WP Elevation WordPress Business Podcast

Watch the video of this podcast here.

In his role with GoDaddy, Andy is a member of the content team and works on content in one form or another, including everything from webinars to blog posts to ebooks. But his primary focus is on his GoDaddy pro clients and helping them take full advantage of the Pro features available to them.

He also has an extensive background in communities, but today we are focusing on his knowledge of content. And that knowledge can be perfectly summed up with his 7 Ps of content creation.

The 7 Ps were born when he was working with a lot of B2B and small agencies. He found templating processes was helpful to implement things faster so more work could get done. He also began to consider if the same approach could be applied to content creation. He wondered if there was a framework that could act as a standard references and ensure all bases were covered while creating content consistently over time?

He answered those questions and ponderings with the 7 Ps of content creation! They are listed in order below.

1. Prepare your goals.

When Andy presented this topic at a WordCamp for the first time he was talking about the different steps of a marketing funnel: reach, teach, sell, and support. He broke down each on today’s show.

Reach - at the top is your reach content, this is the content that helps people find you (social media, etc). It is content that grabs attention and brings people in.

Teach - this is content that teaches people and helps them learn. Your goal with this content is to teach people something and solve a problem of theirs through education.

Sell - content that sells isn’t necessarily content that closes a deal but it is content that convinces people to take the next step with you like subscribing to your email list or signing up for your webinar. This content is anything where they are giving you something, and there is a greater exchange of value.

Support - this happens after you've helped your prospect come on board and you’ve worked together. After you've done that, the support content is there to help them use whatever it is you have built for them.

1. Plan your topics.

The next P in the content creation process is plan. If you're going to position yourself as an authority what are all the things you would teach about that subject to educate someone?

Start thinking like a teacher and not a business owner when you are planning your topics. When you do that then can start thinking about what pieces of content you need to put out and what posts to write, and what presentations you'll put together. Andy recommends leaving SEO out of the game plan at this stage, and focus on getting good quality information out there first.

1. Producing the content.

This next P, producing, can be where people hit a wall! Andy describes what works for him: just start writing.

He brain dumps all of his ideas into a Google doc, and doesn't worry about making it perfect. He recommends you get into the habit of capturing thoughts and getting things written down and noted. Once you've done that then you can start by researching the rest of the information that will fill in the blanks of the points you want to convey.

You also need to research and add some authority to your content, according to Andy. You can add credibility by pulling in other sources and he suggests using BuzzSumo to find content that has gotten a lot of social shares and to find the big influencers sharing that content.

1. Repurpose.

The fourth P in the process is repurposing.  What you create can be repurposed into different formats like video, blog posts, podcasts, etc. One of the things he likes doing the most is creating a presentation on his topic.

1. Promote.

After producing and repurposing your content, you should promote it. This is another step where many people drop the ball! The first thing you should do is promote the content you produced yourself through organic social shares on Twitter and Facebook.

But you also need to tap into other people's audiences too. BuzzSumo or HARO are two tools that can help you find people for this. Work with others to either create strategic partnerships or simply ask them to share your content with their audience. The important thing is to find a way to get in front of other people's audiences.

1. Participate.

The 6th P is participate. By this Andy means participate in communities, online and offline. Naturally this is something you should be doing anyway because it’s a great way to offer your help to others. Yes you can generate potential leads, business partners and partnerships, but it’s also important to participate in order to be giving as much value as possible.

On today’s show he illustrates examples of both online and offline instances of doing this and gives further detail on why it’s so important.

1. Proving.

The very last step is proving: make sure you are actually hitting your goals with the different content you're creating. Make sure your teach content is educating people and the content that sells is converting, for example. Otherwise you won't know what's working and what's not!

Each step of the content creation process has a KPI (key performance indicators) so you can course-correct if things are off. You need to watch indicators so you know everything is working and you know your content is worthwhile. Otherwise you are flying blind! Andy gives some tools he likes to use in the proving stage, tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar.

Finally, we wrap up our conversation with Andy’s advice on what to do next, and how to proceed if you feel overwhelmed by all of the information in the 7 Ps! You’ll want to hear that and hear more examples of each of the 7 Ps on this episode of WP Elevate with Andy McIlwan.

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

Simon’s career began in the world of print marketing and media. His role was to sell ad space in architecture and construction magazines, to architecture and construction companies.

About a year later he took a job with Ignite Media Brands, a solutions agency for channels with digital and broadcast. They worked with companies like MTV, Nickelodeon, and National Geographic. It was a good place to cut his teeth, and learn the ins and outs of working with major brands.

From there he joined MR9, a leader in the digital media scene. MR9 was a joint venture between Microsoft and a broadcast network called Channel 9. While working with them Simon produced content for clients like L'Oreal and BMW.

However not long ago the entrepreneurial bug bit him and he struck out on his own with Content Kite. Content Kite works predominantly with digital agencies by creating content for them and helping them acquire leads and sales through content.

With his extensive background in content creation and marketing for big brands, I wasted no time in digging in on today’s show! My first question was where to start with content creation. Simon recommended putting a strategy in place as your initial step when crafting and curating content for your audience.

While this sounds like the usual sort of advice, he went a step further and offered a specific method called the 'Hub and Spoke Method'. This is what Content Kite uses with their clientele and it works like this: come up with a central idea or topic that would appeal to your target audience and schedule 12 topics around that central idea.

Here’s an example: Content Kite works exclusively with digital agencies so their central idea (or hub) is how to get more leads for your digital agency. From there, Content Kite creates a bunch of topics around that (the spokes).

Using this method also provides a simple way to decide if they should create content about a particular topic. All they have to do is ask the simple question: will this help our digital agencies get more leads? If it will then they post about it, and if not then they do not create content for that idea.

Once you know what content to create and you are creating it, the next big step is promoting it and sharing it. To that end, Simon offered three specific strategies you can use to leverage content beyond your website.

1. Run a content upgrade with every piece of content.
A content upgrade is another form of a lead magnet, except in this instance, the upgrade is very specific to the blog post that person is reading at the time.

This strategy is important because the only thing you know for sure when someone visits your blog post is that they are interested in that piece of content. So if you can create additional content that is specifically tailored to the piece of content they are already reading and showing an interest in then it’s much more likely they will sign up for your list in exchange for additional content on that same subject.

2. Content promotion.
At Content Kite they learned a trick to doing this, accidentally.

When you write content, make sure you reach out to blogs and other publications that you are going to link to and ask if they have anything extra to offer. Ask them if they have a quote or insight they’d like to contribute.

People are happy to give this because they are seen as the authority on the topic and all they have to do is hit reply and give a little bit of information.

When you publish the piece be sure to let that person know it's live. The chances of them sharing the article will be significantly higher! It makes your contributor look good and helps you in the process.

3. Share multiple times on social media.
Simon shares a Kissmetrics study on this which showed double the readership when a piece was shared multiple times on social media platforms!

While a lot of people resist doing this, the study shows the importance of this step. You can use tools like Buffer or something similar to share your content multiple times across multiple platforms. Each additional time you share it, be sure you do little things like change the headline, and listen to what your audience says in response.

He estimates 5-10% of your users will see a post by you so it's okay to put it out there multiple times.

Be sure to hear the other examples and tips up Simon’s sleeve on today’s show. He talks about data they’ve collected at Content Kite, on how many digital agencies are actually producing content consistently and why there’s a major opportunity there. He goes into greater detail on that and so much more on this edition of WP Elevation!

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

Back in 2009, Eric Hamm got his start with a theme called Frugal. As he continued to teach himself code, he continued to build - first Frugal, then Catalyst Theme, then Dynamik. Eventually, he moved everything over to Genesis.

Since his start, he’s witnessed a lot of big changes and embraced challenges like the demand for responsive design a few years ago, as well as the advent of parent and child themes, among others. In the last year, however, he has witnessed an explosion in page builder plugins. Personally, he's developed the Beaver extender plugin for Beaver Builder; Eric says it's so popular because of its compatibility and it’s huge supportive community.

He has also noticed people wanting to do more drag and drop for their websites, and more features are going from backend to front end. Those changes are affecting how themes are coded and how UIs are presented, among other things.  

I also asked him how he balances his work time with his family time, especially now with four young sons under the age of 8! Eric explains that with each child, you go through the baby stage - a year or so when you're not getting sleep. As a result, he takes naps on his office floor a lot! He will do some intense coding for a few hours and then he’ll conk out on the floor for 45 minutes.

While it may sound crazy to nap on the office floor, Eric appreciates the freedom online work provides him. Rather than having to build his family’s day around his office schedule, he can build his office schedule around his family. Eric is grateful for that freedom and flexibility.

Changing gears, we dig into the nitty-gritty of his business and discuss how he supports his licensed customers versus the people in his community who are simply are gathering information.

To share what he does today, he explains what has been done in the past. Initially, when he started, there were two things everyone had: your product and your support via a forum. But over time people began shifting to email support and phasing out their forums for a variety of reasons.

One of those reasons is that there is more control over the conversation via email rather than a forum thread. Another reason is the customers' login information is often needed to provide support, so the person in the forum has to email it anyway. If communication starts via email, it saves some time and hassle.

One of the most impactful decisions he made a few years ago was to move to Help Scout, a popular email support program. Eric says his community was okay with it, but they still wanted a forum to connect with each other -  so he reopened the forum. However, he made it clear it was not a space for support but mainly a space for the members to help each other out.

It's worked out well, and everyone has the best of both worlds: they get the support they need directly from Eric’s team, and they get the camaraderie and connection with each other.

On today’s show, I also asked him how often he reviews customer licensing fees and whether he has had push back from the community. He talks about what happened to WooThemes and what he learned from the pushback they received.

We also discuss: how he has changed his processes and workflows over time; the three things he wished he knew when he started; and what's next for Cobalt. Listen in for that and more on today’s edition of WP Elevation with Eric Hamm!

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

When I first heard the title of Carrie Dils’ book I knew immediately I wanted to have her on the show! It’s called Real World Freelancing: The No Bullsh*t Survival Guide, and Carrie says the content is based on the roadmap she wished she had had when starting out at 22.

On this episode of WP Elevation, Carrie and I talk about that book as well as her tips for freelancers on how to manage their time, their finances and their mental health.

When it comes to managing your time as a freelancer, Carrie understands it can be difficult. She says that it is one of the hardest things to wrangle! You can get distracted so easily, especially when you aren't working for anyone else or don’t have hard deadlines to keep you on track.

The key to managing your time is to track it. You want to know where you are spending your time, first and foremost. A great way to do this is with the Rescue Time app. It is a free app that you can configure to track where you spend your time on which app. At the end of each week, it sends you a recap of where you spent your time in each app.

So if you are a developer, it'll tell you that you spent 20% of your time in your code editor, 3% on social media apps, etc. It's brutally honest, and there is no hiding! She says if you use that for a few weeks and watch where your time goes, it'll be very helpful.

Next, I asked her about finances. Carrie explains when you are staring out, it's important to know what money is coming in, from where and what is going out. So her tips for doing this easily include keeping personal finances separate from work finances. She recommends you have a separate work checking account, credit cards, etc. It’s something her father told her to do, and it’s been a great help in her business.

The second recommendation she has is to regularly reconcile your books. Stay on top of matching transactions using Quickbooks, Freshbooks, or whatever program you use. And by doing it regularly she means do it weekly, it will be much easier and take far less than time then if you put it off for six months or a year!

When I asked her about mental health and what she does to take care of herself, Carrie had several more great suggestions. She has created a rule that one day of the weekend - either Saturday or Sunday - she does not turn her computer on.

Before she implemented this rule, she found herself working seven days a week. Most of the time it was only a few hours on Saturday and Sunday - but as her husband pointed out - it still works.
Now she leaves her computer off on Saturday or Sunday, and she looks forward to doing so! It helps her and is a big deal for her family.

Her second tip is to take a break. She makes a point of leaving the office and going outside for a walk or a run every day. It helps her come back refreshed and invigorated; she even finds she is more creative after. It’s a good idea to get out and clear your mind for a bit.

We also discuss working on your business: what that means exactly and why is it important plus Carrie gives her top bits of advice she'd give for someone starting out. You’ll definitely want to hear those so listen in to today’s edition of WP Elevation!

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

Jack Arturo’s journey began like many people’s: he was a Wordpress developer who learned the ropes while working for a big company. After a spell, he went out on his own as a freelancer. But being the savvy entrepreneur he is, when multiple clients began asking him for a similar product plugin, he listened.

With the help of one client, in particular, Jack took an idea for a plugin and ran with it. He created WP Fusion, a product that would automatically add people’s signup information from Wordpress websites into InfusionSoft. From there he expanded it to include other CRMs like Ontraport, Convert Kit and also for membership site programs like Woo Commerce, Ultimate Member, etc.

On this episode, Jack explains why and when WP Fusion is important for businesses. Because WP Fusion essentially connects a Wordpress website to a CRM, it is not necessary for every stage of business. But as the business grows it becomes important.

The bigger a business becomes, the more you will email your list and grow your list, and in turn, you'll want to know more specifics about the activities of your list and customer base. For example, you may want to send a specific upgrade or a specific offer to someone who has bought from you, and only to them but not to people who haven't purchased from you yet. WP Fusion makes this possible.

This is important because the more information you have about your customers and prospects, the better you are able to target them directly. InfusionSoft and other CRMs are awesome tools, but they aren't deeply integrated with your website. Your website is where your customers engage with you, so there’s a missing piece without WP Fusion.

The plugin works to make that engagement and the tracking of that engagement as seamless as possible. The more you grow, the more necessary this becomes for your continued growth. By showing the right person the right message at the right time that will help them the most, they appreciate you. Everyone is happier if you can show your customer what they need when they want to see it.

Another fascinating topic we cover is cart abandonment and how WP Fusion helps in this situation. Because there are plenty of cart abandonment options out there, Jack decided they should offer it as an add-on instead. If you're already using something like Woo Commerce and you install the WP Fusion add-on, Jack explains how it helps with cart abandonment.

As someone types in their name and email, once they leave that email field they are added to InfusionSoft (or other CRM) as a contact record. It also adds a tag that shows what was in their cart, it's a special tag created just for the abandonment process. What happens next is a timer is set, and if the customer completes the checkout successfully, the tag is removed.

But let's say you set the timer and tell it to wait for an hour. If the tag is still there an hour later that means the customer didn't complete the checkout, something scared them off like shipping prices, etc. But now you know they had X products in their cart, and you can send them a targeted email based on what they were about to purchase and ask them why they didn't complete their checkout!

Jack also explains how WP Fusion works with membership sites and retail websites, what autologin links are and the benefits they offer, and how (and why) you can change the images you show your customers when they visit your site.

Watch for all of that and more on this edition of the WP Elevation podcast!

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

When Brian Gardner began his entrepreneurial journey he never thought productizing development is what he would end up doing! But it has become the cornerstone of his work. He says at the beginning of his journey he was new to WordPress. He noticed everyone was doing free themes, and there was no premium theme market.

At the time he was just trying to freelance because he loved the idea of blogging and had begun to really like the design world. One day he did a freelance theme project for a client who didn't like it, the project was too forward-thinking!

Naturally, Brian was upset that his client wasn't happy with the product. But, on a whim, he asked the followers of his blog if they would buy it, and they snatched it up! They loved it and within months Brian had generated upwards of $40k. And he realized he was on to something, he saw an opportunity for commoditization. That was the start of his Revolution theme and the start of his journey.

When asked how to start productizing and commoditizing Brian gave three things that will move the needle for a WordPress developer or WordPress business:

The first is to take 5% or 10% of your week and invest that in building a product or commodity. Many people say they have no time to build a product but if they would set aside just an hour or two for a little while they will eventually have a finished product to take to market.

Second, Brian recommends you have a plan. Investigate the market you are going into, and make sure there is an audience who is willing to pay for the product you are going to create. Hang out in forums, Facebook groups, blogs, etc. Look at what questions they are asking, listen for their pain points and you’ll find out if your product is a solution or if there is another opportunity you weren't aware of.

And third, think beyond the initial run of the product, and consider what else might be required of you. Consider things like support, content marketing, etc. At some point, you may have to consider bringing people on as you scale up. Brian explains why this is so important, and why it was something he did not do initially but he does today before any new project.


He also recommends going the simple route for a specific audience. In his companies, they don't want to be the all-in-one-every-kind-of-theme for everybody. They try to create simpler solutions for specific audiences.

Take AgentPress for example, it's a real estate theme. They could have included a bunch of other options for other businesses, but they didn't. They identified the nicest-looking way to offer a solution one specific type of client can use, and then they document their product to the nth degree! He says the better documented your product is, the more satisfied your customer is and the less you have to deal with from a support standpoint - so everybody wins!

On today’s episode, you'll also hear why he killed sidebars on his personal site and how to build a customer for life. Watch and learn all of that and more on this edition of WP Elevation.

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Justin Ferriman is a passionate expert on all things e-learning. He made his bones early on as an e-learning consultant setting up global training programs and services for Fortune 500 companies. WordPress had always been a hobby on the side until one day a typical conversation changed all of that.

He was discussing what learning management system to use on a particular project, Moodle was given as one among others. And that gave Justin an idea, he wondered if there was a learning management system for WordPress. Later he looked online and found nothing.

Acting on inspiration, he set up a blog and started writing about the concept and his idea. He also set up an email form so people could opt in if they wanted to learn more. He kept the blog going, writing about his favorite topics of WordPress, learning management and e-learning. There was great interest in his plugin idea, so he talked it over with his wife, and they decided to give it a shot.

They went through the process of having the plugin developed by another company, as neither of them is developers. Ten months later, in January of 2013, after doing extensive market research, they pulled the trigger and released LearnDash. It had taken about four months before Justin left his consulting work to focus on LearnDash full-time.

On this episode of WP Elevation, Justin discusses whether or not he was concerned about going into the plugin space as a non-coder, what their initial concerns were with creating and operating LearnDash as well as the biggest challenges he’s faced in the last three years.

On the topic of being a non-coder, Justin says he wasn't concerned too much about not being a coder and going into the plugin space. His work as a consultant was about creating e-learning for very technical things. He had to work with technical developers and translate their work for the end user, so he was used to technical topics, creating wireframes, etc.

However he did have other concerns, the main ones being who was going to build this? Is there any competition and how do we compete if there is?

They settled the coding and building concerns easily, but the competition did show up and in a big way. While they were developing LearnDash, Woo Themes announced they were going to create a learning theme. A month later they made the announcement they were building a plugin!

Although it was scary because the company is one of the biggest names in the industry, Justin also saw it as validation of their concept and their idea for LearnDash. So when Woo Themes launched their plugin, LearnDash was released a week later.

And they are glad they did! LearnDash has become a mainstay in the marketplace helping small to medium-sized businesses with their e-learning needs. And we are one of those businesses who love their plugin. One of the reasons I invited them on the show is because we love it!

We talk about how we found LearnDash on today’s show, why it’s been so beneficial for us, and Justin answers some listeners’ questions. Check out this episode of WP Elevation for all of that and more.

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Watch the video of this podcast here.

Dre’s passion for security and educating people about risk and prevention clearly translates in his delivery of information and strategies in his discussion with Kristina.

• There are 1.1 billion active websites on the internet today
• 33 percent are powered by some sort of CMS (so there is a lot of vulnerable code out there)
• 73 percent of this 33 percent are powered by 4 platforms specifically - Drupal, Magento, WordPress, and Joomla
• Over 47 percent of the companies running websites on their own have no way of tracking open source code. They aren't updating or changing components in an intuitive way, using correct standards

This is an opportunity for us to increase the longevity of our client relationship. We can help them grow their site and increase the return on their initial investment through on going work. Dre sees a website as a living organism that actually comes to life the moment it goes into production. It's, therefore, part of your role to encourage the growth and productivity of that living organism. There's more to it than making it, handing it over and leaving it.

As a consultant, you need to be all over - People, Processes and Technology.

You need to make sure that you have controls in place by implementing specific processes. Doing things like:

• Updating software in a timely manner (Outdated software is responsible for the majority of attacks)
• Checking on the updates of web server software, databases, 3rd party plugins, and hosting providers
• Looking at how your clients log into the website (FTP)
• Thinking more holistically: go beyond thinking just about WordPress. Look at how are we connecting, passing files, interacting, passing on data, passwords and misconfiguration of plugins. The list goes on!

Dre suggests using tools to help you do this in layers. Like the layers of an onion, if one gets peeled away, there’s another layer under it, protecting the centre.

Basically, make sure everything is segmented to protect the client against infection and reinfection.

“Soup Kitchen Servers”

Dre coined this term to describe a server that has everything, including the kitchen sink contained in it. The server has no segmentation, which puts it at huge risk of cross contamination - whether it’s vulnerable or not. Beware of the Soup Kitchen Server!

Finally, you have a responsibility to your client to have an agreement in place around website security. Discuss this important element of the build in the early stages of your engagement and make sure they fully understand the significance. "Delineate responsibilities through expectation management," says Dre.

Be sure to download Dre's free security checklist below. While you're there, drop us a comment. Let us know if you've had any nightmare experiences with clients and website attacks. You won't be the Lone Ranger!

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On the show today the five of us talk about what you can expect on the upcoming episodes of WP Elevation. In handing over the reigns, I’m humbled and chuffed to have these four extraordinary coaches step in and become regular hosts. And I’m also freaked out to let go! But after two years of weekly shows, I needed to refresh and reinvigorate what we were doing and where we were going with the WP Elevation podcast.

My first question to these four was about what is most exciting for them in becoming hosts. Kristina is delighted for the opportunity to talk with the great minds in this space, and she thinks it's cool to connect with these guests in a more personal way, after knowing them through social media.

For example, she has recorded an interview with Dre Armeda of Sucuri. They both have daughters - he has four and Kristina has one - who all have a common obsession with the movie Frozen! She said it was fun to connect on that level, and then launch into a discussion about website security.

Mike is thrilled that so many of the people he gets to interview this year have been people whose blogs he has been reading, and people he admires. He finds it mind-blowing that he gets to talk to these people!

Gin also weighs in from a different perspective. She knows many of the guests and has organised getting these people on the show for the last three years. But because she was new to the WordPress space she didn't fully grasp the calibre of the guests. But she does today, and she's looking forward to good interviews on her own, like Andy GoDaddy's community manager! She’s also excited to bring her business perspective to the show and share practical advice with the audience.

Cath jokingly says she is really excited to hang with the cool kids! She has grown a lot since the beginning as a member of WP Elevation and then later a coach. She admits to feeling a little intimidated, but she has been doing a lot of research and listening to the best podcasts, so she knows what it sounds like to be a pro! She knows it's going to be a lot of fun to interview guests and share them with the audience.

My next question for the group was about the areas they are particularly interested in talking about on the podcast.

Kristina is interested to know what people are doing when it relates to dealing with clients or creating WordPress space products. She likes to connect with people and dig in to how the guest's background and journey apply to the WP Elevations listeners.

Mike finds the humble beginnings and personal stories of successful people fascinating, and so he’s excited to dive into that. He also can’t wait to hear about guests’ journeys and how the “blueprints” they uncovered can benefit the listeners of this show.

Cath is keen to ask her guests what the audience may be overlooking and missing in terms of products and services. She is also really interested in what our audience needs to know about our micro audiences and micro-client bases, plus community management, positioning and learning from like-minded colleagues.

What Gin is most looking forward to talking about is managing remote teams, and building those teams. She’s also excited to bring live streaming and video techniques to remove the intimidation and fear many have around the topic.

Also on this episode, you’ll hear stretch goals these four have for who they want to interview as well as what kind of takeaways to expect from each show. You’ll hear from each of our four hosts on those topics, plus more on this edition of WP Elevation podcast!

Got ideas or recommendations on who you’d love to see as a guest on WP Elevation? Send us your suggestions by leaving a comment here, on our Facebook page or Tweet us.

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For this week’s show, I sat down with one of WP Elevation’s business coaches, Kristina Romero, to speak with Jeff and Vlad. We started off by asking them about their backgrounds.

Now, if you’ve ever used ManageWP, you probably already know about Vlad and how he became an entrepreneur. But just in case you haven’t, here’s the scoop: he was working as a developer in 2007 when he quit his job and decided to start a blog. Like so many of us, he tried out a number of different platforms until he found WordPress. It felt so natural and easy to use, he was hooked. From there, was inevitable that he would branch out into creating plugins, becoming a consultant, and even authoring books on the subject.

Now, he’s the head of ManageWP, a simple and elegant platform for automating workflows and keeping clients’ WordPress sites up to date.

Jeff, on the other hand, has a very different background. As a nerd growing up in Silicon Valley, he came of age during the dot com boom, working first at a small startup and then moving on to eBay, where he would spend the next 10 years managing the company’s products. When he was offered the opportunity to work at GoDaddy, his reaction was one that might seem strange to some of us: he knew the company had a poor reputation in the industry and saw that their products were “a disaster.” So he jumped at the opportunity to turn things around. After an exhaustive process of soliciting and listening to customer feedback, he began to reshape GoDaddy’s products from the ground up.

During this process, he kept one important idea in mind: small business owners are busy, and they need help. Most of them will hand off their web development to someone else as soon as they have the budget. So he wanted to do everything possible to support the market of designers and developers who would be supporting those clients on GoDaddy – naturally, ManageWP seemed to be the perfect partner for the job.

At this point, I had to stop and ask, “Why would you buy ManageWP and not just build it yourself? And why would Vlad decide to sell?”

Their answers made a lot of sense – Jeff knew his team had the capability to build their own managed WordPress platform, but the team at ManageWP already had the experience and had already developed the solutions. GoDaddy could dramatically accelerate its strategy by acquiring a solution rather than engineering one themselves.

At first, Vlad told us, he was a little nervous about the offer. He’d heard what others had to say about GoDaddy’s services. But when he visited their Sunnyvale offices, he realized everything he thought about the company was wrong. He told us what the experience was really like behind closed doors – and it’s nothing like we imagined. If he stayed in Serbia, he knew his opportunities for growth would be limited, so he took a gamble and decided to say yes to GoDaddy’s offer.

Not that it was easy for his customers to accept. As soon as ManageWP announced the detail, the company’s blog blew up with negative feedback. Still, Vlad didn’t doubt he’d made the right choice. He left the negative comments online, telling his team simply: “Even if we were acquired by Apple or Tesla, there are still customers who would be upset.”

For his part, Jeff sees the acquisition as an opportunity to finally turn GoDaddy’s reputation around. We talked about Jeff and Vlad’s plans for the newly acquired business, including how ManageWP will continue to operate independently following the merger, how the company will prioritize new features and updates, and how the acquisition has changed ManageWP’s operations.

We also took a number of questions from the audience, including:

• Has GoDaddy Pro Connect been reduced to a business directory?
• What plans are there to improve 1st level support at GoDaddy?
• What about support for other products like SSL and DNS?
• Is GoDaddy killing off its reseller program?
• How do you prioritize what to fix next at GoDaddy?
• Are there any plans for badging and certification in the Pro Connect directory?
• Why does GoDaddy install plugins automatically on new WordPress sites?
• How can resellers add other services to the client reporting?

During the rest of the session, we heard about Jeff’s relaunch of GoDaddy Pro and how it will help connect small businesses to the professionals they need to scale up their businesses – rather than simply relying on word of mouth.

We also learned about GoDaddy’s “secret weapon” – its 3,500 member customer support team – and how they’ve dramatically changed their training and certification to provide world-class support to every customer.

Finally, Jeff and Vlad gave us a sneak peak into what we can expect in 2017 from GoDaddy Pro and ManageWP.

Just listen to the podcast or watch the video for the full details.

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