Business

Required reading for marketers and clients

Brian Krogsgard

January 22, 2014

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…

Crowd Favorite to be acquired by VeloMedia

Brian Krogsgard

November 15, 2013

BusinessWordPress News

Crowd Favorite and VeloMedia have reached an agreement where VeloMedia will acquire Crowd Favorite, with the transaction to occur early next year. Crowd Favorite was founded by Alex King, one of the earliest regular contributors to WordPress. King's freelance web…

ZippyKid relaunches as Pressable, makes changes to business

Brian Krogsgard

November 14, 2013

BusinessHosting

ZippyKid is a managed WordPress host that's been around around three and a half years. They have grown their business consistently since their launch in May 2010, and today have a number of high profile blogs and corporate profiles as…

Basis, a business theme with an intuitive content builder

Brian Krogsgard

November 13, 2013

BusinessWordPress News

The Theme Foundry has released their vision of a business WordPress theme, called Basis. Basis is yet another theme by The Theme Foundry that reiterates why I like having them as a partner. Basis has a content builder in it…

Interview with Mark Forrester, co-founder of WooThemes

Brian Krogsgard

November 12, 2013

BusinessDraft

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting WooThemes HQ in Cape Town, South Africa. Throughout the week I had the opportunity to interact with WooThemes' co-founders Mark Forrester and Magnus Jepson, as well as the rest of the Cape…

Ten bootstrapping tips from Collis Ta’eed, CEO of Envato

Brian Krogsgard

November 7, 2013

Business

Collis Ta'eed recently did a Twitter "series", if you will, highlighting ten bootstrapping tips of his to celebrate the seven year anniversary for Envato. They haven't blogged the list anywhere that I can tell, and I don't want it to…