In this month’s WordPress roundup we discuss superfans, the history of page builders, and deceptive marketing practices.
Buckle up.
Let’s ride.
WordPress succeeds by embracing the superfans, not dismissing them
Rob Howard from MasterWP wrote a nice article comparing some decisions by Automattic to abandoning superfans.
He makes a very valid point.
The article starts with the drama around removing the chart that showed data about free plugins and their popularity.
You may remember that happening in the early part of October.
What followed was quite a fallout and Automattic trying to explain the reasoning.
Howard believes, unlike many, that we have some control over what is being done because WordPress developers and power users are much like other products’ superfans.
“The majority of the value of WordPress comes from its power users – the early adopters, the plugin developers, the superfans. While alienating this group may not show up on the balance sheet immediately, it is self-defeating for Automattic and the WordPress project over the course of several years.”
Howard uses two examples to explain, the Denver Broncos football team and Disney.
He rightly says,
“The problem, of course, is that superfans are not easy to replace when you chase them away. A new superfan is not born every minute. You cannot split test and optimize the creation of a superfan via Google AdWords. Superfans are a result of years of community nurturing, and eventually older superfans indoctrinate newer superfans – but they only do this when they are proud to be fans and when they are treated like valuable brand ambassadors.”
Then he explains that WordPress and Automattic should listen to its superfans because, as he says, “they generate most of its brand value.”
In doing so, he explains that the lion’s share of WordPress users come to WordPress because of folks like us, those that build websites, plugins, and themes.
Howard makes some great points in this article and warns, as I do, that failure to listen to superfans will cause many to leave the ecosystem altogether.
What are your thoughts? Do you think that leaders in WordPress listen to the superfans?
History of WordPress Builders
Once upon a time I did an article about all the page builders and then did a follow up two years later. Truth is, page builders have been around a long time.
I came across this article by Raitis Sevelis that talks about the history of page builders. It all starts with WPBakery, a product of Evato of which Sevelis was a part in the early days.
The author starts there, talks about SiteOrigin (remember them) then on to the newer versions of page builders like Beaver Builder, Divi, and Elementor. He refers to them as front end editors.
Sevelis tells about the time all of the page builder developers were on a Zoom call to get feedback,
“Fun fact, all major page builders were invited to a meeting with the Gutenberg team and the boss himself. We were asked for advice on possible pitfalls. It was a bit awkward since everyone in the room (Zoom) understood – we are going after your business but give us a hint.”
He moves on to talk about the implications to the page builder industry in light of Gutenberg and Full Site Editing.
It’s a fascinating read from someone inside the page builder industry.
What was or is your favorite page builder?
Marketing in the WordPress world has problems
Mark Zahra dives into the idea of deceptive marketing in this article.
Mark is mostly frustrated with — and I agree — with various methods that I would call marketing hacks. Such include never-ending sales (fake sales?), introduction prices but full price on renewals, recommendations that are of others in the same network or company, lack of disclosures, and interesting hosting recommendations.
He also talks about the cluttered dashboard, Automattic products towards the top in WordPress.org dashboard, how news coverage is handled in the WordPress space, and what he calls “A new-ish backlink generator.”
As for the news coverage, I have said before that we needed more news sources to emerge (an some have) because there is a direct link between Automattic and one of the largest sources.
I have been frustrated with marketing in the WordPress community for some time.
I will say that sometimes people think any marketing is bad, that asking for money is not a good thing, but frankly, you can’t keep the doors open without either.
But you can do it in a way that is respectful and still make business happen.
What do you think about some of these tactics that Mark is talking about?
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Voting is open until November 30th, so you have plenty of time to vote. MainWP is in Support and Services category.
Wrapping it up
What are your thoughts about marketing in WordPress? Do you think some companies go overboard?
What are some of the page builders you have used over the years? Are you still using page builders or are you fully Gutenberg?
Do you think leadership in WordPress should listen more to the superfans?
Let us know what you think in the MainWP Users Facebook group.
