This guide is written for individuals and organizations who have decided to build an Ecosystem Plugin. You’ve decided to build an Ecosystem Plugin. Awesome. The timing is great and I’m excited to see what you build. I’ve written this guide to provide you with a framework for you and your team as you plan and execute on the work.
How to Leverage Sales Funnels to Get More Clients & Close More Sales
I know, I know… “Sales funnel” is a bit of a buzzword at the moment. But this episode of the WP Elevation podcast — featuring brilliant teacher Dave Foy — is going to change how you view sales funnels and how you use them in your business. More specifically, you’re going to learn how to use sales funnels to sell high-ticket products and level up your business.
Supercharge Your Affiliate by Sharing Affiliate Success Stories
When it comes to empowering your affiliates, rewards and recognition are hugely important – but sharing affiliate success stories is more than just shining a spotlight on your top performers. Creating a sense of community and belonging gives your affiliates a reason to be fully invested in your program, and seeing others succeed can inspire them to be their best. Not only that; success stories can provide guidance and good examples to follow, as your affiliates work toward improving their affiliate marketing game.
A Practical Guide on How to Make Money Blogging [Guide]
In this exclusive guide I’m going to answer your questions on best ways to make money blogging that you can use right away. These methods are based on my 11 years of blogging experience and information that I have gathered attending and speaking at various blogging conferences. I have also shared screenshots of payments of a few income streams to give you a wider perspective.
How to Turn Negative Customer Feedback into Positive Growth
In the age of social media, running a business can put you under the microscope – and while it’s normal to receive negative feedback at one point or another, criticisms of your hard work can feel demoralizing if you don’t know how to harness them for good! So, let’s take a look at some of the best strategies for turning negative feedback into positive results!
What it’s Like to Create & Submit a Theme to ThemeForest
Building your own Multi-Purpose theme from scratch can be a very tough project to take on. Getting it approved on ThemeForest? That’s a whole other layer of challenges that you’ll need to tackle. In this guest post, I’m going to share my entire experience of submitting a theme to ThemeForest’s marketplace.
Plugin Developer Stories: Under Construction Page by Ivan Jurisic
If you do a quick search for “under construction” on the WordPress.org directory you’re going to find Web Factory ltd’s insanely popular, and smartly named, Under Construction Page plugin right at the top of the list. Under Construction Page is one of those rare plugins you find that advertises itself as simple and without fuss and then truly delivers on the promise. Once you install the plugin you are presented with a simple to use interface that let’s you built a custom under construction front end for your WordPress site without writing a single line of code.
How Gamification Can Increase Engagement on Your Membership Site
Keeping your members engaging with your site on a regular basis is essential if you want to avoid member churn, build your brand, and maximize your revenue – and one of the best ways to do that is by using gamification!
What is gamification? In simple terms, it refers to incorporating game-like elements such as points tracking, leaderboards, rewards, and achievement badges into your business. Since its first appearances in the early 2000s, this trend has exploded, becoming a dominant engagement strategy used by some of the biggest brands around – and it’s particularly useful for memberships.
The 3 Keys to Selling WordPress Maintenance Packages for Recurring Income
Imagine that you have finished with a WordPress project. As you are handing your new client the keys to the car, you ask if they need one of your WordPress maintenance packages. Look, you had plans to throw a party. The project is done, the final payment is in, and you breathe a sigh of relief, but you hear those dreaded words from your client after asking about maintenance. What do your customers usually say when you ask if they would like to purchase a maintenance plan? Here’s how to close the sale.
Plugin Developer Stories: WP Coupons & Deals by Imtiaz Rayhan
Imtiaz Rayhan has developed a WordPress plugin focused on improving conversions for website owners involved in affiliate marketing. His plugin, WP Coupons and Deals, is built to make adding affiliate coupons to your site as simple as possible while also helping to improve your conversion rates. Imtiaz talks to us about how he became involved with WordPress, built WP Coupons and Deals and more.
How to Win Your Niche & Scale Your Business
Matt Johnson, of Pursuing Results, is a former WordPress developer who pivoted his business into a podcast production company, and he offers his production services as a full-package, standardised product. He sat down to talk with us about what that means, why it works, how other professionals can implement and scale the product model in their own businesses, and where the future of podcasting is headed.
How to Make Freelancing a Stable, Long-Term Career
You’ve probably read a lot about freelancing: Feast and famine. Where to find clients. How much to charge. These topics are fundamental, but it seems like most freelancers burn out before they get over these hurdles. Can freelancing be a stable, long-term career?
The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up an Affiliate Program in a Weekend [Guide]
Already have your affiliate program planned and ready to go? Launching it isn’t as difficult as it might seem – and you can do it quickly if you make the right moves! In this post we take a look at some of the best ways to get some affiliate action happening fast, so you can start bringing in the money!
How to Put Together a Content Strategy for a Membership Site [Guide]
Keeping your members engaged and coming back to your site is essential if you want to avoid member churn and nurture the long-lasting relationships that sustain a thriving membership business. Member engagement is the goal, but what drives it? It’s not just about creating interesting and useful content, it’s about helping your members get from A to B – giving them the real-world results they need to improve their lives or achieve their goals.
Plugin Developer Stories: Gravity PDF by Jake Jackson [Interview]
Jake Jackson, from Blue Liquid Designs, answered my questions about how Gravity PDF was conceived, the struggles with writing code to format and build PDFs, their revenue generating template system and how he markets the plugin to such a wide potential customer base.
How to Leverage Influencers in Your Affiliate Marketing Efforts [Guide]
Something old, something new; when it comes to affiliate marketing, how do you stay up-to-date while honoring the “tried and true”? In this article we illuminate some opportunities for maximizing your affiliate program’s success, and how to use the best of both worlds to get big results!
How to Manage Projects More Efficiently with Asana [Video Guide]
One of my favourite tools for business is Asana. Recently, I talked about how I use it to manage client lists more effectively by creating templates for them. Now, I’m going to let you know how I use project management templates in Asana to work more efficiently and consistently from project to project. In this tutorial, we explain how to use project management templates in Asana to work more efficiently and consistently.
How to Make Money Online with Video Marketing [Guide]
Making an income online is like building a relationship, and like any relationship it takes time to earn trust. One of the ways to do that is through video marketing, which is why I have Sean Cannell on the show with me today—video marketing is his superpower! He’s earned notoriety through a couple of channels on YouTube like Video Influencers and Think Media. Today we’re talking about how you can use YouTube to grow your brand and influence online and how to successfully monetize your channel (apart from plain old AdSense).
27 Ways to Start an Online Business with WordPress to Make Money [List]
Are you looking for online business ideas to make extra income on the side? The internet offers a lot of opportunities to start a business or find fulfilling careers. In this article, we will show some of the proven and easy to start online business ideas that actually make money.
How to Make a Killer Sales Page for Your WordPress Website Maintenance Business [Guide]
Offering website maintenance in your web business is the best way to establish recurring revenue, provide quality support for your clients, and build relationships so you stay in business for years to come. Featuring a website maintenance sales page on your website is the best way to begin this conversation with clients, and having a strong sales page is a key ingredient in that equation.
How to Start a WordPress Freelance Business [Guide]
Working freelance is great. No boss breathing down your neck and telling you what to do. The freedom to set your own working hours and work from wherever you want. And the opportunity to make a great living doing what you love and what you’re best at. But it does come with its downsides. The main one, especially in the early days, is financial. Your income isn’t guaranteed, you don’t have a regular pay check, and you have to cover your business expenses.
4 Proven Ways to Grow a Blog to 2,000,000 Readers [List]
Over the past four years, I’ve grown my blog to more than 2 million yearly readers, over 52,000 email subscribers, and a podcast with nearly 20,000 monthly downloads. Consistently driving traffic is something I’ve perfected, and it’s lead me to signing consulting deals helping some of the world’s top startups like LinkedIn, Zendesk, CreativeLive, and Adobe to launch successful growth campaigns as well.
How to Grow a WordPress Plugin Business as a Solo Founder [Guide]
My name is Milan, and I am the owner of Dev4Press, a company dedicated to WordPress and bbPress plugins development. Dev4Press was created in 2009 as a side project, and a lot has changed since then, except for one thing: it is still a team of one. In this guest post, I want to share my challenges and methods for growing a WordPress plugin.
How to Setup a WordPress Blog to Start Making Money with WordPress [Guide]
In the first post in this series about blogging with WordPress (and making money from it!), I looked at how you can find a niche for your blog if you want to make money from it. In this second part, I’ll walk you through the process of getting your blog ready to go. You may think this is a simple case of installing WordPress, getting yourself a suitable theme, and starting to write. But if you’re going to be successful, you need to spend some time preparing your blog.
How to Get Your Freelance Business Out of a Rut [Guide]
Some of the greatest sports stars in history — from Willie Mays to Mickey Mantle — have experienced slumps. And even great actors like Harrison Ford have had to take some side jobs when roles were scarce. No doubt, slumps are scary, especially for independent consulting business owners, but they don’t have to be permanent. With the right moves and a little luck, you can be hitting homers again in no time. Here are a few ideas and actions to consider.
How to Onboard New Members into Your Membership Site [Guide]
One of the most important parts of setting up your membership site is creating an effective onboarding process for new members. It sets the tone for your business and shows new members how much you value them. Lucky for you, for the most part setting up a good onboarding process is a one-time project that pays off with every new member who signs up. Here’s how.
How to Make Money With Your Blog by Attracting & Engaging Your Audience [Guide]
Your blog can’t be successful without an audience. Simply writing content and expecting people to stumble upon it isn’t enough if you want to grow your audience. We’ll also look at some successful blogs and identify the tools they use to grow their audience, including SEO, converting visitors to followers, and using social media to build engagement.
3 Keys to Succeeding as a WordPress Entrepreneur [List]
Close your eyes and imagine what sort of WordPress business you’d like to build. Do you want a business that brings in regular work and pays the bills? Or do you want a business that has the potential to scale and grow, so that you can increase your income while decreasing your hours? Both of these are possible in the WordPress economy. It all depends on what sort of business owner you decide to be.
How to Make Your Blog a 5-Figure Business [Guide]
Most people view design and entrepreneurship as separate skillsets… But doesn’t it make sense to combine them? I decided that it did, so I started Despreneur, a magazine for design entrepreneurs. Over the next 3 years, I grew it into a multi-author platform where people could learn about tech, design, and business, and then, in 2016, once I felt that it was time for me to move on, I sold it for a considerable (to me, at least) amount of money. Here’s what I learned.
Grow Your Membership Business By Communicating Benefits [Guide]
Marketing wisdom tells us that communicating the features of your products is not enough; you must emphasize the benefits your customers will experience. In this post, we discuss some key differences between marketing benefits vs. features, and how this relates to what your members really want.
How to Make a Career in WordPress Development as a Remote Freelancer [Guide]
Did you know that a client looking for a custom WordPress site usually pays between $3,000 and $15,000 dollars to a remote freelancer? In this post, I’ll show you the stats that point to an abundance of remote freelance work in the WordPress market and where to find a good client for your next project.
How to Create a Winning Purchase Process for Digital Products [Guide]
One of the main benefits of selling digital products is the entirely digital process; a streamlined experience from the checkout straight through to the delivery of your products. With so many tools and resources available, selling digital goods has never been easier – but in order to be successful, it’s crucial to get the process and the experience right!
The 15 Best Ways to Make Money Online with WordPress [List]
When it comes to making money with WordPress, I’ve tried everything. Website design, SEO consulting, speed optimization, freelancing, Google AdSense. I made OK money with these, but it wasn’t until I started blogging full-time (and doing affiliate marketing) that I began making sustainable, passive income that was more than I had dreamed. Here’s how.
How to Find Your First Clients as a New WordPress Freelancer [Guide]
Freelancing is a cool job to have for many reasons. However, until you have a paying client on the books, you can only guess how viable it’ll be. Once you have one client, the ball will begin rolling and before you know it, you’re ducking under a door to escape the huge boulder coming your way. Though, we can’t guarantee that our advice on finding your first client also works when looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Here’s how to find your very first client.
The 35 Best WordPress Affiliate Marketing Programs (That Actually Work!) [List]
If you’re in the WordPress industry and want to make money through affiliate marketing, I have the perfect list for you. I rely on these WordPress affiliate programs to make a living and make $10,000/month endorsing hosts, themes, WordPress developers on freelancer.com, and even SEO services. So instead of managing tons of client projects (like I used to), I’ve basically found an affiliate program for everything and just make commissions. I have a LOT more free time and my affiliate income is honestly more consistent than any income I was making through consulting.
Pros & Cons of Creating Ebooks for Your Clients [List]
If you’re looking for new ways to connect with your clients, creating ebooks might be just the thing. Here, we help you weigh the pros and cons and give you a rundown of how to get started with ebook creation as a promotional tool.
How WordPress Pros Can Make $150,000 a Year with Affiliate Marketing [List]
I never thought this would happen to me, ever. In 2 years I went from making $20k to $80k, then $150k in 2018 (see my income reports). I did this by dropping all my SEO clients and tried making money with affiliate marketing (I write tutorials on SEO and website speed). 90% of my affiliate income comes from referring people to SiteGround.
How to Embed GitHub Contributions Chart/Calendar
Wouldn’t it be great to embed your GitHub contribution chart/calendar into any web page? Well you can, and it’s very easy!
How to Launch an Extension in the WooCommerce Marketplace [Guide]
I launched an extension in the WooCommerce Marketplace! It’s been three years since I came up with the initial idea and it’s exciting to see it being sold on WooCommerce.com. For anyone interested in selling WooCommerce products, I wanted to share some thoughts on the process.
5 Email Scripts to Get Unresponsive Client to Respond [Templates]
If you’re a freelancer, contractor, or small business owner, working with clients can be one of the most challenging parts of your job. This is especially true when those clients become mysteriously unresponsive. When this happens, you’ll need to be vigilant in sending a follow up email. And this is where some handy email scripts come into play. When written with a little thought and foresight, the right follow up email can produce quick results.
5 Ways to Reengage Dormant Affiliates [List]
Running an affiliate program can be challenging, especially when you’ve invested a lot into recruiting, onboarding, and empowering quality affiliates. Sometimes, even with the best preparation, tools, and resources, affiliates can get distracted, disinterested, or lose steam, causing noticeable lulls in your program’s performance – or at the very least, missed opportunities for growth and success. Here’s how to fix it.
How to Create a Progress Tracker with WordPress & GitHub (for FREE) [Guide]
Learn how to use WordPress and GitHub to create a public (or private) progress tracker like the one below. Creating (or updating) posts on your WordPress site will automatically create commits on the associated GitHub tracker color-coded light to dark based on how many commits were made that day.
9 Ways to Get More WordPress Clients [List]
I’m willing to bet you already use a number of marketing techniques to drive leads and clients to your WordPress business. But are you using the right strategies and platforms in order to get the most out of your marketing efforts? And, by “get the most out of”, what I mean to say is: Are you attracting the best clients with your inbound and outbound marketing techniques?
The Ultimate Guide to Tracking & Measuring a WordPress Affiliate Program [Guide]
You’ve already got your affiliate program up and running, with plenty of affiliates promoting your products on your behalf – now, how do you know if it’s a success? When it comes to tracking and measuring your program’s performance, metrics are essential. Here’s how to track and measure your program to help you optimize your affiliate program and reach new heights!
14 Mistakes that Freelancers Make on Projects & How to Address Them [List]
Here are 14 mistakes freelancers make when creating a project estimate and how to fix them or avoid them all together.
How to Sell Your Subscription Services with WordPress [Guide]
You’re all set to elevate your business to the next level by creating subscription products for your clients. Your sales page, emails and software are ready to go. But have you thought through the most ideal way to actually charge your customers? Thankfully for you, I’ve gone 10 steps ahead and learned the ideal setup for subscription charges. We’ll cover the pitfalls that can happen, from failed credit card payments to requests for cancellations.
How to Start a Blog with WordPress [Guide]
If you ever wondered how to start a blog then you’re in the right place. No matter if you want a blog for a business purpose, a personal project, your cute Instagram puppy, or anything in between, this guide is for you. And best of all, the hands-on work will take you only about 30 minutes (plus the time needed to read this guide, duh!). Quite frankly, you’ll be amazed at how simple it is to start a blog.
7 Things to Understand Before Helping a Client Develop Their Brand [List]
When we bring on a new client, we go through a pretty extensive discovery process. We’re of the belief that the most valuable branding work is authentic to that individual client. So we want to get to know them as well as we can before we try to represent them with visual design. Before you start developing a brand for a client, here are the things you need to understand about that client.
The Fastest Way to Onboard New Clients with WordPress [Video Guide]
When you onboard new clients, is it fair to say that collecting pertinent information at this stage is one of the greatest pain points in your process? It doesn’t have to be that way, though, if you can power your WordPress site to do it for you. In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to systemise the client onboarding and information intake process with contact forms and pages.
How to Start a Membership Site with WordPress [Guide]
Membership sites have become increasingly popular as a model for generating revenue and building a community around your online business. And if you’ve got the content, the products, and the drive, you can create your own membership site that will amplify your brand in all kinds of ways. Here’s a general guide to help you figure it all out, and take your vision from a dream to reality.