MainWP Roundup: Creating trust for your product and for WordPress

In this month of the MainWP Roundup we will explore creating trust for your WordPress product, whether WordPress deserves criticism (and for what!), learn more about the WordPress YouTube initiative and remind you of the upcoming Site Care Consultant survey.

It’s time. Giddy up!

How to create trust for your product.

Read How to Establish User Trust for Your WordPress Products

I came across this article at the WP Minute by author Eric Karkovack and he makes some excellent points about establishing trust. The article is for those who have WordPress products, but the tips are excellent regardless of the type of business you have.

The first tip is to “Be open about your features, pricing and policies.” 

When you disclose features, pricing, and policies, you are being transparent with future customers. Failing to disclose these can create distrust. To build that trust, you need to be clear about the most important information.

Other elements Eric adds are to “admit when you make a mistake,” “stay in touch with users,” and finally, “show them who you are.” 

The points Eric mentions in this article are fundamental for building trust along with having good social proof.

Does WordPress deserve criticism? What kind?

WordPress gets lots of criticism and one has to ponder to ask if it is worthy of the criticism. One of the problems is who exactly should we criticize with WordPress. 

Should we criticize WordPress, the open source project? Should we criticize Automattic? Should we criticize Matt Mulenweg, the founder and leader of Auttomatic? Should we criticize the software? Others?

It’s hard to see where to lay critiques, but I prefer that we actually spend time clearly defining the issues and inviting conversation.

That’s what MainWP’s Marc Benzakein did in a presentation at WordCamp Canada this summer. Recently, in a livestream, he and Matt Mederios watched his presentation and discussed some issues. 

Watch: The Problems with WordPress

Marc makes sound, reasoned arguments without attacking anyone specifically. This is a better way.

One of the things that regularly confuses me about WordPress is marketing, or the lack thereof and confusion marketing for WordPress.

Recently, the WordPress Project put a pause on marketing. In the conversation with Matt and Marc, Marc talked about how confusing the goals were for marketing at WordPress.

Separately, Automattic hired a new VP of Product. Pedraum Pardehpoosh comes with a background of lots of experience in various types of companies. 

According to the Automattic announcement,

“As VP of Product, Pedraum will oversee product excellence across Automattic, beginning by immersing himself in the open source WordPress ecosystem that drives innovation for 43% of the Internet.”

So, he’s the Automattic VP Of Product but apparently he is working with the open source side. 

Let me say this, I believe that marketing for the open source and for Automattic should be done differently. I don’t believe that you can have one person to do both because the agendas and objectives will clash and one will get left behind.

This hire doesn’t even convince me he is doing marketing. The announcement on Automattic’s website says nothing about marketing.

This leads me to ask: Where does marketing stand for WordPress? Something to think about.

WordPress has a YouTube project? Did you know? Now it has a new captain

WordPress has a new YouTube Project? Did you know that? And they tapped veteran WordPress Youtuber Jamie Marsland to run the channel. Marsland has been making loads of videos for a long time. 

According to a post by Josepha Haden Chomphosy, WordPress has seen a “6x increase in monthly views and engagement…” on their YouTube channel since 2023.

About the selection, she says,

“In keeping with our commitment to meeting the needs of both current and future users, I’m excited to announce that Jamie Marsland will be taking on the management of the WordPress YouTube channel. Jamie’s extensive experience in the WordPress community and his passion for empowering creators through this medium makes him the ideal person to lead our efforts in expanding and enhancing our YouTube presence.”

Clearly they are putting some commitment behind this and I believe it is a good thing. The average viewer will probably not make their way to WordPress.tv. The WordPress YouTube Channel makes for a great entrance for new users.

You can read more about this on the WPTavern.

MainWP Survey is one its way! 

I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on the 2024 MainWP Site Care Consultant Survey. It should be ready in the next couple of weeks.

I have been chatting with Marc about some of the questions. We are almost ready to start taking a few responses to test the survey. Stay tuned for the survey.

Meanwhile, you can see the results of 2021, 2022, and 2023 below:

View 2023 Web Care Survey Results: What we learned.

View Web Care Survey 2022: The Results

View The MainWP 2021 Web Care Survey: What we learned

Wrapping it up

Do you watch WordPress videos on YouTube? What types of videos do you watch? Drop a note to let us know in the MainWP Users Facebook Group.