catalyst framework and the Dynamik Website Builder to challenge just that thought.

Eric has a tremendous story about starting out as a web marketer who taught himself how to develop a free WordPress theme that matured to a $20k monthly revenue business.

WordPress entrepreneurs unite! Let’s dive in…

Interview with Eric Hamm of CobaltApps.com

(upset there’s no video? Sorry! My laptop died last week and good ol ex-IT manager forgot to backup his files! So potentially I’ve lost my last 5 interviews and that’s going to cause quite a headache for my past guests. Here’s to Apple being able to fix everything…)

Eric and I had a chance to chat before the interview and it was clear that he had a TON of stuff to talk about.

We fly through the history of his WordPress career starting from consulting on WordPress sites with bigger name bloggers like Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.com and others that are popular today and saw tremendous growth back in 2008.

The concept of Frugal Site Design was born and Eric quickly realized he needed to shift to a digital product. Not only was his own brand name hurting him, but he wanted a more consistent passive income.

Thus, Frugal theme was born and received a good boost from the connections he made in the internet marketing space.

I love the idea of connecting with folks that have a larger audience to get your name out there.

Service is like running; Product is like riding a bike

I loved this little analogy that Eric brings up.

Think about running up a hill on a hot summer day.

It sucks right?

If you’re on a bike, once you get to the other side of the hill you can coast a bit. That doesn’t mean you can give up on peddling, but to gain momentum is going to be a lot easier.

On the flip side, as someone who enjoys to run, finishing that 5 mile run and tackling the hills can feel really rewarding.

What do you prefer?

Finding a new audience

So I don’t want to ruin all of the surprise, but there’s a big lesson in cultivating an audience in this episode.

That’s exactly what Eric is leveraging by moving his Catalyst customer base of around 6,000 to StudioPress more dominate pool of 90,000.

Find the right audience for your product or service and capitalize.

I hope you enjoyed the first audio only episode of the MattReport — if you did consider subscribing to my newsletter or tweeting this out to other folks who might find it interesting.

Thanks!

What’s in your toolbox: Forklift 2

Outro music: Pain and Jeopardy by Just Plain Ant