business: Page 2

Mixergy Interview Featuring Adii Of WooThemes

By Jeffro on February 16, 2010

Andrew Warner who produces the video show Mixergy which interviews entrepreneurs of successful start ups and established businesses has published the video featuring his interview with Adii of WooThemes.com. In the interview, we get a glimpse of just how successful WooThemes has become with net margins now in the 50-60% range and revenue of over two million dollars. Adii tells us how WooThemes was started, who inspired him in the beginning, the team involved with WooThemes, how they deal with theme piracy, brief discussion about the GPL and much more. All in all, it was a great interview that shed some light on one of the most successful businesses built on and around WordPress. Andrew Warner asked all the right questions, including some that I would have never thought to ask regarding the business aspect of WooThemes.

Oh, and I found a way to get WPTavern name dropped (36:40) on the show which I’m very appreciative of. Thanks again Adii and Andrew.

Posted in Video | Tagged adii, business, mixergy, woothemes | 3 Responses

Created this layout in just a few minutes

Can A Theme Developer Put Himself Out Of Business?

By Jeffro on November 29, 2009

Over the weekend, I finally had a chance to sit down and beta test a new theme from iThemes called Builder. The theme aims to blow the walls off of Flexx and take theme development to the next level.

I won’t dive into a lengthy review here but in the Builder theme, users can easily build Layouts. In the time span of 5 minutes, I created a layout that mimics the one I’m using on WPTavern.com complete with the widget spots.

Created this layout in just a few minutes

After building my layout with clicks of the mouse and not having to touch one bit of PHP code, the only thing left for me to do is style the layout through CSS. This is the type of theme framework I can get behind which doesn’t require me to know hooks or filters, etc although I’m sure those are built in. One of my wishes for WordPress was to one day, be able to use a WYSIWYG theme creation tool where I could whip up a theme using standard elements. Although Builder and Elastic are not exactly what I had in mind, they are pretty darn close and both impress me quite a bit. They really empower the end user to create things instead of relying on a developer.

Between Builder and Elastic, I’m wondering if it’s possible for a theme developer to put himself out of business by creating and releasing something that for the most part, removes the developer from the equation. Let’s discuss.

Can A Theme Developer Put Himself Out Of Business?

No (50%, 37 Votes)
Are You Crazy? (28%, 21 Votes)
Yes (22%, 16 Votes)

Total Voters: 74

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Posted in Polls | Tagged business, commercial, developer, ithemes | 28 Responses

WPWeekly Episode 71 – Running A Business Around WordPress

By Jeffro on September 9, 2009

wordpressweekly1 In this edition of WordPress Weekly, we have a fireside chat with Jonathan Davis, lead developer of the Shopp e-commerce plugin. We discuss what it’s like to run a business around open source software, marketing, customer service, the technicalities of the plugin and much more. If you’re a plugin author thinking about going the commercial route, this is definitely the episode for you.

Ad Copy:

This episode of WordPress Weekly is sponsored by WebDevStudios.com. WebDevStudios would like to announce the launch of their new project, WPClassroom.com! WPClassroom.com is dedicated to providing high quality professional WordPress training using the most powerful online training software powered by Cisco WebEx. Reserve your seat today at WPClassroom.com! By the way, use the coupon code wptavern when signing up and that will take off $5.00 on the first class on September 9th.

WordPress Tavern Listener Poll:

Last weeks poll question was: Which Theme Company Has The Best Word Of Mouth?

Out of a total of 155 votes, WooThemes had 104 votes, Spectacu.la had 21 votes and StudioPress 11 votes, Press75 6 votes, ThemeHybrid 5 votes, iThemes 4 votes, Gorilla Themes 2 votes, Themes By Jestro 2 votes.

This Weeks Poll Question Is: Do You Think WordPress Is Secure?

Last Weeks WordPress Trivia Question:

October 31st, 2005. What is the exact number of spams caught at that time by Akismet according to the Live Spam Zeitgeist.

WordPress Trivia Answer:

45,390

This Weeks Trivia Question

Who was the very first WordPress.com VIP member?

Announcements:

Next weeks episode of WordPress Weekly will be a round table centered around the topic of WordPress security.

WPWeekly Meta:

Next Episode: Tuesday September 15th, 2009 8P.M. EST

Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe

Length Of Episode: 57 Minutes

Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode71.mp3

Listen To Episode #71:

Posted in WordPress Weekly | Tagged business, e commerce, jonathan davis, shopp, talkcast, wpweekly | 10 Responses

My Thoughts On The Virtual WordCamp

By Jeffro on July 3, 2009

When I initially published information regarding the virtual WordCamp, I was a bit miffed at the price tag as well as a few other things. However, after putting together some information that I discovered through an anonymous source and from what has been added to the Virtual WordCamp website, I’ve come to the conclusion that the event is being put on for an entirely different audience than what we would see at a typical WordCamp.

Thanks to the information that Chip Bennett has put together in a forum thread regarding this event, I now realize that VirtualWordCamp is meant to be a week long event where those who want to be trained on how to use WordPress can sign up and attend these daily webinars. During my first go around with VC, I thought it would be an online equivalent of a physical WordCamp which is why the price tag and such sent me off my rocker.

Most of us in the WordPress community know that a WordCamp means the following:

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

I just don’t see VirtualWordCamp in its current state matching most of this criteria. Who knows, maybe after the agenda has been published online, it will look like an awesome event but I’m not seeing it right now.

I’ve spoken with a number of people in the WordPress community regarding this event and most don’t seem to be taking it to well. For most of us, WordCamps are all about getting together in a physical location, networking, meeting face to face and establishing connections that otherwise would have never happened. I tend to agree which is why I will not be doing a TavernCamp or a Virtual WordCamp event of my own. I enjoy the physical interactions at these events and I feel that any virtual WordCamp event whether it be created through me or anyone else simply wouldn’t fit the bill for what a WordCamp is supposed to be about.

Posted in Meetups | Tagged business, taverncamp, virtual, wordcamp | 5 Responses

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