6 steps to a better WordPress user experience

Published under Editorial.

I’m a big fan of things just working, and especially so when it comes to blogs and blogging platforms. One of the lovely things about WordPress is that you can set it up how you want it and get rid of all the stuff you don’t need, so that it empowers your blogging rather than just gets in the way.

In my attempts to be more efficient (also known as “being lazy”), I’ve picked up a couple of little tips to make running and using your WordPress install that bit easier. Let’s get to it!

1. Simplify to fit your needs

Ghost has been making a big stir recently with its “just a blogging platform” tagline, but WordPress has got that covered too. There’s been a surge in popularity for “admin themes” recently; plugins which “theme” the WordPress backend. Personally, I think some of the better ones are fantastic — on sites which are straight-up blogs, I now always install the DP Dashboard plugin. The Hunter skin is a particular favourite of mine; its one column design lets you focus on one thing at a time (hint — writing).

It’s amazing how much of a difference a simpler post-writing UI makes, but when you have nothing to distract you, it’s  so much easier to just get on with writing. DP Dashboard is available as part of the DevPress subscription for $40/year — I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Some sites need a Dashboard that’s a little more powerful, though, and for sites like WPShout, where I want the extra flexibility of having menus at my disposal, I’ll virtually always hop into distraction free writing mode when I need to concentrate. It’s not quite the same, but it’s a reasonable compromise.

Carry on reading →

Owning Your Content: A WordPress User’s Guide

Published under Editorial.

I’ll admit, when I first heard the phrase ‘own your own content’, I thought it was a little unnecessary and slightly pretentious.

It was a couple of months ago, around the time Instagram made its now infamous change to its Terms of Service and my immediate reaction was “you really think you have Instagram photos worth selling?” But that wasn’t really the point people were making; it’s the principal that you should own the rights to your original content, no questions asked.

Whilst I was initially dismissive, I did my homework and started reading up around the subject, and when things like John Saddington’s Pressgram started, I figured if John was able to raise $50,000, he might at least have a valid point.

The tipping point for me came when I read about the recently-passed Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act, which essentially puts all of your photos into the public domain where you, the owner, are not immediately identifiable by either the photo’s metadata or a “diligent search” (which isn’t a legal term, so in practice probably means a quick Google).

From now on, then, I’m going to proactively move my content from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like, and onto my own WordPress powered alternatives. Want to do the same? Here’s everything you need to know about owning your own content with WordPress.

Carry on reading →

Taking stock: how WPEngine triggered a revolution in WordPress hosting

Published under Editorial.

WordPress hosting has seen a revolution over the last couple of years, with a huge shift away from cheap, crappy shared hosts and a move towards expensive, quality, managed hosting. In the space of three years, paying for quality hosting has become the norm, and for the firms at the forefront, it’s big business.

There’s a reason that managed hosting has been so successful — a lot of firms are offering brilliant services with everything you could need included and users are recognising there’s value in that. One such person is me; I made the switch to WP Engine late last year, and I’ve been very happy since.

As I said in a WPShout newsletter at the time, I immediately noticed things like loading speeds going down, causing a drop in the bounce rate and an increase in visits. Those are the kind of reasons why managed hosting is worth the price tag.

And so, with WP Engine hitting the headlines recently as it makes apparent moves towards gearing up towards making an IPO, I thought it’d be a good moment to take a look at its meteoric rise to the top of the pile in the WordPress hosting market, and see how they’ve served as a catalyst for everyone getting into managed hosting.

Carry on reading →

One month on: does “pay what you want” work for WordPress themes?

Published under Editorial.

Ever since I launched Empty Spaces last month as a free/pay-what-you-want theme, I’ve been asked repeatedly whether people are actually paying when they can just download the theme for free, and as an extension of that, whether “pay-what-you-want” actually works.

In this post I’m going to answer those two questions… or at least try to. Let’s get going.

So has anyone actually paid for your free theme?

Yes! I’ll run through some of the key data points from the first 26 days of Empty Spaces’ availability:

• Total downloads: 100.
• Paid downloads: 6.
• Range of amount paid: £1 to £10.
• Total revenue: £41.
• Most frequent price paid: £10.
• Total views of the download page: 300.
• And thus — conversion rate of visitors:downloads: 33%.

None of that is particularly ground-breaking stuff, but it’s certainly enough data to start drawing some conclusions. The first thing to notice is the conversion rate of visitors:downloads is very, very high indeed. One third of all people who came to the download page then went on to download the theme.

That’s huge.

Carry on reading →

The Economic Theory Of Selling WordPress Themes

Published under Editorial.

As you’ll know if you’ve read my recent post, I find practical applications of economic theory quite an interesting topic.

With the topic of WordPress theme pricing coming up again this week on WPCandy, with WPZOOM co-founder Dumitru Brinzan’s announcing the launch of his $200/theme niche theme shop, Hermes Themes, and what with my ongoing experiment in WordPress theme pricing with my free/pay-what-you-want theme, Empty Spaces (check it out!), I thought it’d be interesting to get the Economics textbooks back out and look at the actual theory behind how WordPress themes are priced.

This post aims to look at two things: why WordPress themes are priced how they are, and what changes could be made to that pricing in order to generate higher profits for those making the themes.

There’s a little bit of economics you’ll need to understand, but I’m fairly confident I’ve explained this clearly. If you’re ready, then, let’s get to it!

Carry on reading →