Wordpress, really? For non technical founders...
I wanted to share my experience. I have been learning to code, and if I put time and brain-sweat I put together something that works, but I'm a solo founder, can't really put that much time building a platform when it's not the core of the business.
Then I started looking into alternatives and finally decided that if I was going to do it quick, a Wordpress Plugin was going to enable exactly what I needed and would take me 2/3 months to build.
So, I got going and in a couple days (3?) I had the platform finished. Of course, I had to change some CSS (the look) and spend some time learning how the PlugIn works. It's a plugin for online courses, even though I'm using it for mastermind groups. SO each course = one mastermind. Also, something cool is that you can connect Stripe with a free plugin to charge money ;)
What do you think about this? I know it's not super scalable, but like we hear once and over again, why build a rocket when you don't know if you even have fuel?
I know this can hold hundreds of users and still work. So, I will just work on the core, the groups themselves.
I did the same thing when I needed to get a website for my app (Android/iOS) out. Writing a wordpress plugin was the quickest way to get the job done and I didn't have a lot of time or help.
Am I thrilled with wordpress?
No.
Will I eventually have to redo the website?
Yes.
Is it going to suck migrating an established user base to a leaner website?
Yes.
Is that wordpress website pulling in $7,600/month?
Yes.
Number of regrets about making money with a wordpress site?
Zero.
Do what you have to do to generate revenue now and then feel sorry for yourself when you have so many customers that you have to redo your website. :)
Full disclosure: I'm running my site on an auto scaling load balancer and I wrote a plugin to route database calls to master/read replica set of database servers, so it's not a 5-minute, single server deployment. I also had to tune the default WP database with my own indices as well as unhook a bunch of standard WP hooks that I don't need, but I didn't have to do all of those things before launch.
Would be interested to hear more detail on how you route database calls. I'm assuming you are using the REST api for the mobile apps?
Yeah, I extended the REST API for the app. It does the job, but is bloated in general... but it's trivial to extend the API. Not to mention that the REST API in WP is clearly an afterthought. I've started shifting my API off of the web servers for the heaviest operations. Eventually, I'll have completely separate API servers.
Interesting. So you're giving the mobile app away for free and monetizing off of the website?
Have you written up your story anywhere or would you be willing to share more about it?
That's true, but it's a pretty standard freemuim model. There's a set of basic features that are free and a set of pro features with a timed trial so people can try them out.
I haven't written up anything because I don't have a success or fail story... It's somewhere in between. The big question for my story is; Can a couple of indie app developers bootstrap a sustainable business and stay small? Right now, the answer is a big 'maybe?'
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I don't think advice and self-promotion mix well. There's a link to my site in my profile if you're interested. 😀
Thanks for sharing! This is what amazed me. I always thought of WP as a bad word, and I get where all that comes from. But you gotta do what you gotta do to start moving the wheel. ;)
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Yup, the website could be better. There are five fuchsia buttons and a link on the landing page that take people to our feature comparison/pricing page, but there could be a 'pricing' link at the bottom as well.
At first the app was stand-alone. The minimally viable website was added as a compliment to the apps. Right now, I'm working on getting the Android and iOS apps to feature complete because that's what people use in the kitchen and grocery store. Then I'll work on feature parity with the website which may (probably?) involve ditching WP.
I'd say go for it! I'm in a similar situation and hoping to launch a SaaS built with 100% WP + Rest API + Vue.
While I'm a designer/wp developer by day, I just don't have the time to put all my efforts into custom solutions such as Laravel and would rather build a product as quick as possible to focus on marketing it.
At the start of this year I launched my first SaaS based WP service that pulled in data from multiple API's to create a Spotify save + follow widget for musicians. It was an excellent experience but took many late nights over 4-5 months to release. After launch, I had exhausted myself to the point I decided to archive it and take a break. You begin to doubt yourself to a point of perfection - is my product any good? What should I do longterm if I'm stuck on WP etc.
So a few months pass and I'm sitting at work thinking what issues our clients are experiencing. Adding testimonials/reviews on BigCommerce sites from a client front-end was something I was keen to improve as currently they were needing hard coded.
My goal moving forward for this project is to get the product built as quick as I can and focus on marketing it.
Right now, I'm building the backend with WP and a few plugins - Restrict Content Pro (Billing/Membership), ACF (Custom Fields), CPT (For Reviews Post Type) + Gravity Forms (Form Submissions).
For the front-end embed widget I have built an external VueJS app that will be added as an iframe into the customers shop. I've not delved much into Vue but it's been an awesome experience coming from a PHP environment.
Benefits of WP:
Negatives of WP:
I've went off on a huge tangent but hope that gives you an insight as to how I'm building my product with WP and externally through it's REST API.
Will be documenting my process on IH soon. Good luck!
This sounds really interesting! You should totally share your experience.
Have thought about separating the front end with the REST API, but I'm worried I will integrate it correctly. How straightforward is it? (Mostly because of the PlugIns) And how flexible is it?
I will do @francopetra
It's fairly straightforward if you have worked with REST type endpoints before. Good thing is there's plenty tutorials on whatever front-end you decide to use. Authentication is a bit more complex but you can achieve this with JWT tokens.
Plugins - it kinda depends what it's doing but for ACF I am using this https://wordpress.org/plugins/acf-to-rest-api/ to add the fields into each REST response post.
It’s a great approach. The “tech” startup I am at does thousands in revenue per day on a platform built solely on Wordpress with stitched together workflows that use the WP plugin Ninja Forms, Stripe, Zapier, and Airtable. We only got our first engineer a few months ago. WP is so much more powerful than I knew before I joined and now I finally understand why it’s as ubiquitous as it is.
WP is great MVP fodder. Mind sharing the plugins and theme? It's amazing how many variables can be put together, I've found it kind of overwhelming.
Also, presuming you build/test local and then upload? If so, do you have a recommended best practice so far?
I used
LearnDash
Buddy Boss for LearnDash
Paid Memberships Pro (Let's you charge as a subscription for free)
WP Affiliate Manager (Which I haven't started using yet).
About best practices, I wouldn't go so far since I'm not an experienced dev, and also would love to learn. I even FTPed some stuff, which felt totally wrong, but It was a quick thing.
@scottramsay or @shawnh you guys might have something to share.
Not tried Paid Memberships Pro but I've used Restrict Content Pro for a few client sites in work. It's well documented, decent add-ons and good support. Depends on what type of site you are building @Sandsbe
Best practices I would say yes, develop locally. This is an excellent tool to run multiple WP sites - https://local.getflywheel.com
My stack is currently:
Local Flywheel for building WP sites offline. Blueprints let you clone a standard install - great for agencies like us to take out repetitive setup/plugin configs.
Codekit: Compile JS/SCSS
Atom: Code editor.
Transmit: Basic FTP things and use Transmit Disk to compile css/js on live sites. (Usually small edits)
I ended up writing more of the plugins that we use vs. installed, but a plugin that I think you should look at is WordFence. WordFence is basically a firewall for WP. Wordpress sites get bot script attacks constantly. WordFence does a good job of shutting down those shenanigans.
I'm primarily a mobile developer, but I do back-end web stuff. I'm also developing locally using MAMP Pro and IntelliJ with the PHP and wordpress plugins installed. For major updates, I clone the entire site and the infrastructure behind it and run 'live' tests on the production clone.
WordPress is really powerful to create an MVP or even just a Proof of Concept so that you can focus on the more important thing "Sales and Marketing". I know a guy who uses WordPress to validate an idea, spins up an MVP in a couple of months, does TONS of marketing to onboard paying customers and then sells that as a revenue making business for anywhere from low-mid five figures or even six at times.
So you are doing it the right way to start with. WordPress and plugins can get a bit tricky after a while nice you have identified and understood the exact requirements/needs of your customers. But for now, that's good enough.
Haha, that sounds like a good biz model. Kind of a business factory instead of software factory.
Seriously, you have the perfect attitude!
I hate the idea of using WP for a new project, but you're absolutely right - my developer mindset is getting in the way of getting something done.
Yes, in a sense it felt like I wasn't building for the long-term, which sucks. But then, you have something people are using and that's amazing.
If I was a more experienced dev, I'm 100% sure I would fall in the trap of building everything customized/in-house.
Part of my inspiration came from looking at an experienced dev (ex-Apple) that had his personal blog on WP. I knew it couldn't be that bad!
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