WPMRR WordPress Podcast

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie get detailed on how lead acquisition channels work, why it may or may not be good for the business, and the right approach for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level businesses.

Listen in to learn how to generate new leads!

Episode Resources:

• Binge on past episodes you missed or leave a review
• Send your questions to [email protected]
• Tweet Joe
• Tweet Christie

What you'll learn:

• [00:00:42] What's up, Christie?
• [00:03:56] The 14-day trial of Managed WooCommerce at Nexcess
• [00:06:15] What's keeping Joe busy?
• [00:09:52] Last episode talked about lead acquisition channels.
• [00:13:09] Friends and family as beginner leads.
• [00:19:26] Zone into referrals immediately after the friends and family network.
• [00:27:58] Drive organic traffic to your website using valuable content and SEO strategy.
• [00:37:02] Different kinds of paid ads.
• [00:45:57] Events (virtual and in-person) are expensive and take a lot of effort with slow moving results.
• [00:54:06] Affiliate programs have a lot to do with influencers.
• [00:59:10] Take advantage of marketplaces through syndication.
• [01:02:35] Community promotion, the fun way to get press and publisize your business.
• [01:05:20] Influencer marketing works by talking to people with audiences, building and maintaining relationships.
• [01:11:50] Podcasting works for intermediate level businesses.
• [01:12:33] Post all valuable information about your business for the press to write about.

If you want to grow your business - start with the right customer acquisition strategies.

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie discuss what growth actually means, tips to bring in more customers, and the creative side of marketing.

Listen in to learn how to land new customers!

Episode Resources:

• Binge on past episodes you missed or leave a review
• Send your questions to [email protected]
• Check out Managed WooCommerce at Nexcess
• Watch out for the WPMRR Virtual Summit
• See what's new at WPBuffs

What you'll learn:

• [00:00:33] What's new with Christie?
• [00:03:45] What's up with Joe?
• [00:10:18] The beginner and intermediate phases of growing businesses.
• [00:11:34] Gaining momentum won't make business growth any easier for companies.
• [00:13:38] What we will talk about today.
• [00:14:35] Set a goal: Why do you want to grow?
• [00:15:57] The 1000 True Fans technique
• [00:18:02] Is growth really the primary indicator of success?
• [00:23:24] 1. First customers: the people who you know
• [00:25:14] 2. Referrals: existing customers can give you new customers
• [00:25:34] 3. Organic: Social and SEO
• [00:27:33] 4. Events: In-person or virtual
• [00:28:02] 5. Paid traffic: pay per click is faster and more targeted
• [00:30:03] 6. Affiliate program: give bonus to people who sends new customers to your site
• [00:31:41] 7. Syndicate to existing marketplaces
• [00:32:54] 8. Community promotion: putting your product on an existing community
• [00:34:12] 9. Influence marketing: influencer on social media
• [00:34:58] 10. Podcasting: longterm, conversational
• [00:36:08] 11. Press releases: publish as blog, add a media kit
• [00:40:17] 12. The Guerrilla Marketing: creative, outside of the box, unique marketing strategies
• [00:42:45] Your own digital marketing toolbox.

Building a team requires expertise and experience, would you build your own with hungry but less experienced developers?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, we have Noah Labhart, podcast host and producer of Code Story. We discuss the non-traditional way of hiring developers, growing podcast listenership, and the motivation to continue podcasting.

Listen in for more podcasting secrets and team building tips!

Episode Resources:

• Check out Noah's website and his LinkedIn page
• Listen to the Code Story podcast
• Binge on past episodes you missed or leave a review
• Send your questions to [email protected]

What you'll learn:

• [00:01:17] Who is Noah Labhart?
• [00:02:52] Have you always been an outdoors person?
• [00:04:44] How Noah's interest in software development started.
• [00:08:56] The programming and execution learned at HP.
• [00:10:19] From programming to learning entrepreneurship.
• [00:14:33] In startups, people that become developers contribute long-term to the company.
• [00:19:59] Junior developers are hungry to learn, they are excited to figure out problems.
• [00:24:33] How Code Story came to be.
• [00:29:09] Why Code Story podcast is delivered in seasons?
• [00:32:09] Some of the most popular Code Story episodes.
• [00:33:59] How do you grow your listenership?
• [00:35:54] The type of guest helps. Tell people about the podcast.
• [00:39:11] Distribute and SEO optimize podcast content wherever possible.
• [00:43:38] To stay motivated in creating podcast episodes, stay passionate and be creative.

With WorldCamp US 2020 cancelled, what's left for the community to explore online?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie talk about virtual events dates for MicroConf, Fintech Conf, WooSesh, WordSesh EMEA, and WP Agency. They also discuss the challenges of virtual conferences, identifying speakers, and exactly how they work.

Listen in to learn about the next virtual event near you - ha!

Episode Resources:

• Binge on past episodes you missed or leave a review
• Send your questions to [email protected]
• Check out our virtual summit

What you'll learn:

• [00:00:41] What's up with Christie this week?
• [00:06:14] While everyone is going digital. big companies are using resources into putting out a lot of content.
• [00:07:21] What's up with Joe this week?
• [00:10:11] Despite huge resources, big companies are slow when it comes to changes and pivots.
• [00:13:08] WordCamp US 2020 and 2021 are officially cancelled as well as official WordPress events until 2021.
• [00:15:33] What happened during the wordpress.com growth summit?
• [00:17:41] Big tech businesses are converting to remove operations.
• [00:19:17] The MicroConf Remote on September 1
• [00:20:46] What you'll learn in MicroConf.
• [00:21:49] The WPMRR virtual summit on September 23 through 24.
• [00:23:52] Fintech Conf on September 25th, conferences to empower women in the technology space.
• [00:24:51] WooSesh on October 13 and 14, for people working with WooCommerce.
• [00:26:26] WordSesh EMEA on September 2 for WordPress developers from around the world.
• [00:27:39] Christie on WordSesh America this year.
• [00:28:10] WPMRR previously did multiple events for different time zones.
• [00:29:51] WP Agency Summit on October 12 through 16
• [00:30:51] WordCamp Central (central.wordcamp.org) upcoming events
• [00:32:44] Fully online WordCamp Lima on September 25 - 26.
• [00:34:24] Local Meetups (WordPress), many of which are doing online content.
• [00:36:03] The challenge for digital communities adapting to virtual/online events.
• [00:39:59] Our events are for people who want to get content to help improve their business.
• [00:42:05] Joe Casabona wrote an article about virtual event burnout.
• [00:43:24] WordPress events constitute a lot of social needs.

Negativity is everywhere online, so how do you deal with it?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie talk about dealing with online haters, proper online moderation, and how webinars are overcrowding digital learning.

Listen in to learn how to deal with haters in a healthy manner!

Episode Resources:

• Binge on past episodes you missed
• Send your questions to [email protected]
• Check out our virtual summit
• We have a Youtube channel!

What you'll learn:

• [00:00:20] What's going on with Joe and Christie?
• [00:05:06] New structure in Nexcess, future product retraining.
• [00:06:26] Youtube tutorials coming out soon
• [00:09:06] Do we really need to live in a crowded city.
• [00:10:32] Digital meetups is the new norm, probably for a long time.
• [00:14:04] The ratio of those who want to post a webinar to those who are eager to attend one is 10:1.
• [00:17:12] The Wordpress space is so big there's always new people coming in.
• [00:19:30] Webinars may seem redundant to some, while it can be of value to others.
• [00:22:08] Webinars for lead generation only don't really world. It needs value.
• [00:25:08] There's room for improvement for any type of content.
• [00:29:02] It's not just the physical stature, but emotional and intellectual stature that affects people as well.
• [00:30:36] Dealing with haters and negative feedback.
• [00:36:01] How do you deal with negative stuff online?
• [00:39:38] Be selective to where you put your attention and who gets access to you and why.
• [00:42:00] Make sure you are in control of who you talk to.
• [00:45:30] Come up with a lot of ways to deal with negative feedback.
• [00:49:55] Check out E53 - Bilbo on how to deal with haters (Jason Coleman (Paid Memberships Pro)
• [00:52:12] Make sure to leave a good reply to negative comments.
• [00:54:18] If one person does it, it empowers a hundred others to do it.
• [00:56:19] Proper moderation online is important.
• [00:59:49] As you grow, you will have more haters.
• [01:01:56] Avoid toxic positivity that forces you to be positive all the time.
• [01:02:45] If people will want to duplicate what you do, you might be doing something good.

Online translations have sped up research and business growth, now how about paying for a one-stop shop translation plug-in?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe talks to Augustin Prot on co-founding WeGlot into existence, why premium subscriptions should offer more, and how community support adds value to a business service.

Listen to how the translation business has evolved for a broader mass consumption.

Episode Resources:

• Visit WeGlot
• WeGlot is on Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the Wordpress Directory
• Send questions to [email protected] or [email protected]
• Leave us a 5-star review on iTunes
• Binge on past episodes you missed
• Send your questions to [email protected]
• Check out our virtual summit

What you'll learn:

• [00:01:10] Where we met.
• [00:03:10] What is WeGlot?
• [00:05:00] The early days of WeGlot - from a javascript library to a plug-in
• [00:06:58] Free version has removed the idea that "we only want your money".
• [00:09:25] What goes into the Free version and the Premium version?
• [00:11:45] Why start a translation business?
• [00:13:25] Frustration on incomplete translation tools.
• [00:14:39] How did you and your co-founder meet?
• [00:16:47] Once there was traction, we registered the company
• [00:18:03] WeGlot value: Help people set up multilingual sites.
• [00:19:32] We provide a layer of automatic translations.
• [00:21:32] Manual translations are a lot of work.
• [00:22:25] How helpful is the Wordpress community in growing WeGlot?
• [00:25:14] It can be a challenge to find balance between marketing and providing community service
• [00:27:54] It's also about people getting more for what they do in Wordpress.
• [00:29:36] We need more premium solutions in the Wordpress space.
• [00:31:19] Wordpress should offer more premium offerings so they can promote healthier business with more growth.
• [00:32:02] How do you do support and where is it in the priorities of the company?
• [00:33:15] We've all been in a situation when we have to pay for anything.
• [00:34:16] There are companies that only offer support for premium licenses.
• [00:35:45] We have the responsibility to keep improving so subscription continues each month.
• [00:36:32] WeGlot can be used across different platforms in need of translation.
• [00:37:24] Client support is the most important work a company can do.
• [00:38:08] What are your plans for the rest of the year and the next?
• [00:40:05] We are trying to find ways to give back and remain visible.
• [00:41:15] WeGlot discount code for new users who wish to upgrade: WPBUFF20

Podcasting is more than just talking into a microphone, what happens after you finish recording?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie talk about running a podcast, how they record, and the technicalities of producing an episode.

Listen now to get ideas on creating your own podcast!

Episode Resources:

• Start your podcast!
• Leave us a 5-star review on iTunes
• Binge on past episodes you missed
• Check out our website for the latest updates
• Send your questions to [email protected]

What you'll learn:

• [00:00:45] Christie's Update: living alone again in Texas
• [00:05:06] Joe's Update: new hire for a marketing position, new Youtube channel
• [00:08:] WPMRR Course update: whole site was moved to a summit page
• [00:11:19] Tell people how we run our podcast.
• [00:12:] How WPMRR started: Joe invited Christie to be his co-host through an email, but she ignored it.
• [00:14:20] Make sure to personalize messages to certain people, important messages. A short Loom video can be included in the email.
• [00:15:46] How do we choose topics? Talk about what's going within the week before recording, we look at a Google Doc with notes of the stuff we want to talk about.
• [00:16:55] Don't over-plan. WPMRR usually talks about general topics and talks about anything as the episodes go.
• [00:18:42] Podcasting can be done like a blog. It can be informal too, almost a 'not prepared' approach.
• [00:21:12] How do we record the podcast? We are using riverside.fm. Before, we recorded in Zoom, now we use this new tool.
• [00:25:10] All we would do is record in zoom, and record our individual audio using quicktime audio, and we would upload the files in Google Drive, and send the files for production.
• [00:27:25] Podcast gears: Mic, Webcam
• [00:36:22] What's important to outline is that those people (with great and expensive gears) built up to that.
• [00:38:05] We pay hundreds of dollars for post production, probably more when youtube marketing is added
• [00:39:56] We drop the episode in riverside.fm, Bradley and his team picks them up, and one upcoming Tuesday they come out on all podcast players.
• [00:42:35] New Thing: We are pushing our podcasts on Youtube.
• [00:43:55] How we grow and get listeners?
• [00:44:26] The really important part is the process is really fun for you.
• [00:45:23] Quality content is the more important part, it might take longer if you don't do marketing stuff.
• [00:46:31] When I have a guest, one of the questions is "Can you help us promote the episode..."
• [00:50:47] There's a thing of putting a great product together and not having anybody listen. If you want to do something to put it out, then do something.
• [00:51:20] It takes time, maybe you blow up in a few months if you already have a platform or a huge audience.
• [00:53:05] How do we improve in podcasting?
• [00:53:30] I've gained confidence, I have stopped speaking with a lot of UHMs and AHHs. - Christie
• [00:54:38] Listen to other things that you like. Getting honest opinions is a great way to improve.
• [00:56:35] There's feedback that's really good, that's critical, that helps you grow, and good feedback for the episode.
• [00:57:30] Critical feedback is good but you have to decide what to change. Authenticity is important.

The questions keep coming and the answers may not be what you expect them to be!

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie tackle the bus factor phenomenon, converting one-offs to subscriptions, and the pros of ConvertKit.

Listen now for more business management insights!

Episode Resources:

• Leave us a 5-star review on iTunes
• Binge on past episodes you missed
• Check out our website for the latest updates
• Send your questions to [email protected]

What you'll learn:

• [00:07:11] Economic things that probably won't go back to old normal, many companies saving on office space rentals by doing remote work.
• [00:15:50] Do folks have a plan if they are hit by a car?
• [00:16:30] The Bus Factor is real. It is a huge business risk that takes a lot of humility to work through.
• [00:18:59] Bus factor risk in business is extremely important to consider, we don't want to create dependency on single people.
• [00:22:21] For most positions, you should have a junior to you, one that learns what you do.
• [00:24:09] The Bus Factor phenomenon
• [00:26:17] Document everything in a list so handing off of work is a lot easier.
• [00:30:30] When you are selling a subscription, you are selling ongoing value.
• [00:32:43] How much time does it take to educate a customer on the value of your product enough for a recurring subscription?
• [00:35:26] You'll never target 100% the right people. You have to change, you have to adapt, you have to improve.
• [00:37:59] ConvertKit, good in email, tagging, and segmenting
• [00:45:22] Difference between MailChimp and ConvertKit

Can't decide which podcast format to use? Darth Sidious has come to your rescue.

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe is joined by Joe Casabona, an online course creator, podcast host, and web developer, to talk about podcasting from scratch, professional audio editing, and repurposing content for different mediums.

Listen in for some pro podcasting tips!

Episode Resources:

• Here's Joe Casabona's Blog Page
• Resources from Joe Casabona
• Catch Joe Casabona on Twitter
• Joe Casabona's Youtube Channel
• Send in your questions to [email protected]

What's been your experience with the WordPress community?

Today on the WPMRR podcast, Joe and Christie are joined with Alex Denning of Ellipsis Marketing and Tom Fanelli, CEO of Convesio, to talk about WordPress hosting, how to get investors, and the close ties between WordPress and WooCommerce

Listen in for some advanced WP hosting tips!

Episode Resources:

• Check out Convesio
• Send Tom an Email
• Tom is on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Visit Ellipsis Marketing
• Read Alex's Newsletter
• Shoot Alex a Tweet
• More episodes on iTunes
• Get infos on Liquidweb
• Check Nexcess
• More WP details on WPBuffs
• Send in your questions to [email protected]