I have called it the future in the past, and it seems the future is here.
I’ve always wondered why more people haven’t created their own little hosted WordPress platforms. In my view, there could be a hundred WordPress.com style platforms, each serving their own niche.
Happy Tables (hosted WordPress for restaurants) helped pioneer the concept, and launched years ago. I thought at the time that others would follow left and right. They haven’t. But now I feel it coming.
Copyblogger owns a variety of products, and markets heavily toward marketers. WordPress has always been their tool of choice. You probably all know StudioPress and Genesis, their theme shop and flagship theme, respectively. But they also have Premise for landing pages and membership. They have Scribe for SEO. And they have other products, conferences, etc. They do a lot.
New Rainmaker is a hosted version of WordPress, built for media marketers. It includes a fancy skin of the WordPress dashboard, a customized workflow for doing common tasks, and bakes in various Copyblogger products, streamlined for an audience that wants to get up and running fast, with little self-configuration.
The walk-through of New Rainmaker on their tour page does a better job than I can describing how it works, but here’s a preview.
Twenty two StudioPress themes are ready for New Rainmaker. And if someone knows how to use WordPress, they’ll know how to use this platform. It looks very straightforward.
As with any hosted service, you get what you get. You can’t download additional plugins with New Rainmaker, or customize it beyond whatever options are provided by the app. But if you want to get up and running fast, and not have to deal with the fuss of running your own install, New Rainmaker looks like a great new offering.
They say on one of the landing pages, “You’ll never go back to regular WordPress.” That’s bold, and I guess we’ll see. But if you’re already a diehard Copyblogger fan, I’m sure you’re excited about this offering.
New Rainmaker is starting at $95 per month, or $950 per year. It’s not cheap, but it’s probably cheaper than buying every one of these products individually (for a year), and it’s definitely cheaper than hiring someone to help do it.
Hosted products aren’t for everyone. However, WordPress is a great platform to create niche services like Happy Tables and New Rainmaker.
There are others out there, but I expect we’ll see a flood of similar offerings from current WordPress companies, hosting companies, and new entrants to the market. And we’ll see them for a variety of niches. I can’t wait.
Does it bother anyone else that the only time WordPress is even mentioned in the New Rainmaker marketing is as a dig? I mean, their “platform” wouldn’t exist without the amazingness that is WordPress as the engine.
Seems like a little more credit should be paid due is all.
Not really. There is no reason for them to mention it.
The customers they are targeting doesn’t typically care or even know what WordPress is. Mentioning anything about WordPress might confuse them and has no benefits.
HappyTables does the same thing.
Yeah, I mean, I guess it wouldn’t even bother me as much if they didn’t mention it at all.
“You’ll never go back to regular WordPress.” makes it sound like they’re trying to compete with .org, using .org’s software.
Probably just semantics, but something about it doesn’t sit quite right with me.
“Regular WordPress” is the key phrase here. Because “regular WordPress” can be overwhelming for people, it lacks the tools this audience wants, and has (in many ways) been forced to consider wide arrays of configuration and compatibility setups. Custom rolled and white labeled solutions can iterate quickly to address UX concerns, add new tools as often as necessary, and because the environment is controlled, can mitigate any compatibility issues quickly and easily without having to worry about breaking any dependencies.
So, it’s not really a dig at WordPress. It’s recognizing that there is some peace of mind that comes with a platform like Rainmaker.
I’m pretty excited about this. I don’t anticipate using New Rainmaker myself or for my clients, but the potential for more integrated verticals in the WordPress world is great, in my opinion. I think it has the potential to help the WordPress project as well, if the people behind these verticals contribute to core. They will be in somewhat unique positions to learn about how people use WordPress in different ways, what kinds of pain points there are that maybe haven’t been exposed (or obvious) yet, etc. As long as they share what they learn and contribute to the core WordPress project, it’s a huge win/win for the community as a whole.
We have and we do. 😉 Both me, Ron and Nathan above have contributed back to core and will continue to do so.
I know you guys do. 🙂 To clarify, I was talking more about verticals in general, not just New Rainmaker.
Rainmaker has also driven several contributions back to http://wp-cli.org/. Many who use the WP-CLI and don’t contribute back to it. We do!
Contributions have included table level exports in ‘wp db export’ and improvements to ‘wp search-replace’.
We are definitely not abandoning WP. Expect more CLI contributions in the near term.
Interesting, I’m sure they will do very well. I created a hosted WordPress vertical for fitness pros about a year ago, and I can definitely see more people doing this. It can be profitable, but it comes with a TON of challenges, both technical and business. It’s not for the feint of heart!
I agree. I also worked on a hosted vertical project for a while and it definitely isn’t an easy nut to crack. Based on my experiences, I’d say it requires a lot of technical skill, business savvy, and a foothold in the niche you’re targeting. Copyblogger clearly has all three of these things, so I’m sure they’ll do very well.
Anyone who sees these types of products and thinks they should run head-on into creating their own should probably take a step back and think about all the moving parts. If you’ve got everything you’ll need to make a project like this successful, chances are you’ve already been pretty successful at other things. If not, you might want to start smaller. It ain’t easy.
“Regular WordPress” wasn’t meant to be a dig at all. Throughout the pre-launch we’ve been singing the praises of having an open source core. The point I made that might gave been missed js that companies ranging from us to the New York Times use WordPress – but we don’t use “regular” WordPress, we use a custom version of WordPress. Our goal is to make custom WordPress available to others in an affordable package.
I can see now that out of that larger context, the line may seem like a dig. I was just continuing the story I’ve been telling for months, but to a new visitor it may come across poorly. Copy will change after this soft launch anyway.
I had started a similar service (turantweb.com) for local customers in India in 2010 but due to wrong pricing had to stop taking new signups.
@Nathan Rice, I definitely agree that “regular WordPress” can be quite overwhelming to new users, which is one of the main criteria I used in my recent review of the platform.
Is there any possibility of open sourcing on GitHub or other channels the dashboard “skin” and other customizations for people who might be interested in creating verticals using multi-site for other niches?
‘They say on one of the landing pages, “You’ll never go back to regular WordPress.” That’s bold…’
– everything they do is ‘bold‘! lol
Can’t wait to give this new offering a thorough look – hopefully it’s as awesome as the majority of the other stuff Mr Clark and team are involved in!
I signed up for Rainmaker to build a prototype site and believe it’s going to be great for those who want their hand held through the site build. Rainmaker does a really good job of making configuration easy. What I found to be lacking is documentation for those website newbies who don’t know where to start. I’m building a work plan/checklist for some clients that I recommended try Rainmaker. I’m hoping my “project plan” and “content plan” will help them see the results they want. As an aside, I’m a Copyblogger/StudioPress fanboy and have most of their tools. Rainmaker continues to live up to their standard in my opinion.
I am a new comer to the world of blogging and have been trying to learn things. I wish to go in affiliate marketing and selling of educational seminars. I was just comparing three sites namely affilorama.com, wealthyaffiliate.com and newrainmaker.com. As a newbie I am unable to make up my mind with which one to go. Can anyone throw some light on it?
Thanks I will wait for replies. I am sorry as I forgot to click below so am writing this.
We have a couple of domains that could benefit from NewRainmaker. However, we think they’re pricing is pretty high for us, considering it can get really pricey for 5 domains out the door.
We really like the features and the one-stop setup for managing multiple sites. ManageWP is cheaper but doesn’t provide the simplified features. What are our other options or alternatives to NewRainmaker?
Brian,
Thanks for the good article. I am myself considering moving from wordpress to “something else”, because I find I am spending way too much time dealing with plugin issues, theme upgrades, backup problems, etc., etc., instead of focusing on building content and expanding my brand. I was starting to look into Squarespace when i found out about Rainmaker. Seems like it may offer 90% of what I can do in wordpress for 10% of the effort (?). Yes, I definitely “give up” some options, but I gain simplicity and a fully supported environment. $95 a month is hefty, but if I probably add up my hosting, domain, back-up, premium theme, premium plugins, and assorted other costs, I’m probably not that far off. Only thing is I worry about the “limitations”. For example, no options for managing my affiliate links using something like Adsanity or EasyAzon, and am locked into their eCommerce, landing pages, etc.,etc. Still ‘on the fence’, so if you have heard any feedback from anyone else that has moved from WordPress hosted to rainmaker, would be interested in their experience.
Thanks.
Michael