WordPress News

Automattic should acquire Editorially

Brian Krogsgard

February 13, 2014

http://vimeo.com/73479976 Watch the video above. See the beautiful and collaborative writing experience that Editorially built? And now it's gone. Only, why? This seems like a perfect opportunity for Automattic to be able to keep a great project afloat. And it…

Meet Joshua Benton, Director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab

Brian Krogsgard

February 13, 2014

BusinessDraft

Joshua Benton runs a small newsroom of four full time staff. They publish around fifteen items a week on Nieman Lab, their WordPress based website. Their newsroom is different than most newsrooms though, because they mostly publish about other newsrooms.…

The rise of WordPress maintenance services

Brian Krogsgard

February 11, 2014

Business

WordPress maintenance services seem to be all the rage. As people are using WordPress to do more, more maintenance is sometimes required. Also, having a seasoned development team on hand for when things go wrong can be quite valuable. There…

Welcome to the small leagues: On WordPress and journalism

Brian Krogsgard

February 4, 2014

BusinessWordPress News

A friend and former coworker of mine really likes the word "webmaster". Because it's a hilarious word. It suggests that this person has control over the web in general, which is pretty pretentious. However, traditional webmasters have long had a…

Business models for WordPress products

Brian Krogsgard

February 3, 2014

Business

Chris Lema has put together a nice video about creating business models for WordPress products. Sometimes, people jump in without really analyzing or knowing a market, and Chris helps you navigate these waters. He's helped a lot of businesses in…

Why we love $500 WordPress clients

Brian Krogsgard

January 22, 2014

Business

Ryan Sullivan shares excellent reasoning as to why he likes working with small budget clients. In short, with a smaller client the limits are better known and the surprises are fewer. Meanwhile, it's still quite possible to serve a client's…

Required reading for marketers and clients

Brian Krogsgard

January 22, 2014

Business

Ryan Holiday gives advice on how to market a "boring" business. He tells of the power of stories, and reminds us that all businesses have them. When we get stuck in a rut as web professionals, this is especially helpful.…

Cory Miller, Founder & CEO of iThemes

Brian Krogsgard

January 21, 2014

BusinessDraft

I had the opportunity recently to talk to Cory Miller, the founder of iThemes. Cory started iThemes in January 2008, so they are currently celebrating their 6th anniversary. Cory is a really thoughtful businessman and leader, and I really enjoyed…

Crowd Favorite to acquire Pixel Jar and AdSanity plugin

Brian Krogsgard

January 17, 2014

Business

It's been only two months since it was announced that Crowd Favorite would be acquired by VeloMedia; and that deal is nearing completion. Those two brands will be one, under the Crowd Favorite name. Crowd Favorite has just announced another…

Matt Mullenweg is now Automattic’s CEO

Brian Krogsgard

January 13, 2014

BusinessWordPress News

Matt Mullenweg and Toni Schneider are switching jobs at Automattic. After joining Automattic eight years ago, Toni Schneider is moving into a product-focused role within Automattic, and Matt Mullenweg is the new CEO. Both Matt and Toni blogged about the…

“Patches Welcome”

Brian Krogsgard

December 17, 2013

Business

As a phrase, this is often more of a conversation killer rather than encouragement for collaboration. The delivery method of this popular phrase is paramount, and the audience needs to be genuinely considered when we say "patches welcome" to those…

Automattic trial data and employee retention

Brian Krogsgard

December 16, 2013

Business

Matt Mullenweg does a lot of interviews, and much of this one at the Lean Startup Conference is similar to many others, highlighting how WordPress got started, the culture of open source and how Automattic works. But at the end he mentioned…

Envato community lifetime earnings are over $140 million

Brian Krogsgard

December 11, 2013

Business

It's amazing to think that in only seven years, Envato has grown to 200+ employees and helps so many thousands of people in their community distribute their work. That work, as announced for the first time in Collis Ta'eed's 2013…

iThemes acquihires Better WP Security, a million+ download WordPress security plugin

Brian Krogsgard

December 4, 2013

BusinessSecurity

iThemes has hired Chris Wiegman and taken over his very popular plugin, Better WP Security. Better WP Security has over a million downloads on WordPress.org and sells commercial support and installation services on FooPlugins. Better WP Security also has excellent…

Documentation marketing: how opening up docs turned into 60% of the sales funnel at WooThemes

Brian Krogsgard

November 21, 2013

Business

Warren Holmes is the Chief Information Officer at WooThemes. He tells a story on his personal blog how WooThemes opened up their documentation site from behind the paywall, and now that site is the referrer for 60% of their revenue.…

Sources of growth for a membership site

Brian Krogsgard

November 19, 2013

Business

Shawn Hesketh runs WP101, a WordPress tutorials membership site. He recently received a question about how he markets his site, and his answer is thorough and insightful, and definitely worth a read for anyone trying to grow their product or…