I love free tiers, and I am not the only one. Everyone loves free things — they’re the best thing in life, after all. But maybe we have grown too accustomed to them, to the extent that a service switching from a “freemium” model to a fully paid plan would probably feel outrageous to you. Nowadays, though, the transition from free to paid services seems inevitable. It’s a matter of when a service drops its free tier rather than if it will.
Companies need to make money. As developers, we probably understand the most that a product comes with costs; there are startup funds, resources, and salaries spent to maintain and support the product against a competitive globalized market.
If I decided to take something I made and ship it to others, you darn well know I would charge money for it, and I assume you’re the same. At the same time, I’m typically more than happy to pay for something, knowing it supports the people who made it.
We get that, and we surely don’t go walk into a grocery store complaining that nothing they have is free. It’s just how things work.
What exactly, then, is so infuriating about a service offering a free tier and later deciding to transition to a priced one?
It’s Positioning, Not Money
It’s not so much about the money as it is the positioning. Who wouldn’t feel somewhat scammed, having invested time and resources into something that was initially advertised as “free” only to be blindsided behind a paywall?
Most of the time, the feeling is less anger than it is mildly annoying. For example, if your favorite browser suddenly became a paid premium offering, you would most likely switch to the next best option. But what happens when the free tier for a hosted product or service is retired? Switching isn’t as easy when hundreds of thousands of developers server their projects in a free-tier hosting plan.
The practice of offering a free tier only to remove it seems like a common practice on the web that won’t go away any time soon. It’s as though companies ditch them once (1) the product becomes mature enough to be a feature-rich offering or (2) the company realizes free customers are not converting into paid customers.
It has been a source of endless complaints, and one only needs to look back at PlanetScale’s recent decision to remove its free-tier database plan, which we will get deeper into in a bit. Are free tiers removed because of their unsustainable nature, or is it to appease profit-hungry companies? I want to explore the why and how of free tiers, better approaches for marketing “free” services, and how to smoothly retire a free tier when it inevitably goes away.
Glossary
Before we wade further into these waters, I think it’s worth having a baseline understanding of pricing concepts that are relevant to the discussion.
A free tier is one of several flavors:
Free trial opt-in Permits users to try out the product for a limited period without providing payment details. Once the trial ends, so does access to the product features.
Free trial opt-out Requires users to provide payment information during registration en route to a free trial that, once it ends, automatically converts to a paid account.
Freemium model Offers access to a product’s “core” features but requires upgrading to a paid account to unlock other features and benefits.
Reverse trial model Users start with access to the premium tier upon registration and then transition to a freemium tier after the trial period ends.
Case Study: PlanetScale
Let’s start this conversation by looking at PlanetScale and how it killed its free tier at the beginning of the year. Founded in 2018, PlanetScale launched its database as a service in 2021 and has raised $105 million in venture capital and seed funding, becoming one of the fastest-growing tech companies in North America by 2023. In March of this year, CEO Sam Lambert announced the removal of PlanetScale’s hobby tier.
In short, the decision was made to provide “a reliable and sustainable platform for our customers” by not “giving away endless amounts of free resources to keep growing,” which, of course, leaves everyone in the freemium tier until April 8 to either pay for one of the next plans at the outrageous starting price of $39 per month or migrate to another platform.
Again, a company needs steady revenue and a reliable business plan to stay afloat. But PlanetScale gave mixed signals when they stated in the bespoke memo that “[e]very unprofitable company has a date in the future where it could disappear.” Then they went on to say they are “the main database for companies totaling more than $50B in market cap,” and they “have been recognized [...] as one of the fastest growing tech companies in the US.”
In non-bureaucratic speak, PlanetScale says that the product is failing from one side of its mouth and that the company is wildly successful from the other.
The company is doing great. In November 2023, PlanetScale was ranked as the 188th fastest-growing company in North America by Deloitte Technology Fast 500™. Growth doesn’t necessarily equal revenue, but “to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, [...] [c]ompanies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US $50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US $5 million.”
PlanetScale’s decision can only be interpreted as “we want more money,” at least to me. There’s nothing about its current performance that suggests it needs the revenue to keep the company alive.
That’s a punch below the waist for the developer community, especially considering that those on the free tier are likely independent bootstrappers who need to keep their costs low. And let’s not overlook that ending the free tier was accompanied by a round of layoffs at the company.
PlanetScale’s story is not what worries me; it’s that retiring freemium plans is becoming standard practice, as we have seen with the likes of other big PaaS players, including Heroku and Railway.
That said, the PlanetScale case is perhaps the most frustrating because the cheapest alternative to the free tier they now offer is a whopping $39 per month. Compare that to the likes of others in that space, such as Heroku ($7 per month) and Railway ($5 per month).
Is This How A Free Tier Works?
With zero adoption, the value of a new service can’t be seen behind a paywall. Launching any kind of product or service with a freemium pricing model is often used to bring awareness to the product and entice early adopters who might convert into paying customers to help offset the costs of those on the free plan. It’s the old Pareto, or 80/20, rule, where 20% of paying customers ought to pay for the 80% of free users.
A conversion rate is the percentage of users that upgrade from a free tier to a paid one, and an “average” rate depends on the type of free tier or trial being offered.
In a freemium model — without sales assist — a good conversion rate is somewhere between 3–5%, but that’s optimistic. Conversion rates are often way lower in reality and perhaps the toughest to improve for startups with few or no customers. Early on, startups often have so few paying customers that they will have to operate at a loss until figuring out a way to land paying customers who can subsidize the ones who aren’t paying anything.
The longer a company operates at a loss, the more likely it races to generate the highest possible growth before undoubtedly having to cut benefits for free users.
A lot of those free users will feel misled and migrate to another service, but once the audience is big enough, a company can afford to lose free customers in favor of the minority that will switch to premium. Take Evernote, for example. The note-taking app allowed free users to save 100,000 notes and 250 notebooks only to do an about-face in 2023 and limit free users to 50 notes and one notebook.
In principle, a free tier serves the same purpose for SaaS (Software as a System) and PaaS (Product as a System) offerings, but the effects differ. For one, cloud computing costs lots of money, so offering an AWS wrapper in a free tier is significantly harder to sustain. The real difference between SaaS and PaaS, however, is clear when the company decides to kill off its free tier.
Let’s take Zoom as a SaaS example: there is a basic tier that gives you up to 40 minutes of free meeting time, and that is plenty for people who simply don’t need much beyond that. If Zoom were to remove its free tier, free users would most likely move to other freemium alternatives like Google Meet rather than upgrade to one of Zoom’s paid tiers. Those customers have invested nothing in Zoom that locks them in, so the cost of switching to another meeting app is only the learning curve of what app they switch to.
This is in contrast to a PaaS; if the free tier is removed, switching providers introduces costs since a part of your architecture lives in the provider’s free tier. Besides the effort needed to migrate to another provider, moving data and servers can be an expensive operation, thanks to data egress fees. Data egress fees are obscure charges that cloud providers make customers pay for moving data from one service to another. They charge you to stop paying!
Thankfully, there is an increased awareness of this issue through the European Union’s Data Act that requires cloud providers located in Europe to remove barriers that prevent customers from easily switching between companies, including the removal of artificial egress fees.
The Ethics Of The Free Tier
Is it the developer’s fault for hosting a project on a free pricing tier, considering that it can be rolled out at any moment? I have two schools of thought on this: principle and consequential.
Principle On the one hand, you shouldn’t have to expect a company to pull the rug out from under you by removing a free tier, especially if the company aims to be a reliable and sustainable platform.
Consequential On the other hand, you don’t expect someone to cut a red light and hit you when you are driving, but you still look at both sides of the street. So it is with using a free tier. Even if it is “immoral” for a company to remove the tier, a developer ought to have a backup plan in the event that it happens, especially as the disappearance of free tiers becomes more prevalent in the industry.
I think it boils down to a matter of transparency. No free tier is advertised as something that may disappear, even if it will in the future. In this case, a free tier is supposed to be another tier with fewer benefits than the paid plan offerings but just as reliable as the most expensive plan, so no user should expect to migrate their projects to other providers any time soon.
What’s The Alternative?
Offering customers a free tier only to remove it once the company gets a “healthy enough” share of the market is just wrong, particularly if it was never attached to an up-front sunset date.
Pretending that the purpose of a free tier is the same as a free trial is unjust since it surely isn’t advertised that way.
If a company wants to give people a taste of how a product or service works, then I think there are far better and more sincere alternatives to the free-tier pricing model:
Free trials (opt-in) Strapi is an open-source CMS and a perfect example of a service offering a free trial. In 2023, the company released a cloud provider to host Strapi CMS with zero configuration. Even though I think Strapi Cloud is on the pricey side, I still appreciate having a 14-day free trial over a free tier that can or maybe will be removed later. The free trial gives users enough time to get a feel for the product, and there’s no credit card required that would lock someone in (because, let’s face it, some companies count on you forgetting to cancel your free subscription before payments kick in).
Free credits I have used Railway to host Node.js + Postgres in the past. I think that its “free tier” is the best example of how to help customers try the service: the cheapest plan is a relatively affordable $5 per month, and a new subscriber is credited with $5 to start the project and evaluate the service, again, without the requirement of handing over credit card information or pulling any rugs out from under people. Want to continue your service after the free credits are exhausted? Buy more credits!
Railway is a particular case because it used to have a free tier, but it was withdrawn on June 2, 2023. However, the company removed it with a level of care and concern for customers that PlanetScale lacked and even gave customers who relied on the free tier a trial account with a number of free credits. It is also important to note (and I can’t get over it) that PlanetScale’s new cheapest plan is $39 per month, while Railway was able to limit the damage to $5 per month.
Free Tiers That I Use
I don’t want this article to be just a listicle of free services but rather the start of a conversation about the “free-tier dilemma”. I also want to share some of the free tiers I use, even for small but production-ready projects.
Supabase
You can make pretty much any imaginable web app using Supabase as the back-end since it brings a PostgreSQL database, authentication, real-time subscriptions, and storage in a central dashboard — complete with a generous allocation of database usage in its free tier.
Railway
I have been using Railway to host Strapi CMS for a long time. Aside from its beautiful UI, Railway includes seamless deployment workflows, automatic scaling, built-in CI/CD pipelines, and integration with popular frameworks and databases thanks to its hundreds of templates. It doesn’t include a free tier per se, but you can get the full feel of Railway with the $5 credit they offer.
GitHub Pages
I use GitHub Pages the way I know many of you do as well: for static pages and technical demos. I have used it before to make live examples for my blog posts. So, it’s more of a playground that I use to make a few artifacts when I need to deploy something fast, but I don’t rely on it for anything that would be of consequence if it were to suddenly go away.
Netlify
Beyond hosting, Netlify offers support for almost all modern frameworks, not to mention that they toss in lots of additional perks, including solid documentation, continuous deployment, templates, an edge network, and analytics — all of which are available in a free tier that pleases almost anyone’s needs.
Conclusion
If it isn’t totally clear where I fall on the free pricing tier situation, I’m not advocating that we end the practice, but for more transparency on the side of the companies that offer free tier plans and increased awareness on the side of developers like myself.
I believe that the only way it makes sense to offer a free tier for a SaaS/PaaS is for the company providing it to view it as part of the core product, one that cannot be sunset without a clear and transparent exit strategy, clearly communicated up-front during any sort of registration process. Have a plan for users to painlessly switch services. Allow the customer to make an informed choice and accept responsibility from there.
Free tiers should attract users rather than trap them, and there is an abysmal difference between replacing a free tier for $5 per month with one that costs nearly $40. Taking away the service is one thing; charging exorbitant rates on top of it only adds insult to injury.
We can do better here, and there are plenty of alternatives to free tiers for effectively marketing a product.
Serverless architecture is a way of building and running applications without the need to manage infrastructure. You write your code, and the cloud provider handles the rest - provisioning, scaling, and maintenance. AWS offers various serverless services, with AWS Lambda being one of the most prominent. When we talk about "serverless," it doesn't mean servers are absent. Instead, the responsibility of server maintenance shifts from the user to the provider. This shift brings forth several benefits:
Cost-efficiency: With serverless, you only pay for what you use. There's no idle capacity because billing is based on the actual amount of resources consumed by an application.
Scalability: Serverless services automatically scale with the application's needs. As the number of requests for an application increases or decreases, the service seamlessly adjusts.
Reduced operational overhead: Developers can focus purely on writing code and pushing updates, rather than worrying about server upkeep.
Faster time to market: Without the need to manage infrastructure, development cycles are shorter, enabling more rapid deployment and iteration.
Importance of Resiliency in Serverless Architecture
As heavenly as serverless sounds, it isn't immune to failures. Resiliency is the ability of a system to handle and recover from faults, and it's vital in a serverless environment for a few reasons:
Embarking on the exciting journey of bringing a product from idea to market requires careful planning and storytelling. Product managers play a crucial role in defining and guiding the success of a product. From the inception of an idea to its market launch, product managers have to navigate through various challenges and make strategic decisions. As a product manager, crafting compelling narratives and strategies is key to success. As the LLM is disrupting the market PMs can use LLMs to build effective strategies at each stage of the product lifecycle to improve their productivity.
This article is all about identifying the life cycle from ideation to market and how we can use prompt engineering to query an LLM model and increase productivity as a product manager.
We live in a rapidly evolving landscape of technological advancements. Today, automated transcription has emerged as a transformative force, revolutionizing how organizations manage audio and video data. Automated Transcription Is a Beacon of Work Efficiency...
The key to thriving in the highly competitive landscape of web development or digital services might lie in a game-changer … reseller hosting! Learn what reseller hosting is, how it works, and why it should be an integral part of your profit-boosting strategy.
If you run your own web development business or digital agency or plan to start one (tip: see our guide on launching a successful web development business), you may want to think about ways to generate recurring revenue from your existing client base.
Reseller hosting can be confusing for some. This guide will help to eliminate any confusion. We’ll cover what reseller hosting is, how it works, and the best, easiest, and fastest way to get started.
If your services involve building websites for clients, a major part of your business will be setting up and configuring web hosting and domains, so … why not have them buy from you?
What is Reseller Hosting?
Setting up and running web hosting and domain registration services is complex and astronomically expensive. In fact, it’s an impractical undertaking, even for large agencies.
Setting up and providing a web hosting service, for example, requires owning and operating the servers and infrastructure required to host websites. It also involves providing storage space, server resources, and network connectivity to ensure websites remain accessible 24/7.
And becoming a domain registrar requires going through accreditation processes and proving your technical readiness to perform all the necessary administration and compliance processes associated with registering domain names and following accurate and secure protocols.
To maximize your profitability and minimize your risks and expenses, the smarter, cheaper, and easier way is to use external hosting providers and domain registrars for their secure infrastructure, maintenance, and administration systems, so you can focus on growing your web development services business.
Reseller hosting (and domain reselling) are unique services that can empower you to offer web hosting solutions (and domain registration/renewals) to your clients and share in the profit.
Instead of managing your own servers, becoming a reseller allows you to purchase server resources in bulk from a hosting provider and then redistribute (i.e. resell) these to your own clients.
This not only allows you to provide a comprehensive solution encompassing website development and hosting services, but it also gives you the opportunity to create recurring income.
As a web developer or digital agency, then, you can earn money from hosting and domain names by referring clients to web hosts and domain name registrars by becoming either an affiliate or a reseller of their services.
Reseller vs Affiliate – Differences Explained
An affiliate is essentially someone who introduces customers to a business via their website, email, banner ad, etc., using a special link encoded with a unique trackable affiliate ID. If a sale occurs, they receive a commission after a certain amount of time has elapsed (to cover money-back guarantee periods, processing of payment accounts, etc.)
A reseller, on the other hand, can integrate the hosting provider’s product or service into their business, add a markup to the customer’s cost of purchasing these products or services, and have more control over areas like pricing and profit margins, product naming, payment terms, etc.,
Also, depending on the type of reseller hosting, you can resell another company’s services under your own brand name and on your own website.
Different Types of Reseller Hosting
Now that you understand the basic difference between earning a sales commission by referring someone to a hosting company (affiliate) and reselling their hosting, let’s take a brief look at the different types of reseller hosting available:
1. Traditional Reseller Hosting
With traditional reseller hosting, you buy a chunk of server space and allocate it to your clients. Even if you sell it under your brand, your clients can generally tell that you are the middle agent in the deal.
2. White Label Reseller Hosting
With white label reseller hosting, you can rebadge and sell the hosting service as your own without revealing the original hosting provider to your clients.
3. Cloud Reseller Hosting
Cloud reseller hosting lets you resell hosting on cloud infrastructure with flexibility and scalability.
4. VPS Reseller Hosting
Virtual Private Server (VPS) reseller hosting lets you provide clients with services with dedicated resources for enhanced performance and control.
5. Shared Reseller Hosting
Resell shared hosting plans with multiple users on the same server.
Note: While this type of reseller hosting allows you to offer cost-effective hosting solutions for small websites, we don’t recommend it, as there are potentially inherent risks that you have no control over.
For example, if another site being hosted on your shared server cause the server to go down, all sites on that server will also be affected.
If you are considering shared reseller hosting for cost reasons, a better option would be to offer your clients inexpensive hosting on WPMU DEV’s Quantum plans, which provide more benefits to small websites, including compartmentalized hosting with their own dedicated IP address.
Now that you understand what reseller hosting is and the different types of reseller hosting available, let’s look at the benefits of becoming a reseller.
Reseller Basics – Benefits of Reselling Web Hosting and Domains
Choosing to resell web hosting and domains rather than starting your own hosting company or setting up a domain registrar business from scratch offers several advantages to web developers and digital service agencies:
Low Startup Costs: Reselling allows you to enter the web hosting and domain market with minimal to no upfront investment. Instead of building and maintaining your own infrastructure, you simply leverage an established hosting and domain provider’s resources and focus on improving your own sales and customer service processes.
Time Efficiency: As discussed earlier, setting up a hosting company or domain registrar from scratch requires significant time and technical expertise. By becoming a reseller, you can bypass the complex setup process and focus entirely on developing your services and growing your business.
Technical Support and Maintenance: When you join a reseller program, you gain access to technical support and maintenance services provided by the hosting provider. This relieves you of the burden of managing web hosting servers, infrastructure, and software updates and having to perform all necessary domain registration admin and compliance tasks, allowing you to focus all of your time, efforts, and resources on servicing your clients.
Established Reputation: If you decide not to whitelabel the services and market these under your own brand, then partnering with a reputable hosting provider means you can leverage their brand reputation and reliability. This can help to instill trust and confidence in your potential customers and help you attract new clients more easily.
How Reseller Hosting Works
A reseller hosting provider acts as the middle agent between companies that own and manage the hosting technology and users looking for reliable hosting for their businesses and websites.
The key role of a hosting reseller is to provide users with access to the following:
Server Management – Interfacing with the hosting providers that own and manage the servers, hardware, and data centers so users don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of server maintenance, security, and uptime.
Technical Support – Providing users with technical support when they encounter problems with their hosting services, ensuring that any server-related issues are resolved quickly.
Scalability – Offering users scalable solutions to easily accommodate their growing needs. This includes helping users upgrade resources like disk space, bandwidth, and RAM as their client base expands.
As a web developer, you can significantly boost your business and revenue by partnering with a reseller hosting provider that allows you to focus exclusively on your core expertise and your clients. This is done by having access to solutions that take care of everything else you need to run your business.
Let’s look at these main solutions:
Server Infrastructure and Resource Allocation
Understanding server infrastructure and resource allocation is vitally important because it affects the performance of the websites you host.
You will want to make sure that the hosting is right for your clients’ requirements and budget and provides access to sufficient server resources like CPU, RAM, and bandwidth to prevent overloading servers and ensure smooth website performance.
Another factor to consider is data center locations, as the physical location and quality of the data centers used by the hosting provider impact website speed and reliability.
White-Labeling and Branding Options
Having access to white-labeling and branding options allows you to create a consistent and professional online presence for your clients.
As a hosting reseller, you will want to rebrand the hosting services under your own company name to maintain a cohesive brand identity.
Another key factor in this area is the ability to create custom hosting plans that align with your brand’s aesthetics and services. This flexibility will enable you to provide a more tailored hosting experience for your clients.
White-labeling and branding options also give you a marketing advantage and a competitive edge by allowing you to present hosting services as your own, enhancing your credibility and trustworthiness with clients.
Billing and Customer Management
Efficient billing and customer management are critical aspects of a web developer’s business, so look for reseller hosting that offers the following:
Billing Automation: Billing automation tools streamline the process of invoicing and payment collection. This reduces your administrative overhead.
Client Onboarding: Look for platforms that allow you to effectively manage client accounts, making it easier to onboard new clients, set up hosting packages, and assign resources.
Monitoring and Reporting: Having access to tools that allow you to monitor server performance and generate reports helps you keep track of your clients’ hosting usage and identify opportunities for improvement.
In summary, understanding your role in providing reliable hosting services to clients as a reseller hosting provider will allow you to focus on your core expertise in web development, build a successful hosting business, and offer comprehensive solutions to your clients.
Reseller Hosting Pricing Models
Understanding different reseller pricing models is the key to effectively pricing your products or services to align with market demands and maximize your profit potential.
Here are the main reseller pricing models and some basic examples of how to calculate your pricing using these models:
Cost-Based Pricing
Calculate all costs including server expenses, support, and overheads. Add a suitable markup for profitability.
Example: Server costs $100/month + Support costs $50/month. Markup of 30%. Total pricing: $100 + $50 + ($150 * 0.3) = $225.
Percentage-Based Pricing
Set prices based on a percentage of the hosting service cost.
Example: For a 25% profit on a $50 hosting plan, reseller price is $50 + ($50 * 0.25) = $62.50.
Tiered Pricing
Create different service tiers with varying features and prices and let your clients choose based on their needs.
Example: Basic tier at $20/month with limited features, Standard tier at $40/month with more features, Premium tier at $60/month with all features.
Competitive Pricing
Analyze market rates and set prices to compete. This may involve offering additional services or lower prices.
Example: Market average for reseller hosting is $30/month. Set pricing at $25/month with additional support to be competitive.
Bundle Pricing
Combine hosting with other services (e.g., domain, security) into a package for a single price.
Example: Basic bundle includes hosting and domain for $50/month. Premium bundle includes hosting, domain, and security for $75/month.
Who Should Consider Reseller Hosting
In addition to the general benefits discussed earlier, reseller hosting provides benefits and opportunities to businesses such as:
Web Developers and Web Designers
Including web hosting as part of your packages lets you expand your service offerings and create a one-stop-shop for your clients.
For example, you can target specific niches or industries and offer clients a comprehensive package that includes website development, hosting, and maintenance, providing expertise and reliability, and ensuring ongoing revenue from hosting fees.
By reselling hosting services to clients as a bundled offering, you can establish a steady stream of passive income to complement project-based earnings.
Agencies and Freelancers
As an agency or freelancer, you can easily scale your hosting infrastructure to accommodate the needs of multiple clients without the hassle of managing physical servers by branding and reselling hosting services as your own, diversify revenue streams by offering hosting alongside design, marketing, or development services, and centralize the management of your client accounts to simplify billing, support, and maintenance.
Also, as a reseller you will be accessing bulk discounts, enabling your business to offer competitive pricing while maintaining healthy profit margins.
Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and Anyone Seeking Income Generation
While leveraging existing skills, resources, and client networks certainly makes it easier to build a profitable reseller hosting business, the opportunity is not confined only to web developers, designers, agencies, or freelancers.
The growing web hosting industry also provides a stable and expanding market for entrepreneurial and business-minded individuals seeking income generation opportunities.
Reseller hosting requires minimal upfront investment and allows you to generate a steady stream of passive income without the need for extensive technical knowledge.
The recommended approach here would be to identify underserved niches or industries and provide specialized hosting services tailored to their needs, such as providing hosting for small firms or local businesses in that niche.
You could even explore strategies like adding an affiliate program and recruiting affiliates to refer clients to your services.
What You Need to Succeed As a Reseller
While you don’t need advanced technical skills to start a web hosting and domain reselling business, having a basic understanding of web hosting, domains, and internet technologies can be beneficial.
If you currently offer (or are planning to start) a web development services business, your business structure should be able to quickly and easily accommodate the provision of these additional services.
A great way to start is to choose a reputable hosting and domain provider offering a great reseller program and a platform that meets your infrastructure, pricing, features, and support needs.
WPMU DEV – The Ideal Reseller Platform or Your Business
Build a profitable reseller hosting business with WPMU DEV’s white label Reseller platform.
Choosing the right hosting and domain provider is crucial for the success of your reselling activities, so it’s important to research your options.
As a leader in the managed WordPress web hosting space, WPMU DEV has developed a solid, well-supported, and fully automated whitelabel reseller platform that provides you with an instant revenue add-on where you can resell hosting and domains under your own brand for maximum profit, with little effort.
Here are some of the great reasons to partner with WPMU DEV to resell web hosting and domains:
1. Our All-In-One WordPress Platform Provides Everything You Need
At WPMU DEV, our focus is to help WordPress web developers grow their business successfully.
We provide a seamlessly integrated end-to-end platform you can use to build, launch, and grow your web development business.
The platform provides everything you need under one roof:
The Hub – manage unlimited sites from one central dashboard and provide your clients access to their accounts with a fully-branded client portal,
Award-winning premium plugins – provide everything your client sites need, from hardening security, improving performance, and performing automatic backups, to marketing, SEO, analytics, and more,
Templates – offer your clients a huge selection of professionally designed and fully optimized time-saving templates that will greatly speed up their site-building process,
Automation – keep all your clients’ sites updated, backed up, and error-free, and send them customized reports…all done automatically for you!
And much more.
Manage every area of your clients’ sites from The Hub in just a few clicks…for unlimited sites!
2. Award-Winning Fully Managed WordPress Web Hosting
If you’re going to resell hosting to your clients, why not give them the very best hosting available?
G2.com, a leading company for trusted real user software reviews, consistently rates WPMU DEV a leader in the web hosting and managed WordPress hosting space.
Every WPMU DEV hosting plan you resell comes with enterprise-grade hosting features already preconfigured and fine tuned for optimum performance and speed, plus options you can turn on or off to create upsell packages.
Resell award-winning hosting from a recognized leader in WordPress managed hosting services.
3. Time-Saving Automation Everywhere
Imagine owning an automated vending machine that never needs restocking of products or servicing. A vending machine that can be fully set up and configured in a few clicks to deliver your clients the highest quality hosting available, fully optimized, fully managed and fully supported for you.
Let’s take this automation up a notch.
Imagine having the option to automatically set up and configure every website hosted on your own fully-branded reseller account for optimal speed, performance, security, SEO, backups, updates, downtime monitoring, emails, client reports, and client billing and invoicing.
You don’t even have to imagine this. It’s already baked into our platform and ready to go.
But WPMU DEV pushes automation even beyond hosting, website, and client billing setup.
With Reseller, you will also soon be able to instantly connect purchased domains with their websites (and have their DNS records be automatically configured without having to lift a finger), and provide your clients (and their clients) with access to white-labeled support.
Yes, with WPMU DEV Reseller, you truly can have a fully digital automated vending machine working 24/7 for you.
WPMU DEV offers resellers time-saving automation features on every level.
4. Highest Profit Margins Anywhere
Have you ever looked into how Costco, the giant wholesale company makes its money? They sell their products to members with very low profit margins and make money from the renewal of yearly membership subscriptions from their loyal customer base.
WPMU DEV operates on a very similar model. We offer our members hosting and domains almost at cost price and we let you set your own pricing on top so you can make the maximum profits as a reseller of our products.
Additionally, we charge resellers zero client billing administration fees, so you keep all of your client’s payments after the payment processor’s charges (e.g. Stripe).
Easily manage your clients and their billing from one place…with 0 admin fees for maximum profit!
5. 24/7 Expert Support That Will Never Let You Down
As mentioned earlier, trusted product review sites like G2.com consistently rate WPMU DEV as a leader in the web hosting and managed WordPress hosting space.
While we are chuffed to be recognized for our hosting and site management tool, the area where we absolutely shine above all other industry competitors is in our commitment to provide every customer with 24/7 expert support that goes above and beyond expectations.
Having support you can rely on is one of the foundational pillars of a great reseller hosting business!
As a WPMU DEV reseller, you’re not only reselling our products but our reputation, so it’s vitally important that we provide you the very best of support and help in all areas of growing your reseller business.
Soon, we’ll be extending our best-in-class support to Reseller clients too! (Coming soon)
The Next Step: Set Up Your Reseller Hosting Business
As stated earlier, the web hosting industry is growing and reseller hosting presents a lucrative opportunity for a wide range of individuals and businesses looking to tap into this ever-expanding industry.
Whether you choose to bundle web hosting with your web development or design services, scale hosting operations for multiple clients, or enter the digital services industry as a side venture, reseller hosting offers a gateway to sustainable income and business growth.
If you need help choosing a hosting company to psrtner with to start your reseller hosting business, check out our comprehensive guide on how to find the best reseller hosting for your WordPress business or digital agency. It covers eight major areas to look for in a reseller hosting company that will guarantee the best fit for your agency’s needs and long-term success as a reseller.
If you are ready to start generating recurring revenue with reseller hosting, WPMU DEV’s Reseller platform provides everything you need to succeed and boost your revenue with the least amount of effort and hassle involved.
Local labor markets go through many changes over time, sparked by population, innovative industries arising, and more. You can make informed career decisions and find employment and business opportunities by analyzing local labor market information....
The Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in a new era of connectivity, transforming the way we live, work, and interact with our surroundings. It encompasses a vast network of devices, ranging from everyday appliances to industrial machinery, all connected and exchanging data. While this interconnectedness brings convenience and efficiency, it also presents a multitude of security challenges. In this article, we will delve into the complexities of IoT security and explore strategies, best practices, and essential tools to safeguard this dynamic ecosystem.
Understanding IoT Security Challenges
Lack of Encryption: One of the primary challenges in IoT security is the lack of robust encryption. Many IoT devices transmit data without adequate encryption, leaving it vulnerable to interception and manipulation. Encryption is a fundamental defense mechanism against unauthorized access and data compromise.
Insufficient Testing and Updating: The rapid proliferation of IoT devices often leads to a rush to market, resulting in inadequate security testing and infrequent updates. This leaves devices and systems exposed to vulnerabilities and exploits.
Default Password Risks: Weak or default passwords on IoT devices make them susceptible to brute-force attacks. Manufacturers must encourage users to set strong, unique passwords to protect against unauthorized access.
IoT Malware and Ransomware: The increasing number of IoT devices has given rise to malware and ransomware attacks. These threats can compromise data privacy, demand ransoms for data recovery, and pose significant challenges for IoT security.
IoT Botnets and Cryptocurrency: IoT botnets have the potential to manipulate data privacy, posing significant risks to the cryptocurrency market and blockchain technologies. Malicious actors can exploit vulnerabilities in IoT devices to create botnets for various purposes.
Inadequate Device Security: Many IoT devices lack proper security features, making them susceptible to hacking, data theft, and unauthorized access. Strengthening device security is paramount to addressing this challenge.
Strategies to Address IoT Security Challenges
Encryption and Strong Authentication: Implement robust encryption methods and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to protect data confidentiality and integrity during transmission and storage.
Regular Testing and Updates: Prioritize thorough security testing and frequent updates for IoT devices. Regular updates are essential to patch vulnerabilities and improve overall resilience.
Password Hygiene: Educate users about the importance of setting strong, unique passwords for IoT devices. Avoid default credentials, which are a common target for brute-force attacks.
IoT Security Best Practices: Promote industry-wide best practices for IoT security, including secure coding, vulnerability management, and adherence to recognized security standards.
Network Security Measures: Deploy robust network security measures, including firewalls and intrusion detection systems, to protect against network-based attacks such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
Standardization Efforts: Advocate for IoT security standards and protocols to ensure consistency and compatibility across devices and systems. Standardization promotes secure development practices.
Privacy by Design: Prioritize privacy by design principles to protect user data. Be transparent about data collection and usage, and respect individuals' rights to control their information.
Firmware and Software Updates: Promptly release security patches and updates for IoT devices to address software vulnerabilities. Keep devices up-to-date to mitigate potential threats.
Employee Training: Educate employees and contractors about IoT security risks and insider threat awareness. Security awareness training is essential to create a security-conscious culture.
Essential IoT Security Tools
Device Management Platforms: Device management platforms like AWS IoT Device Management and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub provide centralized control and security features for IoT devices, including provisioning, authentication, and monitoring.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: SIEM systems such as Splunk and IBM QRadar offer real-time monitoring and analysis of security events in IoT environments, aiding in threat detection and response.
IoT Security Gateways: IoT security gateways, like Cisco IoT Security, act as intermediaries between IoT devices and networks, implementing security policies and inspecting traffic for threats.
Blockchain Technology: Blockchain enhances data security and integrity in IoT by ensuring data immutability. Platforms like IOTA and VeChain provide blockchain solutions tailored for IoT security.
Vulnerability Scanners: Vulnerability scanners like Nessus and Qualys identify and remediate vulnerabilities in IoT devices and networks through penetration testing and assessments.
IoT Security Analytics Tools: Security analytics tools like Darktrace and Vectra AI use machine learning to detect abnormal behavior patterns in IoT networks, aiding in threat identification.
Network Segmentation Solutions: Network segmentation tools, including firewalls like Palo Alto Networks and Cisco ASA, isolate IoT devices from critical networks, limiting potential attack surfaces.
IoT Security Testing Services: Third-party security testing services and tools assess the security of IoT devices and applications through penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.
Conclusion
Securing the IoT is an ongoing endeavor that demands vigilance and collaboration. By implementing robust security strategies, adhering to best practices, and leveraging essential IoT security tools, we can navigate the intricate landscape of IoT security challenges. Software developers, organizations, and users all play pivotal roles in fortifying IoT ecosystems against evolving threats, ensuring a safer and more resilient connected world.
As a designer, you’re no doubt familiar with the concept of the Double Diamond, that super simple graphical representation of the ideal design process.
Typically you’ll see two squares rotated 45 degrees: the first square will say something like “discover” and “define,” while the second one will encourage you to “explore” and “create.” Each diamond will have a heading, such as “problem” and “solution,” or the more punchy “design the right thing” and “design the thing right.” Along the side of each diamond, there will be a label explaining how you must first diverge, i.e., come up with lots of options before you can converge into a single answer.
It’s one of the simplest articulations of the design process out there. It’s also why many designers hate their jobs. Let me explain…
Note: If you’re curious as to who and when nailed down the Double Diamond concept in its present modern form — which we see being referenced practically everywhere nowadays — check the Appendix at the end of the article (“How do We Describe Design Process?”).
Designers Are Problem-Finders And Problem-Solvers
As designers, we like to think of ourselves as problem-finders as well as problem-solvers. Give us a user challenge, and we’ll use our research skills to uncover what’s really going on below the surface! We’ll take this information, reframe the problem, and come up with an even better solution — one that’s never been considered before. That’s what the double diamond is all about. It’s about avoiding the obvious, shallow solutions and instead freeing us up to be truly creative.
“The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
I think the best example of this can be found in the UK TV program Blue Peter, a British children’s television entertainment program created by John Hunter Blair, which is the longest-running children’s TV show in the world.
A few years back, Blue Peter got to interview design legend Jony Ive. They explained to Jony how they’d set a challenge for their young viewers to design a lunchbox, pencil case, and school bag, all in one. He responded by saying that you needed to be really careful not to have the word “box” in the brief because it might determine the path you went down. You could imagine if Jony had set the challenge, he might have asked the kids to “design a means of storing and transporting your lunch to school.” A nice reframing of the problem which didn’t contain the proposed solution!
If you take a close look at the model above, you’ll see that the first part of the reverse double diamond is essentially accepting the status quo, letting your boss tell you to deliver the metaphorical equivalent of a “lunchbox feature,” and creating the best version possible with the time and information available. However, the trick to making the reverse double diamond work is to actively monitor how this new feature performs and — wait for it — make suggestions about how it can be improved post-launch.
Once the lunchbox feature has been delivered and is out in the wild, the stakeholder who sponsored it no longer needs to be protective of it. The problem switches from being a delivery problem (“Can we actually get this thing launched?”) to being a value extraction problem (“How can we make this existing thing work better?”). This is the exact point in time where you put your business hat on, look at the stats, and say something like this, “This feature currently has relatively low utilization of only 5%. However, we believe that with some tweaks, we can get this up to 20%.”
In ye olde days, this used to be called “making a business case,” and it’s frankly much easier to make a business case for something that already exists and you believe can be made better than it is doing research on something that doesn’t yet exist and might be just fine as it is.
In essence, you’re still doing research work, and you’re still going to be exploring a range of potential solutions — you’re just doing this once the feature is already out in the market and you know exactly how it’s performing. Of course, this all depends on a number of things, including how well or poorly the feature performs, how good your design and product leaders are at making a business case, and how much work the design team has on. Unless you’re able to make a solid release plan, it’s likely that the second half of the reverse double diamond will actually be uncoupled from the first.
For companies that have featured teams and growth teams, it’s even possible that your feature teams will deliver the first half of the reverse double diamond before handing it over to the growth team to do the second half. As a result, this process is less than ideal. However, it’s much more pragmatic and goes fine “with the grain” of most organizations.
Iterating Towards The Traditional Double Diamond
Earlier, I hinted that this process might, over time, allow you to get to the “design nirvana” represented by the traditional double diamond. The logic here is that by constantly improving products post-launch, the organization learns to trust the design team’s ability and, more importantly, their vision.
As you garner more trust and evidence, over time, you can start making the case that it would be quicker and more cost-effective if you spent a few weeks upfront trying to avoid the mistakes, which can often take months or even years to address. Mistakes that will also often result in some lost revenue. In fact, this is effectively the same argument many designers make for adopting the traditional double diamond workflow in the first place — you’re just doing so by using evidence rather than belief and theory.
Conclusion
The Double Diamond concept is great, but it’s just not the way most organizations function. If, as a designer, you set your expectations around this theoretical model, you’re going to be continually disappointed! However, designers are meant to be great at understanding how things actually work rather than how we think they should work.
If we want to initiate change, we need to ask for more accurate models of how design actually works inside our organizations and target the areas where we have the most leverage. I believe this means adopting some variant of the “reverse double diamond” idea, accepting that we’re going to be told to deliver “lunch box features” 90% of the time, and shifting our attention away from pre-launch solutions to post-launch solutions.
We can design and then release a good first version of a product out into the world as quickly as possible and then use our business and communication skills to petition for and make measurable improvements to it. And if we can do this consistently, there’s a slim — but tangible! — chance that we can switch the “double diamond” back around.
Further Reading
“Should You Create An MVP Before Creating An App?,” by Suzanne Scacca (Smashing Magazine) Apps are neither small undertaking nor cheap to build and maintain. So, before you move ahead with creating a new mobile app or SaaS for your client, perhaps you should consider launching a minimum viable product (MVP) instead. With an MVP, you have a low-risk and lower-cost way of testing your concept on the market. What’s not to love about that?
“Getting Back Into The (Right) Deliverables Business,” by Rian van der Merwe (Smashing Magazine) “Get out of the deliverables business” has become quite a mantra in the lean startup and UX movements. There’s much to love in that sentiment. After all, for every wireframe you make, you’re not shipping code to customers. But just like with the concept of a minimum viable product (MVP), it’s likely that we’ve taken this sound advice to an extreme which actually is hurtful to the creation of good products. What follows is the author’s account of navigating these stormy design seas together with the community.
“Design Thinking & Minimum Viable Product: Is This the Right Approach?,” by Masha Panchenko (Eleken Blog) Design thinking has become a highly popular approach during the last forty years. It is used in IT, business, education, design — literally everywhere. There is even a book about applying design thinking for personal use called Designing Your Life. We don’t know if design thinking will help to change your life for the better, but what we know is that design thinking is a great approach when it comes to building a Minimum Viable Product.
Designing Your Life, a book by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans A book that shows you how to build — to design — a life you can thrive in at any age or stage. Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Everything in our lives was designed by someone, and every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, the authors show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. (Editor’s Note: This book was, in fact, also recommended to me by Joshua Mauldin a while ago, and I cannot but highly recommend it to everyone! It’s a fantastic, very useful read. — M.B.)
“Using the Problem Reframing Method,” by Sebastian Straube (product management & discovery coach at Accenture Business Agility) Avoid jumping directly into solution thinking and not empathizing with the problem itself; looking at a problem from different angles helps to build more innovative, sustainable solutions, and you need to try different reframing practices and methods as there is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
“Is UX Research About ‘De-risking’ Design?,” by Jonathan Baker-Bates (UX architect at LBi, VP of UX at TES Global) Is UX research centered on helping designers predict eventual outcomes of design interventions, or is its role to “de-risk” UX and business ideas? Research is often framed as a way of lowering the risk to the business (this applies both to design validation as well as to exploratory research), but research should be checking whether what we said about a given intervention actually tends to happen.
“Modern Double Diamond design: Rethinking a classic design process,” by Victory Brown To accomplish your tasks, you’ll need to set up a process that will allow you to complete them quickly and also give the best results. Sometimes the design process can be a jungle of trends and patterns; it involves a lot of back and forth to produce the best design solutions. No design is the final design, and every procedure can be iterated on. This is why the Design Council came together in 2005 to develop a new approach to designing solutions with creative thinking, systems design, and design management in mind: the Double Diamond design process.
“History of the Double Diamond” This article describes the history behind the Double Diamond concept, created by the Design Council (established in 1944 by Winston Churchill’s wartime government). Over the course of several sessions, the group came up with a simplified way to describe any design and innovation process. It is based on four distinct phases that the design team, deliberately seeking a memorable device, named Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.
Appendix: “How Do We Describe The Design Process?”
A short bit of history. In 2003, the Design Council promoted the positive impact of adopting a strategic approach to design and the value of “design management” as a practice. However, they had no standard way of describing the supporting process. Richard Eisermann, Design Council’s then Director of Design and Innovation, thought this was incompatible with their broader message, so he asked his team, “How do we describe the design process?”
“The team put in the work trying to define design, process, methods, etc. What we did with the Double Diamond was codify it, rename the steps, and popularize it. It was important work, but we were certainly standing on the shoulders of giants.”
— Richard Eisermann
Of course, kite-shaped (diamond-shaped) process models have been referenced as far back as the 1960s, but models of the design process were not widely shared at this point. Part of the Design Council’s reason for creating the Double Diamond concept was to address this lack of visibility. Today the Double Diamond is considered a universally accessible description of the design process, has become an accepted part of design language, and is used and referenced worldwide.
Are you looking for an honest web hosting comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy?
These are two of the most popular affordable hosting companies on the market. However, for beginners, it’s often not clear which one is better for their website.
In this guide, we will compare Bluehost vs GoDaddy with their pros and cons so that you can make the right decision.
Both are very popular. GoDaddy has a large market share and hosts over 40 million websites, while Bluehost is an official WordPress.org recommended hosting provider.
In this comparison, we will take a closer look into the pros and cons of Bluehost vs GoDaddy in detail. However, if you don’t want to go through the full comparison, here is a quick summary:
That being said, let’s compare each one of them and see how they stack up.
Bluehost Comparison
Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress host. They offer WordPress-optimized hosting plans with faster servers and reliable performance.
Their shared hosting prices are lower priced when compared to other hosting companies. This makes them a good choice for beginners and small businesses on a limited budget.
Pros of Bluehost
Bluehost offers great value at a low cost, but what are some of their pros and cons? Let’s start with some of the benefits of using Bluehost as your hosting service:
Lower Costs – Bluehost’s entry-level plan allows you to get started with your website for a lower price, which is great value for new small businesses, bloggers, portfolios, and other types of websites.
Ease of Use – Bluehost has one of the most beginner-friendly hosting control panels that makes it super easy to install WordPress (one click) and manage your website.
Free Domain – They offer a free domain name, which saves you additional money on your start-up costs.
Free CDN + Free SSL – Bluehost offers a free CDN to speed up your website, and all plans come with a free SSL certificate to improve website security.
Website Speed – In our tests, we found that Bluehost performs well, with no performance optimization done on our test sites. You can also add WordPress caching plugins to unlock further speed improvements.
Staging Sites + Dev Tools – Bluehost plans come with staging site setup, automatic WordPress updates, the ability to change PHP versions, SFTP access, and more.
Cons of Bluehost
Obviously, there are some downsides to using Bluehost as well. Here are some of the disadvantages that you may want to know:
Higher Domain Renewal Price – Their free domain renewal price is higher than average. This does not have an immediate impact on most businesses, but it is something you may need to keep in mind.
Upselling Addons – You will see a lot of upselling during signup. Most beginners usually don’t need these products right away, so you can skip them.
Bluehost Review
Bluehost has a 5-star rating on WPBeginner based on over 300 user reviews and the high value they offer at low prices. We also ran our own performance and stress tests on their servers, which you can read all about in our detailed Bluehost review.
The best thing about Bluehost is that you get a free domain with all plans, unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage on their Plus plan, and great overall value for what you pay.
Plus, their eCommerce hosting plan for WooCommerce comes with over $1000+ in premium WooCommerce and WordPress extensions, which is a huge cost saving for online store owners.
GoDaddy Comparison
GoDaddy is a famous web hosting company and the world’s biggest domain registrar. They offer a huge variety of hosting plans for individuals and businesses of every size.
GoDaddy has a large market share in the website hosting space, and many popular websites use them. However, they are not always the best option when you are building a website, creating a blog, or starting a new business.
Pros of GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a popular low-cost hosting provider, but what are some of their pros and cons? Let’s start with some of the benefits of using GoDaddy as your hosting service:
WordPress-Optimized Hosting – GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting plans are run on servers optimized for WordPress for faster and more secure hosting.
Managed Hosting – GoDaddy handles some basic administrative tasks for you, such as installing WordPress, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching. Bluehost shared hosting plans also include some of these tasks.
Free Domain – They offer a free domain name, which helps you save money on your start-up costs.
Free CDN + Free SSL – GoDaddy plans come with the Cloudflare CDN to speed up your website, and all plans come with a free SSL certificate to improve website security.
Affordable – GoDaddy has very reasonable prices for all the features they offer.
24/7 Support – No matter when you need help, GoDaddy support is available any time of day or night.
Monthly Billing Option – For those who prefer to pay month to month, there is a monthly billing option. However, you get a bigger discount if you pay for at least a year in advance.
Cons of Bluehost
Are there any downsides to using GoDaddy? Here are some of the disadvantages that you may want to know:
Addons – GoDaddy offers a huge variety of services. During the checkout process, many of these tools and features will be offered to you as addons. These are completely optional, but some users may find all the upsell offers to be too aggressive.
Controversial Ads – GoDaddy has come under fire several times over the years due to its controversial advertising. While this does not affect their hosting services, some users have moved away from GoDaddy in protest against their ads.
No Email Support – While still offering 24/7 support by live chat and phone, GoDaddy has discontinued email support.
GoDaddy Review
GoDaddy has a 5-star rating on WPBeginner, but this is based on 16 reviews compared to over 300 for Bluehost. You will find detailed information about their hosting in our GoDaddy review.
Like Bluehost, GoDaddy’s plans offer excellent value. You get one year of free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth with all plans. Plus, their hosting plans are managed, saving you some ongoing maintenance work.
However, GoDaddy’s overall onboarding experience is not as beginner friendly. And while they offer 24/7 support via live chat and phone, they no longer offer email support.
Bluehost vs GoDaddy – Which Is Better?
Now that we have compared different features of Bluehost vs GoDaddy, you may still be wondering which one of these hosting providers is better.
If you are looking for the most affordable hosting, then the best choice is Bluehost. They offer better pricing for small businesses. They also have better support, and their My Sites dashboard and overall onboarding experience is a lot more beginner-friendly.
But maybe you would prefer the convenience of managed hosting, where the routine maintenance work such as updates, backups, and more is done for you.
In that case, GoDaddy offers basic managed hosting plans at a very affordable rate. In fact, they are much cheaper than Bluehost’s managed hosting. However, GoDaddy’s managed hosting plans offer fewer features when compared with the best managed hosting providers.
Although it will cost you more, we recommend WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. They are the best for scaling your website, and they can even offer custom cloud hosting using Amazon’s infrastructure and more.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Bluehost vs GoDaddy
Having helped thousands of users choose the best web host for their needs, we have answered quite a few questions. Here are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Bluehost vs GoDaddy.
Which is better for beginners, Bluehost or GoDaddy?
Bluehost is the most beginner-friendly WordPress hosting company on the market. They automatically install WordPress for you when you sign up. They also have an easy-to-use control panel that allows you to manage your hosting account by yourself.
There is plenty of help available with detailed guides, video tutorials, and articles. You also have 24/7 access to their expert support via live chat and phone.
GoDaddy is also a good option for beginners, but their hosting can be more complex to use.
Does Bluehost or GoDaddy have the greater market share?
Over 4 million websites are hosted on Bluehost. Out of the top 1 million websites based on traffic, just 0.37% use Bluehost.
GoDaddy has a much bigger market share, hosting over 40 million websites. And when we look at the top 1 million websites based on traffic, 2.06% host their sites with GoDaddy.
Where are Bluehost and GoDaddy servers located?
Bluehost operates their own in-house data center located in Utah, US. It is a massive 50,000 square feet facility that serves as its primary data center.
GoDaddy has nine server facilities around the world, located in North America, Europe, and Asia. These facilities house over 37,000 servers in total.
Can I use subdomains for my site?
Yes, you can use subdomains on either Bluehost or GoDaddy.
Are there other hosting providers that you haven’t covered in this comparison?
We only compared Bluehost vs GoDaddy in this article because they are the most popular affordable WordPress hosting companies.
Do you have any special discounts for Bluehost or GoDaddy?
Yes, because WPBeginner is the largest WordPress resource site, our users can get special discounts on popular hosting providers as well as other WordPress plugins. You can see all 100+ WordPress deals here.
You can use our Bluehost coupon to get over 60% off + a free domain.
Do you want to create WooCommerce product galleries to add to blog posts or pages?
WooCommerce product galleries are an easy way to display your products outside your shop pages. It helps attract more customers and boosts conversions.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create a WooCommerce product image gallery (step by step).
Why Should You Create WooCommerce Product Galleries?
Most WordPress themes for WooCommerce come with default templates for shop and shop category pages. These pages simply list your products using the theme’s style.
What if you wanted to create a product gallery and display it inside a blog post or another page on your site? By displaying your products in your popular blog posts and pages, you can increase your sales and conversions.
Let’s take a look at how to easily create WooCommerce product image galleries with Envira Gallery.
Creating WooCommerce Product Galleries with Envira
The best way to create a WooCommerce product gallery in WordPress is by using Envira Gallery. It is the best WordPress photo gallery plugin and makes it very easy to show products anywhere on your site.
The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the Envira Gallery plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to go to the Envira Gallery » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the Envira Gallery website.
Once the license key is verified, you can go to Envira Gallery » Addons to install and activate the ‘Featured Content’ addon.
This addon will allow you to display your WooCommerce products in the Envira galleries. Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button under the Featured Content Addon.
Next, you need to go to the Envira Gallery » Add New page to create your new product gallery.
From here, you can start by adding a title for the new gallery.
After the title, you need to switch to the ‘External Gallery’ tab and click the ‘Featured Content’ option.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Images’ tab. In the ‘Select Your Post Type(s)’ field, you need to select the ‘Product’ option, which is the custom post type for WooCommerce products.
If you have hundreds of products, then you may want to create multiple galleries.
You can narrow down the gallery listings by selecting taxonomy terms for specific product tags or categories.
Simply repeat this process with different product tags and categories each time you create a new product gallery. The post type will always be ‘Product’ in all your WooCommerce product galleries.
You can also choose a taxonomy term relation to select and display specific products in your galleries.
Once you are done, you can publish your product gallery which will make it available to be added anywhere on your WordPress site.
Adding WooCommerce Product Gallery in WordPress
Next, you can add a new post or page or edit an existing one to display your WooCommerce product gallery.
Once you’re in the content editor, simply click the ‘+’ button and add the Envira Gallery block.
After that, you can select your product image gallery in the Envira Gallery block.
Simply click the dropdown menu and choose the gallery you created earlier.
You’ll now see a preview of your gallery in the block editor. If it doesn’t load, then don’t worry, you can simply preview your blog post or page to see if it’s working properly.
Next, you can save and publish your post. After that, visit your website to see the product gallery in action.
So, you’ve created a thing. That thing could be anything, say a product the world never knew it needed or maybe a stellar SaaS app that makes everyone way more productive. You had a brilliant idea and took the initiative to make it happen. It’s time to put it on the market!
But wait… how much money are you going to charge for this thing? That’s often a way more difficult question to answer than it might seem. I mean, slap a price on the tin, and that’s it, right?
The truth is that pricing a product or service is one of the more challenging aspects of product development. Pricing is an inexact science, and chances are you will not get it right the first time. But where do you even begin?
That’s where the team at Information Architects — commonly known as iA — found itself when tasked with pricing a new product called iA Presenter. iA already had a hit product on its hands, the popular iA Writer app, with its claim to fame being a minimal, distraction-free writing interface. iA Writer is already a mature offering, having been available for many years and having undergone several significant iterations since its initial release. How does a new offering like iA Presenter fit into the picture?
Let’s use iA Presenter to study the considerations that go into product pricing. Its status as a brand-new product that sits alongside an existing product with an established history makes iA Presenter an interesting case study on pricing. Plus, the iA team was generous enough to share a bunch of the research and work that went into their pricing for iA Presenter.
Finding Pricing Parallels
The first step to pricing might be looking at what others are doing. Chances are that you are not the only player in the market, and you can certainly learn by observing what others are doing. I know that’s what I did when getting into the pricing of a SaaS-based app. There were plenty of competitors in that particular market, and mapping them out in a spreadsheet was a nice way to compare the similarities and differences — not only in the prices themselves but the pricing models as well. Some were one-time purchases, but many were recurring subscriptions. Some offered free trials, while others relied on a generous return policy. Some required a credit card upfront, and others allowed you to jump right into the app. You get the idea. There’s more to pricing than meets the eye.
The key is to find parallels between what others are doing and what aligns with what you’re doing. If everyone else is selling subscriptions, then maybe that’s clear enough for you to do the same. Or perhaps it’s more of an opportunity to differentiate your product, offering a pricing model that might appeal to an overlooked segment of the market.
The purpose of finding parallels is to prevent sticker shock by setting a price that is far outlier from what the rest of the market has already set.
“As you can see, the pricing ranges from $5 to $25 per user. There are outliers on the upper scale. Some of them offer a free model for individuals or low-usage cases. As you already know, they can do that because they have venture capital or run on an ad-based model (Google). Google and PowerPoint come as part of a suite.” —iA, “Presenter Pricing (I)”
Ah! There’s always a story lurking in the details. Outliers can exist, and they might actually be on the low end of the spectrum. Competing on price alone always feels like a risky call; just ask any company that’s had to play along with Walmart’s aggressive tactics to be a low-price leader.
Identifying Opportunities
Perhaps the most important lesson from my own pricing research is that finding parallels in the market will also provide a clearer picture of what value your product provides. Does your product do something that the others don’t? Is it so much easier to use than the rest that the user experience is where the value comes from?
Add those things to the spreadsheet! The spreadsheet becomes more of a matrix than a competitor list. You can use it to surface what’s unique about your product and lean into it when determining the overall value your product offers compared to everyone else.
Again, the iA team throws a bit of a curveball based on its recent experience:
“Whether a price is low, high, or right depends on what [customers] compare it to. Customers will compare apples and oranges”. —iA, “Presenter Pricing (I)”
Did you catch that last point? You may need to find pricing parallels with products that are tangentially related to your market because you can’t control what you might be compared to. My own pricing journey was on a hosted calendar, and while it has way less in common with something like Google Calendar, customers would inevitably compare our offering to it because Google Calendar is such a common point of reference when talking about anything related to online calendars.
Starting The Conversation
The topic of pricing usually comes up during product development but could certainly come much sooner. The closer the finish line for development gets, the more the reality sets in that there’s work to do to get the product to market, and pricing is one step that simply cannot be skipped — how else will customer compensate you for the pleasure of getting their hands on a product?
You could start spewing numbers until one resonates with you, but that’s rather subjective. Will your customers see the same value in the product that you do? It’s worth checking, and sometimes it works to directly ask your customers — whether it’s existing customers or a target audience you’ve identified.
That’s what iA did when they published the question “How Much Would You Charge for iA Presenter?” in the aforementioned blog post from November 2022. The post provides oodles of context for readers to get an idea of what the iA team was already considering and what they’ve learned from an initial round of research on different pricing models.
What I like about this approach is the transparency, sure, but also how it leads to two other things:
Setting expectations iA had already introduced iA Presenter in another post that precedes the call for pricing opinions. But in bringing pricing to the forefront, the team is giving existing and potential customers a heads-up of what’s to come. So, even if they settled on a high price point that is an outlier in the market, at least everyone is already familiar with the thinking behind it.
Data Posing the question means they had opened the door for customers to weigh in. That’s the sort of feedback that can be designed as a survey, with the data helping inform pricing experiments and identify insightful patterns.
Parsing Information
Have you ever had to design a survey? Good gosh, that can be a frustrating experience. The challenge is to get useful feedback that leads to insights that allow you to make better decisions. But the process is all too easy to mess up, from choosing the wrong type of form input for a particular question or, worse, injecting your own biases into how things are worded. Surveys can be as much a balancing act as product pricing!
That’s why I find iA’s approach so interesting. They had the idea to ship not one version of the survey but three. This is what they shared with us:
“We divided our newsletter’s subscribers into different groups of roughly 5000 people each and sent them different versions of the form. The first group received the Version 0 of the form, and each time we updated this one, we sent it to a different group.
In retrospect, it’s clear why, but we didn’t expect the form design to affect the price suggestions so much. A lot has been written about A/B testing, form design, and questionnaire design. But here we were right in the middle of a form/questionnaire experiment and saw how directly the design affected the results. It was amazing to see all of this happening in real-time.”
It was a genius move, even if it wasn’t obvious at first. Sending three versions sent to different segments of the audience does a few things:
It considers different scenarios. Rather than asking its audience what pricing model they prefer, iA assumed a pricing model and put it in front of users. This way, they get a reaction to the various pricing scenarios they are considering and gain a response that is just as useful as directly asking.
It challenges assumptions. The iA team put a lot of legwork into researching pricing models and evaluating their pros and cons. That certainly helped the team form some opinions about which strategies might be the most effective to implement. But even all the research digging in the world doesn’t guarantee a particular outcome. Evaluating responses from a clearly defined target audience using three versions of the form allowed iA to put its assumptions to the test. Is a subscription-based model really the best way to go? Now they know!
It reveals customer biases. Anything you ask will have a degree of bias in it, so why not embrace that fact and let the customers show you their biases in the process? One version of the iA Presenter survey was based on a subscription pricing model, and the team found that some users hate subscriptions so much that they refused to fill out this form and were quite vocal about it.
I love the way iA sums up the patterns they found in the survey results and how those results were influenced by differentiating the surveys:
“We offered a form that required you to fill out monthly and yearly subscriptions plus ownership. […] We offered a second version that didn’t require you to fill out all fields. What happened there raised brows. The price suggestions changed. They got lower. We continued changing the form, and every time, the result changed.”
And with that, iA had unlocked what they needed to determine a price for iA Presenter. From a follow-up blog post that reports their findings:
“All data combined, you decided that iA Presenter should charge the industry standard of 5.- for a single license. Multiplying 5.- times twelve for a year and times three to make it worthwhile would make iA Presenter make a 150.- app.” —iA, “Presenter Pricing (II)”
Aligning Data With Strategy
Great! iA was able to determine a specific price point with some level of scientific certainty. It would be easy enough to slap that on a price tag and start selling, but that doesn’t do justice to the full picture the data provides. Specifically, iA learned that the price point they determined would not align with all of the audience segments they surveyed.
Here’s more of what they were willing to share with us about their audience’s feelings on pricing:
The collective audience suggested charging the industry standard of $5 for a single license.
Some think that the $50 price for the existing iA Writer app is high. $100 is not that much in Switzerland, but in some countries, $100 can be a big chunk of a monthly salary. That means local pricing adjustments ought to be considered.
Suggestions for business subscriptions varied between $10 and $20 per month per license.
Students want a free tier of access.
iA is lucky enough to have an internal source of useful data, thanks to the long sales history it has with iA Writer. They found that new customers tend to prefer a subscription model, while existing (or “convinced”) customers show a preference for a single purchase.
So, it’s more like they were looking at different pricing tiers instead of a flat rate. Their audience is all over the map as far as what their pricing expectations are, and a pricing model that offers choices based on the type of customer you are (e.g., business vs. student) and where people are geographically is likely to cast a wider net to attract more customers than they would get from a single price point. So, even if verified students are able to get the product for free, that should be offset by the price points for single-license customers and businesses.
Wrapping Up
What we’ve looked at are several important considerations that go into product pricing. The work it takes to determine a price goes way past subjective guesses. Pricing is one of the “Four Ps of Marketing” that influence a product’s market position and how customers perceive it.
Setting a price is a statement of the product’s quality and the value it adds to the market.
That’s the sort of thing you can’t leave to chance.
That said, it’s clear that determining a product price is far from an exact science. The challenge is to elicit the right information that leads to insights that are more reflective of and aligned with the expectations of the target audience. Will they pay the price you want?
There are many other considerations that go into pricing, to be sure. You might discover that the price the market is willing to pay is unsustainable and does not cover enough of the costs that went into product development or the ongoing costs of maintenance, developing new features, marketing, support, salaries, and so on. You don’t want to enter yourself in a race to the bottom, after all.
iA Presenter makes for a great case study on product pricing. The fact that it’s the type of software that those of us in the web design and development community often work on makes it an extremely relevant example. Plus, iA put so much effort into research and was generous enough to share it with us that it provides a nice recent snapshot of a real-world situation.
And, hey, now that you know everything that went into setting prices for iA Presenter, you should check it out. Do you think they made the right choice? Will the multi-tier pricing strategy work next to market competitors who are more mature and are able to practically give away their stuff for free, like Google Slides? We’ll find out soon as iA Presenter is officially out of beta and has been released to the public on June 1st. You can follow along with their ongoing journey of shipping a new product on their blog or by signing up for their newsletter.
In a world of fast-paced action and reactions, quality results are something that we all aim for. But how can you make something better? Whether it is a product, a service, or perhaps a process, we aim to make things better. It leaves us to wonder how we are going to design a world that is long and equitable to attain a degree of excellence.
When we are talking about making “things better,” we cannot deny the role of the Kanban system in implementing TQM (Total Quality Management) for Toyota. If TQM did that for manufacturing, design thinking has the potential to bring human-centric solutions for innovations.
Design thinking takes the human-centric approach in order to understand how to deal with the problem before we jump into all possible solutions. We could see its use in various places. The buzz is everywhere, from the social sector to policy making, health care to business. So what is design thinking?
The Meaning Of Design Thinking
Design thinking fosters tackling complex problems in a creative way that prioritizes human needs with a huge emphasis on finding creative solutions with what is technically feasible.
Though it’d be hard to put the definition of “design thinking” in a few words, I’d rather look at design thinking as a philosophy or a mindset to solve complex problems that are too tough to be solved with the conventional and standard practices of problem-solving. Design thinking takes the route to give solutions that are: feasible, viable, and desirable.
Generally, solutions to problems are sometimes overlooked with the conventional approach to solving them, while some approaches are highly rational and analytical while others are emotional. Design thinking might just be the third way that augments the rational, emotional, and functional needs of human problems. Design thinking is not restricted to only building products; any new initiatives that foster innovations can leverage the design thinking principles of problem-solving.
The Origin
While there are no solid indications of the origin of design thinking, design thinking as a mindset could be traced back to John E. Arnold, a professor of Mechanical engineering who pioneered the study of “Creative Engineering” at Stanford University. He was one of the first few people to write about design thinking and considered the seed for design thinking as a movement. His lectures motivate being more imaginative and innovative. His theory of problem-solving focuses on human needs by relating personal, scientific, and practical aspects of the problem.
He emphasizes the importance of approaching the problem like an artist and having humans as the cornerstone for the solutions you want to build. “Creative problems” do not have one right answer.
“The engineer can take on some aspects of the artist and try to improve or increase the salability of a product or machine by beautifying or bettering its appearance, or by having a keener sensitivity for the market and for the kinds of things people want or don’t want.”
— John E. Arnold
The Design Thinking Process
In an effort to contextualize and apply design thinking, it is often identified with a process that guides the values to hold sway on how you approach the problem. This process may not necessarily be linear or sequential but rather a loop that makes sense for the particular problem or use-case one undertakes.
Empathize
Designing for humans could be tricky. Sometimes the needs or desires are left uncovered and may not be fully reflective of the real problem. While traditional market research processes go by facts, design thinking approaches to address the problem through empathy. Empathy attempts to understand latent needs and translate the current realities of the environment. This helps solution designers understand the people, their behavior, and the context that can explain the problem to build better solutions.
So, the first step to getting inspired by the problem is to understand the people you design for and what motivates them to search for a solution. This is especially very useful for businesses to understand the opportunity space available. Just the way Apple did. While MP3 players were already a thing, iPods changed the way people consumed music. When Sony ruled the consumer electronics market with their Walkman and CDs, Apple revolutionized the world of music with IPods. Apple empathized with people’s problem of carrying around cassette tapes, and iPods changed the game!
In order to identify and understand the pulse of the problem and to contextualize this step, gathering information is key. This is where you talk to people in the problem space to understand what they care about and how they currently deal with the problem. User interviews and their feedback help you get into their shoes.
Define
This is one of the most important steps where the problem gets shaped.
In design thinking, ill-conceived problem statements pave the way to building solutions to “a problem,” not “the problem.”
Let me explain.
For example, you talk to someone about a problem. You record the observation and pitch in a plausible solution to that problem. The user gets excited that your solution might solve that problem. But what really happens here is that you and the person have been discussing just one of the problems among their many other problems. Therefore, their decision to adopt your solution depends on the importance the person gives to the problem that you promise to solve.
Here is where defining the pulse of the problem becomes very crucial. Often, in hindsight, the spotlight falls on the problem you are trying to solve rather than the many other problems the person might actually have.
Hence defining the problem goes a long way to give you leads on how to go about building human-centric solutions.
Ideate
This is the phase where your observations find a home to be synthesized to create an opportunity for change. You brainstorm to define and redefine the potential solution to create competing ideas to solve the problem. This step ideally helps you to get to the core of the problem.
As said earlier, this is not going to be a linear process, and you might often find yourself going back to previous steps as you work together to challenge the idea or perhaps the problem itself. Thereby you cull out good ideas to implement.
Prototype
The next phase is the prototype, where you validate your ideas by creating a mockup of your final solution. Your solution takes a tangible form to show evidence in this implementation phase of the prototype. It also shows you the limits and limitations of your idea that are left unaccounted for during the ideation phase.
One of the classic companies which nailed building a great prototype is Uber. Uber focused on solving the core problem of “finding taxis ” in its initial release. The first beta version of the product was a very minimalist app where all the orders were managed manually, where the CEO contacted drivers to book the ride. And it did not have features to pay. The goal was to test and validate the problem of hailing a cab, which is the core benefit of the app. Eventually, when they understood the target market and pain point, they rolled out to improve other features.
Test
The final prototype is then tested with your target group and is reiterated to accommodate the learning that comes your way. The validation takes the final form here and may again require you to revisit some of the previous steps to implement the plan at scale.
Design Thinking In Action: Case Studies
Design Thinking In Social Sector
Malaria, one of the nerving problems in Africa, was one of the top 5 causes of death for children under the age of five. This is a social problem highly complex in nature, and the design thinking approach to distributing mosquito nets helped to combat the disease effectively. The World Health Organization reported a 50%-60% decline in death in countries like Ethiopia and Rwanda and a 34% decline in Ghana.
It was found that the design of nets was unappealing to some people in Ghana. A group of researchers identified a potential solution to address the problem of getting people to use the net. They came up with a human-centered design of nets that paved the way to provide a long-lasting solution to this social problem.
Airbnb
Design thinking has also played a huge role in transforming an almost failing company- Airbnb. Their business was crippling down, and when they got into the problem, they saw a pattern in their ads with the pictures which weren’t working great. The pictures on display were taken on low-quality phones. When looking at the photos on the site, the people who wanted to rent felt that they did not get to see what they were actually paying for. As soon as the founders realized this, they rented a camera to take good pictures of the customer’s property. Gebbia, one of the founders, went on to explain how the design school experience helped them reinvent themselves to serve customers better.
Netflix
Another household name, Netflix, has come a long way, and design thinking has had a huge part in the decisions that they make. Netflix came up with a DVD rental service delivered straight to the doorstep while other rivals had people drive through the stores to pick movies.
Later when cable started to give on-demand movies, Netflix understood the pain points of the customers and began online streaming services on a monthly basis without having to pay for every single DVD. They built an online directory with a subscription model and delighted customers with the convenience of watching their favorite movies from the comforts of the home.
When picking something to watch took a long time than actually watching, Netflix came up with “previews” that helped people to choose what to watch. As simple as it may sound, the thought behind Netflix’s recommendation system helps to cut down the time people spend deciding what to watch. While change is inevitable, Netflix keeps reinventing itself with a design-thinking approach to uncover innovative solutions focused on the end user in mind.
From renting DVDs to online streaming, Netflix has continuously aimed to understand the end user to design solutions in a human-centric way.
And not just this. The list goes on and on.
Final Thoughts
Design thinking has been evolving itself. People have been contributing to making it more useful to contextualize its use in various fields. Applying the design thinking framework and getting into creating a human-centric solution comes with different shapes, depending on the size and complexity of the problem.
Given its flexibility, design thinking helps you get familiar and comfortable with ambiguity. The approach lets you play around dynamically at various scales, making it a valuable pursuit.
Try it by starting with any problem you want to solve, and let me know how it worked for you in the comments below. I’d love to hear and help if you wish.
Are you looking for the best WordPress themes for your recipe blog?
A food recipe blog should display tempting photos with complete recipes. It also needs to look attractive. Traditional WordPress blog themes may not make your recipes stand out.
In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress themes for recipe blogs that you can use right away.
Making a Recipe Blog With WordPress
WordPress is the best website builder on the market. It is perfect for sharing recipes and creating engaging, food-related websites.
There are two different types of WordPress. These are WordPress.com, which is a hosted platform, and WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress.
We recommend using Bluehost for your hosting and domain name. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended hosting provider.
For WPBeginner users, Bluehost offers a free domain, a free SSL certificate, and a BIG discount on web hosting. It’s a deal that you won’t get elsewhere.
Astra is a great theme for building a recipe, food, or restaurant blog. It comes with dozens of templates you can use, including the food and drinks blog template.
You can easily add your images, use any Google fonts, and pick from unlimited colors in the live theme customizer. There are lots of other customization options too.
The Astra theme is suitable for absolute beginners, but it also offers lots of power and flexibility. Astra has built-in speed and performance optimization.
You can easily add extra elements to your site, such as a contact form. You could even sell or give away a downloadable cookbook using Astra’s Easy Digital Downloads addon.
SeedProd is the best WordPress website and theme builder. It lets you make your recipe blog from scratch with a custom header, including a navigation menu, background image, call-to-action button, and more.
It has a drag-and-drop builder to make a recipe blog theme. The theme builder is easy-to-use for beginners and has simple options like color schemes, font selection, backgrounds, and layouts.
SeedProd also provides ready-made and fully-functional theme templates for different types of WordPress blogs, websites, and online stores. You can import a template and replace the content and images to launch your food recipe blog.
Thrive Themes is a popular WordPress theme-builder with a powerful toolset. It has built-in templates you can import and customize to launch your food recipe blog in just a few minutes.
In the Thrive Suite, you get an A/B testing plugin to help you find which landing page gives you more traffic. Thrive Themes is super flexible and easy to integrate with your favorite marketing tools.
When it comes to design and layout, Thrive Themes has smart color schemes, global website settings, and more. It supports block patterns that you can use to create fully custom landing pages without writing code.
Divi is one of the best WordPress multipurpose themes on the market. It comes with hundreds of built-in layouts for different business niches, including food and recipe templates.
With the Divi theme, you also get a powerful page builder for easy customization. It has point-and-click tools, elements, and modules that let you start blogging without editing any code.
Divi comes with hundreds of layout packs, making it easy to create a WordPress website quickly. Even better, Divi uses responsive design to make your website mobile-friendly.
Ultra is a popular WordPress theme built to create any type of website or blog. It is fully compatible with the WordPress block editor.
It comes with a few starter sites for food, chef, recipe, and cafe sites. These let you get your site up and running quickly. They include the site’s settings, content, navigation menu, widgets, and so on.
Ultra includes Themify Builder, which makes it easier for you to set up a blog and add your recipes. Ultra also offers multiple addons to add more features to your website.
Hestia Pro is a one-page WordPress multipurpose theme well-suited for any type of professional blog or website. It supports video content to add your recipe videos easily.
It has homepage sections for the chef or owner of the blog to create an ‘About Me’ or a portfolio section. The theme also works great with your favorite page builders like Beaver Builder for customization.
Foodie Pro is a great theme from StudioPress. It is a well-crafted WordPress theme for recipe blogs, food websites, and health and nutrition businesses. It features a fully widgetized modern layout and lets you drag and drop items to set up your website.
Foodie Pro includes a theme options panel, live customizer support, custom headers, multiple page layouts, and more. It is highly optimized for speed and performance.
Restaurant is an excellent WordPress theme built specifically for cafes, restaurants, and food recipe blogs. It comes with several tools to add a food menu, categories, chef details, and more.
It has a grid layout on the homepage to showcase your recipes with images. You can also create multiple landing pages for user testimonials, single recipes, and contact information.
Kale comes with a special front page that showcases featured posts. It also has the option to show a banner or a posts slider in the header and includes full eCommerce and RTL language support.
Cookely is a WordPress recipe theme made specifically for food and cooking blogs. This beautiful theme comes with a recipe card and a built-in recipe index that you can display and sort by category.
The homepage has different sections with a featured content area at the top. It is available in 4 color schemes, and you can also choose your colors easily.
Elara is an elegantly-designed WordPress food and recipe blog theme. It features a clean and modern design that makes your content and images more engaging.
It comes with a recipe builder, plus a recipe template, recipe index, and filtering features. Elara also has built-in support to display ads and promote your content.
Florentine is an elegant WordPress theme designed specifically for recipe blogs. It includes a dedicated recipe section that lets you add properly formatted recipes to your website. Your users will also be able to switch to distraction-free cooking mode instantly.
It has built-in social sharing, different styles, and layout choices. The theme options are easy to manage using the WordPress customizer with live preview.
Pulppy is one of the best food blog themes. It comes with a unique design that uses fun color schemes and a modern layout for presentation.
It includes drag-and-drop elements to set up your homepage. Inside, you will find sections to add portfolio items, featured products, sliders, and a call-to-action button. You can also use it to add an online store to your blog.
Neve is a stylish WordPress all-purpose theme built to create any type of website. It ships with multiple food and recipe blog templates that you can use on the site. It is easy to replace the content with your own images and text.
It is flexible and easy to set up with elegant layout designs that attract more users to your blog. The theme has full WooCommerce integration to sell your recipes online.
OceanWP is a modern WordPress multipurpose theme. It comes with a 1-click demo content importer and a few paid and free templates for recipe blogs.
When it comes to features, the theme has a fast page load time, multilingual support, and eCommerce compatibility. It also provides useful addons to extend the functionality of your site.
Osteria is an outstanding WordPress recipe theme built specifically for food bloggers, cafe owners, and restaurants. The top feature of the theme is its 3D scrolling effect, which makes it unique and grabs users’ attention.
It gives you a custom editor to add your food recipes, favorite food menus, and food descriptions. The theme also offers a style manager to customize colors, fonts, and backgrounds. You can also set up a food-ordering system for your users to place online orders for your delicious recipes.
Foodica is a beautiful, magazine-style WordPress theme for food lovers. It features a modern design and comes in 6 color schemes to choose from.
It includes shortcodes to add recipe ingredients to your blog posts. It also has dedicated sections to display ad zones and banners to make money online.
Foodie is a WordPress theme built for chefs, food bloggers, and recipe bloggers. It includes a recipe post section to add ingredients, instructions, and videos.
Foodie uses a traditional blog layout with support for a custom background and a custom logo. You can use the WordPress live customizer to make changes to how your site looks.
Food Recipes is a free WordPress theme suitable for chefs, restaurants, and food businesses, as well as for recipe blogging. Its content area is responsive, so it is divided into a 2-column grid on the desktop screen and a single-column layout on small screens.
Food Recipes includes support for custom logo upload, a social media menu, a fullscreen background image, and more. It is easy to set up, too.
Pepper+ is an all-purpose WordPress theme with several turnkey designs, including one for a food/recipe website. It takes a modular approach and comes with different modules that you can drag and drop to create custom layouts.
It is ready for WooCommerce and supports WPML to create multilingual websites. It is easy for beginners to use because it has a 1-click content import and quick setup.
Gourmand is an elegantly-designed WordPress theme for food and recipe websites. It has a beautiful recipes section, which allows you to add recipes on the homepage.
It is compatible with popular drag and drop page builders like Visual Composer for easy customization. With built-in SEO optimization, your recipes should automatically rank well in Google and other search engines.
Food Blog is a powerful WordPress recipe and food blog theme that ships with a premium recipe plugin. It lets you add, manage, and share recipes on your website. You can also allow users to share their recipes on your blog.
It provides homepage sections to display food photos and recipes professionally. It ships with Beaver Builder to create custom page layouts using drag-and-drop tools.
Foody Pro is a beautifully-designed WordPress theme for food blogging and recipe websites. This elegant theme features gorgeous typography and a clean, spacious layout.
On the homepage, it offers a featured content slider with call to action buttons. It is WooCommerce-ready, comes with an Instagram widget, and includes an automatically generated recipe index.
Igloo is a flexible WordPress theme for a recipe blog, restaurant, or cafe. It comes with a beautiful modern design, elegant photo galleries, and built-in social media integration.
For restaurant websites, it has a menu management system and testimonial sections. It comes in multiple color schemes, and you can change colors for individual pages as well.
Rosa is a beautiful WordPress food blog and recipe theme. It has eye-catching colors and a fullscreen background layout with mouth-watering photos to quickly catch the attention of your visitors.
The theme comes with built-in tools to add recipes with images, video recipes, and more. You can also create custom landing pages to showcase your featured food recipes.
But you can get new customers without having to spend much money.
Using your existing customers to help bring in new business is one of my favorite ways to do this. It may sound complex, but it’s much easier than you might think.
It’s all about getting creative. Coming up with an acquisition strategy that also promotes retention is a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Don’t underestimate the power of a recommendation. Research shows 83% of consumers say they trust recommendations from family and friends. When your brand gets recommended to someone, they are likely to give it a shot.
But the key here is getting that initial recommendation. How do you do it?
If you’ve never tried to incorporate this strategy into your marketing plan before, don’t worry. I’ll give you some insight into how you can proceed.
Here’s what you need to know.
Start with memorable branding
A memorable brand aesthetic, message, and voice can work wonders in turning customers into passionate advocates who eagerly recommend the brand to their friends and family.
An engaging aesthetic captures attention, while the message conveys your unique value in the market. Your voice, on the other hand, adds a distinct personality to your brand, making it relatable and approachable. When these elements harmonize, they evoke strong emotions in customers, encouraging them to share their positive experiences and feelings with those around them.
As customers develop a sense of pride and belonging with a brand, they become enthusiastic ambassadors who can’t help but spread the word.
Although hiring a branding agency requires an investment, we recommending it because the long-term benefits of increased customer loyalty, word-of-mouth marketing, and business growth are well worth the cost.
Why not do it yourself? The best branding agencies have the expertise to thoroughly understand your target audience and develop a brand strategy centered around the people you want to reach. They can then craft visual identity, logo, color palette, imagery, and messaging that come together to form a unique personality.
When done well, your brand can forge an emotional connection with customers and give them a sense of identity… without you having to do anything. Customers who have a strong emotional bond are more likely to recommend it to everyone they know.
Provide friendly customer service
Before you launch any new marketing campaigns, analyze your company’s culture. Start with your customer service.
Recent studies showed that customers who had a friendly interaction with a company were likely to recommend that company to others. The majority of people who experienced unfriendly service would not recommend a brand.
Being friendly costs you nothing.
Just make sure your managers and customer service representatives are all on the same page. If you’re dealing with customers face-to-face, you need to train your staff to smile.
Be genuine. Ask the customer how their day is going. Try to have real connections with your customers.
Even if you’re talking to people over the phone or online, the tone of your voice will convey your attitude.
Don’t sigh or take deep breaths of frustration. Don’t be monotone or standoffish. Speak in a friendly voice that’s welcoming and energetic.
Even smiling when you’re talking on the phone can help make the tone of your voice sound more positive.
Employing this strategy is a no-brainer. This isn’t something you can measure, but when your existing customers have a positive experience with your company, they’ll be happy to tell their friends and family about it.
Before you know it, new customers will be walking through your doors. If you treat them the same way, they’ll recommend your brand to others as well.
Respond to customer inquiries as fast as possible
Let’s continue talking about customer service. In addition to providing friendly care during daily interactions, your support team needs to go the extra mile when customers have questions or problems.
It’s easy to get frustrated with a disgruntled customer. Even if you think they are in the wrong, treat them with respect, and make them feel as though they are right.
Don’t make customers wait to hear back from a customer service representative. This is something you need to keep in mind no matter where you’re conducting business.
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, don’t make your customers wait to speak to a manager. Get someone right away. When taking calls over the phone, don’t put your customers on hold for too long.
Even if you’re taking customer inquiries online through your website’s platform or via email, put emphasis on responding right away.
Take a look at these numbers, and just let that sink in for a moment.
Customers who received a fast but ineffective response were more likely to recommend a brand than customers who received a slow but adequate solution.
Just because you solve a customer’s problem doesn’t mean they’ll recommend you to other people if you took too long to do it.
But if you provide a speedy response, customers are still willing to recommend your brand even if you didn’t provide a solution.
Come up with a referral program
Some people will be willing to recommend your brand only if they can get something in return. Can you blame them?
Customers love getting discounts and free stuff. Come up with a customer referral program that rewards your current customers for spreading the word about your company.
One of the best customer referral programs I’ve seen is from Uber.
Here’s how their program works. The customer who sends the referral gets a credit, and the new customer also gets a credit.
The rewards vary depending on the city and time, but here’s an example of a $20 program:
It’s a major success.
With this example, the customer acquisition cost is $40. Uber is paying $20 to two customers.
Customers who use the service at least once per week spend about $95 per month on this platform. Uber keeps 25% of that.
So in less than two months, the customer acquisition cost already pays for itself. It’s a great strategy and increases the lifetime value of a customer.
Once a new customer joins, they are likely to refer their own friends as well to try to keep getting discounts. It may seem like a lot of money, but as you can see from the numbers I just went through, it’s well worth it.
If your referral program is worth only a few bucks, it won’t get your customers excited. How much effort do you expect them to put into a referral if you’re just giving them something like $5 or maybe 10% in return?
Same goes for the new customer who is receiving the recommendation. But offering a $20 credit could be enough to get a free product or, in the case with Uber, a free ride.
Find a way to apply this concept to your company. Based on Uber’s rapid growth since inception, I’m sure it will work for you as well.
Celebrate milestones with your customers
It’s important to get to know your customers. Don’t treat them as nameless and faceless people.
Talk to them. Find out why they are spending money at your store. For example, let’s say you own a restaurant. When a customer comes in and places a huge order, ask them if it’s for a special occasion.
Go the extra mile to make them feel like you really care. Maybe they’re celebrating a birthday party or an anniversary. If the order is big enough, you could try to offer a free delivery or give them a discount.
Half of the customers who talk about brands on social media when posting about a life milestone do so to recommend the brand to others.
I realize it’s not always easy to find out information about milestones in a customer’s life, especially if you’re operating an ecommerce business.
But whenever it’s applicable, try your best to get as much information about the purchase as possible. This also relates back to the discussion about friendly customer service.
The importance and relevance of this marketing aspect will depend on the industry, of course. But you can still come up with clever ways to incorporate this marketing strategy into your business.
For example, let’s say you sell clothing. A group of women comes into your store and starts trying on expensive dresses. Train your sales team to ask,
“Is this for a special occasion?”
If you discover one of the women just got engaged, do whatever you can to make them feel special without compromising your profit margins.
Based on the data I just showed you, this will increase the chances of those customers recommending your brand to people on social media.
Even if they don’t officially recommend your business, look at some of the other top responses on that list:
thank the brand
show brand preference
receive discounts.
All these posts are still positive exposure for your company. As a result, their friends will be more likely to try your products or services.
Here are some of the most popular life milestones that cause customers to recommend a brand on social media:
Be aware of this if you’re in an industry where these types of events are relevant to your business.
Promote user-generated content (UGC)
Now, it’s time to think outside the box and get creative.
It won’t cost you much money to achieve this. UGC won’t take too much time on your end, and it requires very minimal effort.
But the results can be very rewarding.
With UGC, your customers won’t officially be recommending your business. However, the brand exposure you’ll be generating is just as effective as a recommendation.
There are lots of ways you can approach this. One of my favorites is running contests on social media.
Use Instagram or Facebook as a marketing channel to run one of these contests. Have your customers upload photos and videos that promote your products or services.
At a specified deadline, pick the post with the most likes or comments, and award them a prize. If you make the prize worth it, you’ll get a high participation rate from your followers.
As a result, your brand will be exposed to people who follow the customers participating in the contest. This indirectly recommends your brand to a new audience.
You can even dedicate a section of your website to UGC.
Let customers upload videos or share stories about their experiences with your company. It will help you get new customers in the door without crippling your marketing budget.
Encourage customers to review your business
You can promote your company in many different ways, including writing about your product or service. But nothing is viewed as trustworthy as an online review from a customer.
Obviously, you’ll tell people your business is great. Consumers know you won’t willingly reveal bad information about your brand.
Information on your website may not be enough for you to acquire a new customer. But customer reviews increase the chances of a new customer buying from your brand:
Make sure your company has a profile set up on as many review websites as possible. In addition to allowing reviews directly on your website, let your customers review your business on platforms like:
Yelp
Facebook
Google Reviews
Trip Advisor
The more platforms you’re on, the greater your exposure will be. Some customers trust reviews on some websites more than others.
Research shows the two most trusted review websites are Google and the Better Business Bureau. Just having an account on Yelp isn’t enough.
Now you need to find ways to get your existing customers to write reviews.
Ask them directly. After they complete a transaction, nicely ask them to write a review online.
Or you could go another route and give them an incentive. You can offer a discount or some kind of promotion if they write a review for your brand online.
Just make sure you’re not soliciting good reviews. Make it clear you’re just asking for a review, and hope it’s a good one.
Conclusion
To keep customer acquisition costs low, you need to come up with some creative marketing tactics.
Making subtle changes to the ways your business operates can get your existing customers to recommend your brand to others.
Start with simple things like customer service. Always be friendly, and respond to customer inquiries as fast as possible.
Create a customer referral program that rewards your current customers for recommending you as well as your new customers for trying your brand out.
Help your customers celebrate important milestones and events in their lives.
Encourage user-generated content, and make it easy for your customers to review your business online.
If you follow these tips, your current customers will be recommending your business to new ones, expanding your customer base.
What’s so special about G2.com‘s “Best Products” awards and why should you care that WPMU DEV is a consistent G2 leader and regular award winner? Read on to find out…
WPMU DEV has earned all of these awards by delivering products of genuine value to users.
The above awards cannot be bought, bribed, or dreamed up – they must be earned by delivering users products of genuine value, as voted by the G2.com user community. No fake reviews or made-up testimonials allowed!
(On that note, feel free to visit WPMU DEV’s G2 profile page whenever you like for hundreds of authentic user reviews and testimonials about our products.)
For a software company to win a G2 award is a big deal, as the award does not come from artificially generated means, such as bots or fake reviewers.
Most importantly, however, what all these awards mean is that the company is committed to delivering a product of genuine quality and value to users.
As the G2 reports below show, WPMU DEV is committed to providing the best WordPress site management software available…
WPMU DEV is the market leader for WordPress Site Management software!
We’re also continually improving our managed WordPress hosting service and climbing up the charts…
Our managed WordPress hosting service just keeps getting better and better…we won’t stop reaching for the top!
In fact, we’re currently one of the world’s top 10 choices of web hosting providers…
We’re in the top 10 for web hosting providers.
So, if you are evaluating using a new software product or service and don’t know where to start researching or who to trust for unbiased, honest, and trustworthy reviews, G2 is a great place to start.
Who is G2?
G2 provides authentic, trustworthy software reviews from real users.
G2.com is a software review company trusted and used by more than 60 million people each year (including employees at all Fortune 500 companies) to make technology-buying decisions based on authentic peer reviews.
Here is what just some of the hundreds of real WPMU DEV user reviews look like:
“The best thing is their HOSTING, PLUGINS and SUPPORT. It’s all the best! I love the HUB. I love the reports and the automation and the plugins and the support. It really just keeps on getting better and better all the time and I already thought it was great a few years ago when I joined.” Paul C.G2 Review
And…
“Their support is second to none. They’ve helped recover several sites despite not being the actual host. The suite of plugins that they provide is really an entire solution to manage your WordPress sites. SEO, Page Speed, Security, Managing Clients, Etc… 10/10” Frank W.G2 Review
And this one too…
“I like the wide variety of plugins and services available that has been growing throughout the years. I’ve been a customer for many many years now and I’m beyond happy, especially when I need support, customer support is always fantastic and quick to help!! Completely recommend this to any webmaster/website owner.” Vanessa S. G2 Review
You can check out hundreds more reviews from genuine users on WPMU DEV’s G2 profile.
But… Anyone Can Create Fake Reviews And Testimonials, Right?
Not on G2.
While on many sites and platforms it’s relatively easy to create dozens of fake accounts and employ bots to populate these accounts with fake reviews and testimonials, G2 has a rigorous vetting process to make sure that only authentic and genuine reviews from real users get posted on the site.
In fact, as WPMU DEV’s Head of Business Development Savo Vujovic states: “G2 eliminates fake reviews and testimonials by requiring users to fill out a huge form and then using a complex manual process of reviewing and moderating each submission before these are approved for display on their site. Users have to jump through many hoops and must really want to post a review or testimonial about a company, especially as many are doing this without receiving incentives or commissions.”
For example, according to G2’s criteria, you can see that the review shown below comes from:
Validated Reviewer – This reviewer is real and was validated through LinkedIn.
Verified Current User – The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as a current user.
Review Source: Organic – The review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate.
In addition to organic (i.e. unsolicited) reviews, G2 does send out invitations (either from G2 or on behalf of the organization) to encourage genuine users to leave reviews, and it allows reviews to be incentivized by offering users something like a gift card as thanks for completing the review.
This user was invited to leave a review and sent a gift card as a ‘thank you’ after G2 approved the review. Source: G2.com
Looking at the review activity, you can see that out of a total of 470+ reviews submitted by users, over one-third of all WPMU DEV’s reviews were submitted by users without invitation, solicitation, or incentives to encourage these submissions.
Over one-third of reviews are organic and come from satisfied users who want to provide feedback and testimonials about their experience of using WPMU DEV’s products.
G2’s Review Sources
To help you understand where user reviews published on G2 come from, here are their review sources explained:
Organic: These reviews are generated without invitation from G2 or the organization.
G2 invite: These reviews are submitted via a G2 landing page as a result of an invitation from G2.
G2 invite on behalf of seller: These reviews are submitted as part of incentivized G2 review campaigns on the organization’s behalf.
Seller invite: These reviews are incentivized by the organization.
In-app: These reviews are generated via G2 integration options (e.g. Delighted, Medallia, and Pendo), as well as G2 in-app review prompts.
G2 Gives program: These reviews are submitted as part of the incentivized G2 Gives program.
G2 Reviews Give You The Good AND The Not So Good
What makes an unbiased review is being able to read what users love the most about the product… and any areas they feel the company is falling short of delivering on value, quality, or service.
G2’s review process encourages users to share anything they dislike…
Users are encouraged to share what they like and dislike about products. Source: G2.com
So, Where Does WPMU DEV Sit Amongst All This?
G2’s complex approval process not only results in authentic, credible, and trustworthy product and company reviews and testimonials, but they also employ an advanced methodology and sophisticated software algorithms to collate, analyze, compute, and produce “best of” awards every quarter to companies based on criteria such as usability, ease of implementation, user adoption, user satisfaction, market presence, and more.
WPMU DEV has earned G2 awards in the following product categories:
WordPress Site Management
Managed Hosting
Web Hosting
And here’s what the awards mean (and how G2 awards them):
Leader: Products in the Leader quadrant in the Grid Report are rated highly by G2 users and have substantial Satisfaction and Market Presence scores.
Leader Small-Business: Products in the Leader quadrant in the Small-Business Grid Report are rated highly by G2 users and have substantial Satisfaction and Market Presence scores.
High Performer Mid-Market: Products in the High Performer quadrant in the Mid-Market Grid Report have high customer Satisfaction scores and low Market Presence scores compared to the rest of the category.
Best Results: The Best Results product in the Results Index earned the highest overall Results rating in its category.
Best Results Small-Business: The Best Results product in the Results Index earned the highest overall Results rating in its category.
Best Relationship: The Best Relationship product in the Relationship Index earned the highest Relationship rating in its category.
Best Relationship Mid-Market: The Best Relationship product in the Relationship Index earned the highest Relationship rating in its category.
Best Relationship Small-Business: The Best Relationship product in the Relationship Index earned the highest Relationship rating in its category.
Best Usability: The Best Usability product in the Usability Index earned the highest Usability rating in its category.
Best Usability Small-Business: The Best Usability product in the Usability Index earned the highest Usability rating in its category.
Most Implementable: The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category.
Most Implementable Small-Business: The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category.
Additional awards:
Users Love Us – The Users Love Us badge is earned after collecting 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 stars.
G2 Awards are calculated based on where companies are positioned in a G2 Market Report.
For example, here is a screenshot of a G2 market index report for Managed Hosting, showing WPMU DEV as a leading hosting provider of managed hosting for small businesses:
When it comes to managed hosting we’re consistently up there with the best!
Best Relationship – WordPress Site Management, Managed Hosting, Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market), WordPress Site Management (Small Business), Managed Hosting (Small Business)
Best Results – WordPress Site Management, Webhosting (Mid-Market), WordPress Site Management (Small Business)
Best Support – Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Best Usability – WordPress Site Management, Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market), WordPress Site Management (Small Business)
Best Est. ROI – Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Best Meets Requirements – Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market)
High Performer – Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Highest User Adoption – Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Most Implementable – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business), Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Easiest To Use – Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Webhosting (Mid-Market)
Users Most Likely To Recommend – Webhosting (Mid-Market)
WPMU DEV G2 2022 Fall Quarter Awards
Here is the list of awards WPMU DEV received for the 2022 Fall quarter:
Leader – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business), Managed Hosting, Managed Hosting (Small Business), Web Hosting, Web Hosting (Small Business)
High Performer – Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Web Hosting (Mid-Market)
Best Results – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business)
Best Usability – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business)
Most Implementable – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business)
Best Relationship – WordPress Site Management, WordPress Site Management (Small Business), Managed Hosting, Managed Hosting (Mid-Market), Managed Hosting (Small Business)
Why G2 Should Matter to You
In a world where so much can be faked and skewed, companies that provide unbiased, honest, and trustworthy reviews like G2 can be a product user’s best friend.
So, if you are considering purchasing any software or technology solution, check out what real users are saying on G2 before you buy. It could save you a ton of money and hassle later and help to prevent buyer’s remorse.
And if you do decide to give WPMU DEV a try, make sure to leave your honest review ;)
Would you like to move qualified prospects through your web dev sales process more successfully, deliver consistently better results, and send your sales closing rates soaring? Of course you would, right?!
Well, good news – you’re in the right place to learn how! This no-hype guide to running a hyper successful client briefing session will show you how to boost sales of your web development services.
Q: Which of the following is an absolutely essential “must-have” to conduct a highly successful client briefing session?
A) A fancy office on the top floor of a skyscraper overlooking one of the 7 wonders of the world.
B) Sending out a stretch limo to pick up your prospective clients and drive them back after the briefing.
C) Serving clients chilled champagne, canapes, and caviar as soon as they arrive.
D) Having an impeccable sense of dress matching your suit with your hairstyle and the office decor.
Answer: None of the above.
To conduct a successful client briefing session, you need only two ears and …
A Needs Assessment Questionnaire
A Needs Assessment Questionnaire (NAQ) is an essential tool for your WordPress web development services business.
It’s a crucial part of an effective sales process as it helps you to:
Understand your client’s needs, preferences, and goals so you can provide them with the right solution for their needs.
Ask the right questions and gather the necessary information about the project’s scope, timeline, and budget to provide a realistic plan for the project and an accurate estimate of the project’s costs.
Identify any potential issues or concerns early in the sales process.
Manage the client’s expectations.
Qualify your prospect as being either a good fit for your services or not (yes, sometimes it’s better to let them go) and move them successfully through your sales process.
Establish a strong relationship with the client based on trust and communication.
Your questionnaire should be carefully crafted to glean the necessary information from the client while being concise and easy to understand.
It should also be customized to the client’s specific needs and provide clear instructions on how to complete it correctly, so that anyone in your business can conduct a client briefing session successfully.
By demonstrating a deep understanding of the client’s needs and goals, you can create a website or deliver a project that will hopefully exceed your client’s expectations. This, in turn, can lead to satisfied clients who are more likely to recommend your services to others.
The NAQ, then, is not just any old “questionnaire.” It’s an integral and valuable part of your sales process.
So, before we look at how to develop an effective Needs Assessment Questionnaire that will help you get better results in your business, let’s briefly go over the different stages of an effective sales system so we can have a clear understanding of where the Needs Assessment Questionnaire fits in.
The 7 Stages of an Effective Sales Process
An effective sales process typically consists of the following stages:
Stage 1: Initial Contact – This is the first stage of the sales process, where your potential client becomes aware of your service. They may visit your website, receive an email, phone call or recommendation, or see an advertisement, directory listing, etc.
Stage 2: Needs Assessment – In this stage, you (or your sales rep) asks questions to understand the client’s needs, challenges, and goals. The aim of this stage is try to gather information about the client’s business, industry, and competition and qualify them as a potential client.
Stage 3: Presentation – In this stage, you present a solution to the client’s problem or need. Your presentation may include a demonstration, samples of previous work, or a proposal.
Stage 4: Objections – In this stage, the client may raise objections or concerns about your proposed solution. You (or your sales rep) then address these objections and provide additional information or clarification.
Stage 5: Closing – In this stage, you (or your sales rep) ask for a decision. This may involve negotiating the price, terms, or delivery of the service.
Stage 6: Follow-up – After the sale, your business follows up with the client to provide onboarding (e.g. training), ensure satisfaction with your service, and to address any issues that may arise. You may also look for opportunities to cross-sell or upsell other services.
Stage 7: Referral – The final stage is when your satisfied client refers your business to others who may benefit from your services. This can be a powerful source of new business and growth for your company.
The sales process described above emphasizes the importance of understanding your client’s needs and providing a solution that meets those needs. It also highlights the need for ongoing customer engagement and relationship-building to drive long-term business success.
Your NAQ is vitally important to completing Stage 2 (Needs Assessment) of your sales process successfully.
Assessing your clients’ needs effectively will help you deliver a better solution.
This article focuses on the Needs Assessment stage of the sales process, so let’s take an in-depth look at the role your Needs Assessment Questionnaire plays in it.
The Needs Analysis Presentation
All you need to run an effective sales presentation is an effective script and an effective sales tool.
To illustrate this, let’s say that you are asked to give a slide presentation to an audience about a subject you know little to nothing about.
If you design your slide presentation well using the right content and the right slide sequence, all you would have to do is show a slide, read the words on the slide, show the next slide and repeat the process, and you could run a successful presentation.
More importantly, anyone in your business could consistently and repeatedly deliver a successful presentation by simply following the same process. Even if you went a little off-topic and ad-libbed every now and then, the tool (i.e. the slides) and its built-in script (i.e. the words on each slide) would still guide the presenter successfully through the entire process.
This is essentially what we are aiming to achieve in “Stage 2” of the sales system… an effective and repeatable presentation that delivers consistent results and moves your client successfully to the next stage.
Stage 2, then, is your Needs Analysis Presentation and consists of two main elements:
The presentation script
The Needs Assessment Questionnaire
The “presentation script” is what you say and do during your client briefing session to create the best user experience possible for your client.
This includes how you greet your potential client, what you do to make them feel comfortable (e.g. offer water, tea, or coffee), the words you use to start the briefing session, the questions you ask them during the briefing, how you structure the entire meeting so clients feel relaxed and open to share information that will allow you to assess their needs and qualify them as prospects, the words you use to end the meeting and set up the next stage of the process, and so on.
For example, the “opening script” for your Needs Analysis Presentation might go something like this:
“[Client name], as I mentioned to you when setting the appointment, the purpose of today’s meeting is for us to get a better idea of your business, what it does, what problems you need help solving, what kind of results you expect from your website, and so on.
I’ve done some research on your business and there are some questions I’d like to ask so we can get the full picture of what you need and how we can help you. This will probably take about 30 minutes or so.
I will then review the information carefully with my team and come back to you with a customized solution that will best suit your needs and your budget.
And if it turns out that we are not a perfect fit for working with each other, I’ll let you know and recommend a more suitable solution.
Are you ok for us to get started?”
***
After delivering the opening script above, you then complete the Needs Assessment Questionnaire with your client. This is the tool that will guide you successfully through your Needs Analysis Presentation.
After completing your NAQ, you then deliver the “closing script,” which could be something like this:
“[Client name], thank you… I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all of these questions. This gives me everything I need.
As I mentioned at the start of the meeting, give me a day or so to review this with my team. We’ll put together the solution we think will best deliver what you’re looking for and then we’ll meet again and go through everything in detail and answer any other questions you have.
Are you happy for us to set up the next meeting now?”
The above is Stage 2 in a nutshell. Its purpose is to help you set up the next appointment, where you deliver your solution and hopefully get the client’s business.
The more attention you put into designing and structuring your Needs Assessment Questionnaire, the better the client’s experience will be and the more smoothly, consistently, and effectively your client meetings will run.
Even better, if you plan to scale your business, you will be able to train anyone to run client briefings competently. All they will need to do is learn the opening and closing scripts and use the Needs Assessment Questionnaire to complete this stage.
Now that we understand what the Needs Assessment Questionnaire’s purpose is and where it fits into the sales process, let’s start building an effective NAQ for your business.
Designing Your Needs Assessment Questionnaire
Since there is no “one size fits all” way to build a web development business, this section will provide a general framework to help you design a Needs Assessment Questionnaire customized to suit your specific needs, with a list of sections and suggested questions you can include in your NAQ.
We’ll begin by looking at the steps involved in creating a NAQ.
How To Create An Effective NAQ For Your WordPress Web Development Business
Here are the steps involved in creating an effective Needs Assessment Questionnaire that will enable you to gather the critical information needed to deliver successful WordPress web development services to your clients:
Identify the key areas of information you’ll require: Begin by outlining the main areas of information you need to gather from the client, such as their business goals, target audience, website functionality, content needs, marketing strategies, budget, and timeline expectations.
Determine the types of questions to ask: Once you have identified the main areas of information you need to gather, determine the types of questions to ask. Open-ended questions are ideal as they encourage clients to provide detailed information, allowing you to better understand their needs and preferences.
Develop specific questions: Put together key questions for each area of information to gather more detailed insights. For example, to understand the client’s business goals and challenges, you could ask “What are your top business goals, and what challenges are you facing in achieving them?”
Organize the questionnaire: Ensure that the questions flow logically and are easy for clients to understand. Group similar questions together, and consider using subheadings to organize the questionnaire by topic.
Include instructions and explanations: Provide context for each question by explaining why you are asking it and how the answer will help you develop a customized solution for the client. The best way to do this is to turn this explanation into a “script” and write it into your questionnaire after each of the section headings and subheadings (e.g. “Now, I’d like to ask you questions about your current marketing efforts. This will help us understand what you are currently doing to generate new leads and drive traffic to your site, how these activities are performing, and if there are any issues that we would need to look at or improve…”). Including clear instructions and explanations will help clients understand the purpose of the questionnaire and what to expect in the web development process, and help you to fill it out.
Test the questionnaire: Try out your newly created questionnaire on a few clients to ensure the questions are clear, relevant, and useful. Make any necessary adjustments to ensure the questionnaire effectively gathers the information needed for successful web development projects.
Continuously review and refine: The questionnaire is not set in stone, so adjust and improve it over time based on feedback from clients and your team members. As your business evolves and new trends emerge, make sure that the questionnaire remains up-to-date and relevant.
So that’s the outline of the process. Now, let’s start putting a Needs Assessment Questionnaire together.
1) Decide What Information You Need
As mentioned above, the first step is to identify the key areas of information you need to gather from clients.
Mind-mapping the process at this stage can be useful for brainstorming ideas and organizing your thoughts.
A mind map is a useful tool for planning your NAQ.
2) Define Your NAQ Categories
Once you have a clear idea of what information you need from your client, the next step is to organize this information into question categories. These will form the main sections of your NAQ.
Define the categories you will add to your Needs Assessment Questionnaire.
Think about the logical flow of your questionnaire’s sections, especially when planning subcategories, such as hosting and domains, design, functionality, and content for the website, or marketing-related questions.
For example, when discussing your client’s website needs, should you start by asking them questions about hosting and domains and then follow with questions about design, functionality, and content, or is there are better sequence that you feel would make the discussion flow more smoothly?
Also, consider things like:
Which areas are absolutely essential to get information from the client? Where should you insert this into your NAQ so you can make sure it gets covered in case the meeting is cut short or goes off on a tangent, or the client starts to feel overwhelmed?
Which areas of discussion could potentially blow out and take up a big chunk of the meeting? How can you design the process to quickly rein the client back into focus if this happens?
All of these details are very important when building a process flow for your NAQ’s design.
3) Decide on the Format
How are you going to run your Needs Analysis Presentation and record the client’s answers?
Will your client briefing sessions be done face-to-face, over the phone, online via video conferencing, or a combination of different styles?
Will your NAQ be printed with answers recorded as handwritten notes, in an electronic document, or a custom form application running from a phone, tablet, or laptop?
Probably the easiest and most effective way to start is using pen and paper. A printed questionnaire can serve as your prototype. This will allow you to review, tweak, test, and improve your sections, questions, question flow, accompanying instructions, fields for entering answers, etc, after every client briefing session.
Once you have a NAQ that delivers you consistent results, you can then turn your prototype into a format better suited for your business, like an electronic questionnaire or even an app. Or, just keep using a printed questionnaire if it works for you. Why complicate something when the simplest approach works?
4) Add Questions to Your NAQ Sections
Now that you have planned everything out, the next step is to add questions to each section of your NAQ.
Note: You don’t have to add every suggested question below to your NAQ. Just pick out the ones you need. Also, keep in mind that some questions may overlap for different sections, so include them where you think it would make the most sense for you to ask.
Let’s go over the main sections we suggest you consider including in your NAQ:
1) Overview
Your NAQ is an internal business document. It’s not something that you will leave with the client. So, it’s probably a good idea to add an Overview section. This could include a checklist of everything you need to cover during the session, such as documents or information the client needs to provide, instructions for completing certain sections, even your opening script.
2) Client’s Business
As a website developer, it’s important to understand the client’s business goals and challenges to create a website that meets their specific needs. During the client briefing session, it’s essential to ask the right questions to identify the client’s goals, target audience, unique selling points, and competition.
Questions about the client’s goals can include inquiries about what they hope to achieve with their website, whether they are looking to increase sales, generate leads, or increase brand awareness. Knowing the client’s goals will help you tailor your approach to meet these objectives.
Target audience questions should delve into the demographics of the client’s customers, their interests and behaviors, and what they are looking for in a website. By understanding the target audience, you can create a website that appeals to their audience’s needs and preferences.
Unique selling point questions can help you understand what sets the client’s business apart from the competition. This information will help you highlight these unique selling points on the website and create a competitive advantage for the client.
Finally, questions about the competition can help you understand what other businesses are offering and how the client’s website can differentiate itself. This information will help you create a website that stands out from the competition and attracts more customers to the client’s business.
Here is a list of questions you can include in this section of your NAQ:
Business Details
Prefill some of these details before your client briefing and ask the client to confirm these:
Company name: The legal name of the client’s business entity.
Contact person name: The name of the individual representing the client, such as the CEO or a manager.
Address: The physical address of the client’s business, including the street address, city, state/province, and zip/postal code.
Phone number: The primary phone number for the client’s business.
Email address: The email address of the client’s business or the contact person.
Website URL: The website address of the client’s business (if they have one).
Social media handles: The client’s social media handles (if applicable), such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Industry: The industry that the client’s business operates in, such as finance, healthcare, technology, etc.
Legal status: The legal status of the client’s business, such as LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, etc.
Revenue: The annual revenue of the client’s business.
Number of employees: The number of employees working for the client’s business.
Tax ID: The client’s tax identification number (if applicable).
Payment information: The payment information that the client uses to pay for goods or services, such as a credit card, bank account, or payment service.
Additional notes: Any additional notes or comments about the client that may be helpful for future reference.
Note: Some of this information may need to be asked or obtained at a later stage of the sales process if applicable (e.g. Revenue, Tax ID, Payment information).
About Your Business
What is your business and what does your business do?
What are your unique selling points (USPs)?
Who is your target audience?
What are the demographics of your target audience?
What are the interests and behavior patterns of your target audience?
What markets do you sell your products and services in? (Local, Regional, National, Global)
Is your business seasonal?
Your Business Goals
What are your primary business goals and objectives?
What difficulties are you currently experiencing in achieving them?
How do you envision an agency like ours will help you address these challenges?
Your Competition
Who are your main competitors?
What makes your business unique compared to your competitors?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ websites?
What do you like and dislike about your competitors’ websites?
3) Client’s Website
Your Needs Assessment Questionnaire should take into account the fact that a potential client may or may not already have an existing website. If so, it is essential to conduct a thorough assessment of the client’s existing website. This will help you understand their website, identify any issues that need to be addressed, and ensure that the end product is tailored to their specific needs and goals.
Here is a list of questions to ask a potential client during the client briefing session about their website to help you gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs and requirements in terms of functionality, design, content, and performance:
Hosting & Domains
What are your requirements for website hosting and maintenance?
Do you need help with website hosting or domain registration?
Do you have any registered domains?
Have you purchased webhosting for your site?
For existing websites, include the following questions:
Do you have any additional domains?
Do you have any big changes (like a migration) planned within the next 12 months?
General
What is the purpose of your website?
What are your primary business goals for this website? Is it achieving these goals?
What is the estimated size of your website (number of pages)?
Are there any legal or regulatory requirements that need to be considered for your website?
For existing websites, include the following questions:
What are the current issues or challenges you are experiencing with your website?
Design
Do you have any specific design preferences or requirements for your website?
Do you have any specific branding or visual identity guidelines that need to be followed?
What is your preferred color scheme?
Do you have any existing design elements that you would like us to incorporate?
What is your preferred tone of voice for your website?
Functionality
What features and functionalities do you want your website to have (e.g. eCommerce, contact forms, appointment scheduling, user registration, etc)?
Do you require any special integrations (e.g. social media sharing, Google Analytics, email marketing software, etc)?
What are your expectations for website performance (e.g. load time, speed, mobile responsiveness)?
Do you have any specific security requirements for your website?
Do you have a plan in place for website backups and security?
For existing websites, include the following questions:
Is your website mobile-friendly and responsive?
How does your website perform in terms of loading speed?
Is your website optimized for search engines?
Do you have any analytics or tracking tools installed on your website?
Has your website ever been negatively impacted by any core algorithm updates?
Content
How will you be creating and managing content for your website?
What type of media will you be using (e.g. images, videos, audio)?
Will you be updating the website content yourself or do you need ongoing maintenance and updates?
Do you need any help creating new content for your website?
For existing websites, include the following questions:
What content management system (CMS) are you currently using?
How frequently do you update your website’s content?
Do you have any existing website content that you would like to migrate to the new website?
Do you have any existing content that you would like us to use?
Also…
If content services are part of your offering, see the additional “Content Marketing” section below for more questions you can ask.
4) Client’s Marketing Efforts
By understanding your client’s marketing efforts, you can ensure that the website you create for them will be optimized for success.
For example, you can ask about the client’s SEO efforts, including any past keyword research or optimization. It is also important to understand any PPC campaigns the client has run, as well as their social media presence and email marketing efforts. Additionally, you can inquire about any PR campaigns the client has been a part of, including media outlets they have been featured in and soundbites from their representatives.
Here is a list of questions you could ask a potential client during the client briefing session to identify their marketing efforts related to SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing, PR, etc:
Marketing Goals
What are your primary marketing objectives, and how do you plan to achieve these?
Do you have a marketing plan in place for your website?
Have you done any marketing research to identify your target audience’s needs, preferences, pain points, and online behavior?
Have you done any competitive research to understand the strategies they are using to attract and retain customers?
Do you have a content marketing strategy in place? If so, what types of content have you found to be most effective in engaging your target audience?
What are your expectations for the role of your website in your overall marketing strategy, and how do you see it contributing to your business objectives?
Do you have any particular marketing challenges or pain points that you would like us to address through the website development process?
What increase in organic traffic (numbers or percentage) are you aiming for in the next six to 12 months?
How many conversions (leads and sales) would you like to get in the next six to 12 months?
Can you list any freelancers or agencies you have previously worked with? If so, what processes did you have in place with them that you would like for us to continue with, and what would you like to change?
Marketing Channels
How do you plan to promote your content to attract visitors to your website?
Have you ever invested in search engine optimization (SEO) services for your website? If so, what were the results?
Do you currently use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to your website? If so, what platforms do you use, and what has been your experience with them?
Have you established a presence on social media? If so, which platforms do you use, and how frequently do you post updates?
Have you used email marketing to promote your business or website? If so, what has been your experience with it?
Have you invested in public relations (PR) services to increase brand awareness or promote your products/services? If so, what has been the outcome? Can you provide us with the media outlets you have been published on and existing soundbites from your representatives?
Are there any specific keywords or phrases that you would like your website to rank for in search engine results pages (SERPs)?
How do you plan to allocate your marketing budget across different channels, and what portion of it are you willing to invest in website development and maintenance?
Do you require any specific SEO (Search Engine Optimization) features or services?
Do you need assistance with setting up and integrating social media accounts?
What’s your top acquisition channel?
Marketing Performance
How do you plan to measure the success of your website?
How do you currently measure the success of your marketing efforts, and what metrics do you track?
Are you currently doing anything to acquire links? Do you have a list of websites you’d like us to start with?
Have you ever purchased any paid links or been part of any link schemes?
Has your website experienced any issues with link penalties?
What are the primary calls to action for your website?
Also…
Access to platforms:
Do you have Google Analytics set up on your website? If so, please share access with [your email]
Do you have Google Search Console set up on your website? If so, please share access with [your email]
Do you have Google Ads set up on your website? If so, please share access with [your email]
Access to documents:
We may need access to some existing documents to help us align our campaign with those already running. Can we get access to existing documents?
Can you provide us with keyword research done by previous agencies/staff?
Can you provide us with reports/work done by the previous agency?
5) Content Marketing
The success of a WordPress website is heavily dependent on the quality and relevance of its content. As a result, it’s important to understand the client’s content needs and preferences during the needs analysis. Understanding the client’s content preferences can help the web developer to create a website that aligns with the client’s brand identity and resonates with the target audience.
In addition to gleaning information about your client’s marketing efforts and goals using channels like paid advertising, social media, etc, understanding the client’s content needs and preferences is crucial for the success of their project.
During the needs analysis, it’s important to ask the client about the types of content they want to create and publish on their website. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. Additionally, the web developer should inquire about the topics that the client wants to cover, the frequency at which they want to publish content, and the overall tone and voice that they want to convey.
Here are some questions you can ask during the client briefing session to gain a better understanding of the client’s content marketing needs and preferences and create a website that supports those goals:
Content Creation
What are the main topics that your audience is interested in?
What topics do you want to cover in your content?
What type of content do you plan on publishing on your website?
What types of media do you plan on incorporating into your content, such as images, videos, or infographics?
How often do you plan on publishing new content?
Who will be responsible for creating content for your website?
What tone and voice do you want your content to convey?
Have you identified any gaps in your content that need to be addressed?
Do you have any existing content that can be repurposed or updated for your new website?
Are there any particular examples of content that you like or dislike?
Do you have any existing content that you would like to repurpose or optimize for SEO?
Will you need assistance creating content?
Content Management
How do you plan to manage your content?
6) Client’s Budget and Timeline
Before starting any project, it is crucial to set clear expectations for the budget and timeline.
Asking the right questions about the client’s budget and their timeline expectations during the briefing session will help you and your client understand the scope of the project and plan accordingly to ensure the success of the web development project.
Here are some questions you can ask a potential client to gain a better understanding of their budget constraints, project scope, and timeline expectations to create a proposal tailored to their needs and budget:
Timeline
What is the scope of the project?
What is the timeline for completing this project?
Are there any important deadlines that we should be aware of or strict deadlines that must be met?
Are there any specific project milestones that you would like to achieve?
How flexible are you with the project timeline?
Budget
What is the budget you have allocated for this project? (Ideal, minimum, maximum)
Have you worked with a website developer before? If so, what was your budget for that project?
Are you looking for a developer to work on a fixed budget or hourly rate?
What is the scope of the project?
Are there any additional services or features that you would like to include in the project?
Are there any budget constraints that we should be aware of?
Do you have a preferred payment schedule or milestone-based payment plan?
Is there any flexibility in the project scope, budget, or timeline?
7) Additional Notes
Create a space in your questionnaire for additional notes. Use this space to record your own thoughts, observations, contact names, things your client says that you can quote, etc.
What to Do Before and After Your Client Briefing Session
The Needs Analysis Presentation is an integral part of your overall sales process. Getting your presentation scripts and Needs Assessment Questionnaire right are vitally important.
But so is what you do before and after this stage.
Let’s look at what you can do to maximize the results from your client briefing sessions.
Before The Client Briefing Session
Here are the steps you should take before conducting your client briefing session to ensure that you are well-prepared and can conduct a successful needs analysis that will lead to a customized solution for your client’s website and marketing needs:
Research the client’s business: Before meeting with the client, research their business and industry to understand their target audience, competitors, and market trends.
Identify the client’s pain points: Determine the client’s pain points by reviewing their existing website, marketing materials, and customer feedback.
Customize the questionnaire: Depending on the format of your NAQ, you may be able to customize the questionnaire for each client based on their specific business, website, and marketing needs. If not, a simple way to do this is to create your ideal NAQ and then simply cross off any unnecessary questions you can skip during the client briefing session, or add any specific questions to the “Additional Notes” section of the questionnaire.
Set clear objectives for the meeting: Determine the objectives for the meeting with the potential client, such as understanding their goals, identifying their website requirements, and discussing their budget.
Schedule the meeting: Schedule the client briefing meeting at a time that is convenient for both parties, and make sure the meeting is held in a distraction-free environment.
Rehearse the presentation: Practise your presentation, review your scripts, and visualize how your client briefing meeting will run to create a positive and successful client experience.
After The Client Briefing Session
After conducting your needs analysis presentation with a potential client, make sure to complete the following steps to maximize your results:
Analyze the information: Review and compile all the information gathered during the needs analysis session. This includes the client’s business goals, website requirements, marketing efforts, and budget. If your analysis qualifies the potential client as a prospect for your business, continue with the steps below. If not, proceed no further with this process. Instead, reach out to the client and explain why you don’t think you will be the best fit for their needs.
Develop a proposal:Develop a comprehensive proposal that outlines your website development process, timeline, deliverables, and costs. The proposal should address the specific needs and goals of the client and should highlight how your WordPress web development services will help the client achieve their objectives.
Customize the proposal: Once developed, customize it to address any specific concerns or questions the client raised during the needs analysis session. Ensure that the proposal reflects the client’s unique requirements and preferences.
Provide a clear quote: A quote that clearly outlines the costs associated with your services should be provided. It should be transparent and easy to understand, and should reflect the services outlined in the proposal.
Provide a timeline: Give the client a detailed timeline for the WordPress web development project that outlines key milestones and deliverables. The timeline should be realistic and achievable, and should reflect the client’s timeline expectations.
Schedule the next meeting: Book in a meeting at a time that is convenient for both parties in a distraction-free environment where you will provide the client with a presentation of your solutions and recommendations.
Depending on how you structure your sales process, you may also want to:
Schedule a follow-up call or meeting with the client to answer any outstanding questions or clarify any concerns or misunderstandings they may have about the proposal, quote, or timeline.
Provide additional information or clarification as needed to ensure the client is fully informed and comfortable moving forward with the proposal, including project scope, timeline, and cost.
Finalize the proposal, quote, and timeline with the client, confirm the client’s agreement and obtain any necessary signatures or approvals to move forward with the WordPress web development project.
As a WordPress web developer, one of the most important steps you can take to ensure the success of your projects is to conduct a thorough needs analysis with your clients. This will help you understand your client’s business, goals, existing website, marketing efforts, content needs, budget, and timeline.
Asking the right questions during the client briefing process is crucial for delivering the best solution that will not only meet their needs and budget, but hopefully also exceed their expectations.
Using a needs analysis tool like a Needs Assessment Questionnaire can save you valuable time during the client briefing and in the process of qualifying prospects for your business.
Additionally, it can help your business to identify potential roadblocks and challenges upfront, allowing you to develop a strategy that addresses these before they become a problem, keep your project on track, on budget, and on time, create customized WordPress solutions tailored to your clients’ unique needs, goals, and challenges, and establish a strong relationship with your client that can lead to repeat business, referrals, and long-term partnerships.
We hope you have found this information useful. Apply it to your business and watch your sales results improve!
If you want to outsource ecommerce fulfillment, ShipBob is the best service for most. Get a free quote from ShipBob today.
Optimizing fulfillment is essential to the growth of your online store. You must ensure the process is efficient and cost-effective on your end while keeping your customers happy by delivering their orders in a timely, convenient fashion. Here we’ll explain everything you need to know about the ecommerce fulfillment process and teach you how to do it most effectively.
The 5 Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Services
We reviewed the top ecommerce fulfillment services on the market today and appraised them on key differentiating factors such as scalability, shipping times, and supply chain expertise. Here are our top choices from that list:
You’ve had to consider ecommerce fulfillment from the moment you started your online business. It’s the crux of your business model, especially if you don’t have any brick-and-mortar stores for your customers to visit.
Ecommerce fulfillment refers to the storage, sorting, packing, and shipping of the products you sell on your online store, as well as the management of returns and exchanges. Some ecommerce companies take care of this entirely in-house, while others employ third-party fulfillment solutions.
If you have an actual inventory of products that need to be physically shipped to the people who order them from you, this contrasts with a couple of other ecommerce models. Some companies only deal with digital products, ranging from SaaS companies to online content creators, eliminating the need to consider shipping and fulfillment at all.
On the other hand, dropshipping companies don’t sell their own inventory; instead, they use vendors and providers to source inventory (who store the stock themselves and ship directly to the dropshipping store’s customers). Dropshippers still have to consider aspects of fulfillment, like picking-and-packing and shipping providers, but don’t have to fret about storage.
For most ecommerce stores, an efficient ecommerce fulfillment process is vital. Customers expect quick and reliable delivery, and a positive delivery experience means customers are more likely to return to your store and have a greater lifetime value.
How Ecommerce Fulfillment Works
Ecommerce fulfillment can be broken down into four steps: inventory management, order processing, shipping, and returns management.
Inventory management is just like it sounds. It requires that your product inventory be stored securely in a warehouse or similar facility. Each product needs a unique stock-keeping unit (SKU) number to keep track of it along the supply chain.
When you outsource the inventory management part of your fulfillment, that entails you sending inventory to the fulfillment company’s own warehouse. You’ll pay more for that convenience but can often unlock benefits like shorter time spans between the receipt of an order and when it ships out. And, if your fulfillment partner has multiple warehouses, you can often get items to your customers more quickly by having inventory in a warehouse nearest to their shipping address.
Shipbob can store your products across multiple fulfillment centers.
Order processing describes the sequence of events from when you get a customer’s order to prepare it for shipment. Your staff receives the information about the customer’s order, where to find the products in your inventory, shipping information, and any specific packing instructions. At the fulfillment center, staff retrieve the items, pack them, and add a shipping label.
Then, the package is shipped using the U.S. Postal Service or another carrier, like UPS, DHL, or FedEx. Whether you do this yourself or use a fulfillment service, you’ll receive tracking information that you can pass on to the customer and use to send delivery updates via email or text.
Returns management doesn’t always come into play, but it’s a crucial part of this process to prepare for. To facilitate and receive returns from customers, you must provide the means for them to send defective or mistakenly ordered products back to your company. For example, you might set up a page on your website that describes your return policy and a returns portal customers can use to print off shipping labels.
When you receive returns, they must be assessed and their value recovered where possible through resale. Alternatively, you’ll need to dispose of faulty items or items that no longer meet compliance regulations efficiently.
The Different Types of Ecommerce Fulfillment
Here are the three main ecommerce fulfillment models to consider.
In-house fulfillment entails storing and shipping products from your own premises. This may suit small or new ecommerce stores, as well as direct-to-consumer businesses that handle every step of the customer journey themselves.
Third-party fulfillment is when you send your inventory to a service provider that stores, picks, packs, and ships your products. This is the right option for growing businesses or those that want to scale effectively. A third-party provider has the infrastructure and technology to speed up shipping and reduce costs.
Dropshipping is a uniquely modern ecommerce model. You outsource manufacturing as well as fulfillment to a third party, essentially acting as a middle person promoting goods and getting a cut of the profits. This suits online entrepreneurs with little to no starting budget. Yet, it’s also difficult to make a ton of money from dropshipping alone.
Which Is the Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Model?
You may start small, even bootstrap an ecommerce store handling shipping from your own home or a small office. But, as your business grows, the logistics get more complex, not to mention more expensive.
In general, you should invest in a third-party fulfillment solution as soon as you feel financially able to do so. It means you can expand your product line, sell to more customers, and speed up the entire supply chain process, providing a better ROI and a better customer experience overall.
Third-party services like ShipBob have multiple distribution centers, meaning you can store and ship inventory from different locations across the country, close to where your customers live. It reduces the cost of shipping and means your packages arrive much quicker—a real win-win.
ShipBob provides maps to help you visualize where your customers are.
It’s crucial that you offer fast, reasonably priced delivery to stay in business. 68% of consumers abandon their shopping carts when shipping costs are too high, and 44% abandon their purchases when the estimated delivery time is too long for their liking.
Furthermore, third-party services automate much of the fulfillment process. For instance, inventory levels are automatically updated, and you’ll receive analytics reports containing sales insights and notifications to replenish inventory.
ShipBob’s reports enhance visibility across the supply chain, helping you make smart business decisions.
In other words, you get to focus on other aspects of your growing business and leave the complex processes to the robust tools that third-party fulfillment services have to offer.
The 5 Best Ways to Improve Ecommerce Fulfillment
Streamline processes, reduce costs, and increase shipping speeds to improve the ecommerce fulfillment process. Here are the most effective ways to do these things.
1. Offer Faster Shipping
Big companies have the infrastructure to ship products to customers super fast. ASOS, for example, is able to offer same-day delivery in the UK.
Customers have come to expect fast delivery times. The trouble is, it’s expensive for your average ecommerce store to make this happen.
But there are ways to get around this problem. Third-party fulfillment solutions have the infrastructure to be able to guarantee two-day delivery, for example.
They optimize where your products are shipped from and how they’re shipped. ShipBob’s two-day express fulfillment service uses a combination of ground, air, and regional carriers to transport goods, for example.
To lessen the cost of shipping, you can also use certain pricing strategies. Add shipping costs to the overall cost of the product to cover the expense of free or cheap delivery. Or, set up a minimum spend threshold on free delivery.
2. Use a Multichannel Fulfillment Program
Multichannel sales grow year on year in the United States. Selling on marketplaces, social media, and other channels in addition to your website is the norm these days.
This is because modern consumers require a simple, convenient shopping experience. They want to be able to buy items using their preferred channel or whatever app they’re browsing at the time.
This means your ecommerce fulfillment system must be equipped to handle multiple channels. Choose software or a third-party service that integrates with top sales channels as well as your online store. It makes the entire process more manageable.
ShipBob integrates with ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, and social selling channels.
Orders get sent to the fulfillment center from each channel automatically—you don’t need to be the middle person. This is another way you can streamline the fulfillment process.
3. Choose Optimal Storage Locations
Ship items from close to where your customers live to optimize shipping costs and speeds.
Shipping is calculated using zones based on the distance between the package’s point of origin and its destination. So, the closer the origin zone is to the destination zone, the better.
The best option is to store and ship from multiple locations. You can optimize the process in a granular way, using analytics data to store the right inventory in the right locations based on consumers’ purchase behaviors. ShipBob uses an algorithm to do this, for example. Or, you can manually determine what the best fulfillment provider is based on how close their warehouses are to your core customer base.
4. Adopt End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility
Capture and analyze data across your entire supply chain to increase efficiency. End-to-end visibility like this means you can improve processes, reduce costs, and make better business decisions.
It also ensures information about your inventory, orders, and shipping is accurate at every step of the ecommerce fulfillment process. Data and information are centralized, so everyone involved has the same, up-to-date information.
Technology is a game changer here. Industry experts say the aspects of the fulfillment operation ecommerce companies want to advance most in the next year are mechanization, automation, and robotics.
You can use a platform focused on supply chain analysis to increase visibility. Another option is to use technology such as devices equipped with GPS to accurately track the whereabouts of products and shipments while en route. Also, automating processes at each stage of the fulfillment process helps you track inventory accurately.
5. Reduce the Number of Returns
Returns are a natural part of running an ecommerce business, but they cost a lot of money. In 2021, returns accounted for $218 billion in lost sales for ecommerce stores around the world.
Assessing the quality of your supply chain can help you reduce the number of returns your customers make.
First, robust inventory management is key. For instance, the information on packing slips must be accurate to ensure the customer receives the right items. Automation reduces the possibility of human error here.
Naturally, products must also be stored in a safe and secure environment to reduce the likelihood of damage. And don’t cut costs when it comes to packaging. You’ll lose more money if an item is damaged in transit due to insufficient packaging.
Also, make sure to only work with credible shipping services. Naturally, customers are more likely to return an item if it’s damaged in transit or they don’t receive it on time.
5 Ecommerce Fulfillment Trends to Look Out For
It pays to stay on the cutting edge in the world of ecommerce fulfillment and supply chain management. Gain a competitive advantage by taking note of these trends:
Eco-conscious consumers: Customers care more about the environmental impact of their shopping habits. This means ecommerce companies should invest more in eco-friendly packaging and make sustainable values a part of their branding.
Predictive logistics: Using behavioral data, companies can predict what shoppers will buy and when. This means brands can have their inventory ready in the right warehouse at the right time, making fulfillment even faster and more efficient.
Real-time tracking: Companies can track their inventory and keep tabs on any order’s status in real-time by using a robust warehouse management system. This allows the brand to adjust any shipping details right up until it’s due to leave the fulfillment center.
Return to retail: Customers are increasingly shopping in-store as they crave authentic, in-person experiences that virtual stores have trouble replicating. Shipping delays, costs, and other missteps from brands are also driving people back to stores. For this reason, companies should place a greater emphasis on retail fulfillment—alongside ecommerce—than they may have previously.
Collect-in-store: Similar to the previous point, this is a smart fulfillment strategy that benefits both brands and consumers. By shipping to brick-and-mortar stores in bulk, companies are able to reduce shipping times and costs, leading to greater profits for the brand and better customer satisfaction. However, keep in mind that this won’t always be feasible for customers who may live in more remote areas.
Final Thoughts About Ecommerce Fulfillment
Ecommerce fulfillment is an important competitive differentiator nowadays. Fast, cheap, stress-free delivery is high on the list of customer expectations. Businesses must make that happen while keeping costs low.
Using a third-party ecommerce fulfillment solution is the best choice. They have the infrastructure, systems, and software to keep processes manageable, streamlined, and cost-effective. And they adapt to the ever-changing ecommerce environment well.
Automation, optimal locations, and end-to-end visibility are key to improving your ecommerce fulfillment process. This is also true of staying on top of logistics, supply chain, and fulfillment trends to ensure your company’s fulfillment strategy remains effective which contributes to the success of your online store.
Shipwire is a third-party logistics (3PL) provider offering end-to-end order fulfillment services. Many growing and established ecommerce brands rely on Shipwire for outsourcing logistics like storage, transport, distribution, and fulfillment.
The company also provides additional services that help you optimize your online sales, from parcel and freight contract negotiation to logistics consulting, procurement, and invoice reconciliation. Shipwire sounds good on paper, but how does it compare against the best ecommerce fulfillment services? Read on to find out.
Shipwire Compared
Shipwire didn’t make our top list of the best ecommerce fulfillment services, though it is a solid service. Instead, our favorite fulfillment service is ShipBob for its high fulfillment accuracy, same-day and two-day express shipping options, and intuitive dashboard for order management. Contact ShipBob for a custom quote based on your unique fulfillment needs.
Shipwire didn’t make our top list, but we still think the brand is established and valuable enough to warrant a standalone, in-depth review. Shipwire is likely to be a viable option for some ecommerce store owners.
Shipwire offers the typical fulfillment services you’d expect from a 3PL provider. The company connects its platform to your sales channel, stores your inventory, and picks, packs, and ships orders to your customers as they come in. Shipwire also offers value-added services, including product inspection, retail partner management, serial scanning, labeling, and ticketing.
Shipwire Health and Stability
Ideally, you want a long-term fulfillment partner that will stick with you. Few things are worse than something disrupting your supply chain during peak season or when you’ve scaled your operation. Fortunately, Shipwire has been around since 2006, with every indication that the company will continue to thrive.
Ingram Micro, a leading ecommerce logistics and supply chain management provider with over 50 global offices, acquired Shipwire in 2013 for an undisclosed amount. Shipwire was successful as a stand-alone company before the acquisition and has continued to be a leading option for the growing ecommerce sector.
Shipwire is truly among the first pioneers of providing ecommerce fulfillment services, previously attracting venture capital from well-known brands like eBay and Newell Rubbermaid. The company has also appeared four times on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States.
Shipwire Pricing
Shipwire offers two ways to pay for its service: prepaid and postpaid accounts. Prepaid customers must have sufficient funds in their accounts to cover the cost of shipping orders, with Shipwire deducting the shipping charges of each order from the account’s prepaid balance.
The company also offers Net Terms for postpaid accounts. Here, the company extends a credit limit for shipping orders. Shipwire only ships orders up to the prepaid account’s approved credit limit.
Shipwire uses a standard rate card to charge for its services, with separate pricing for each of its services you can tap into. You can view the charges you’ve incurred in real time in the Shipwire dashboard.
Shipwire charges per item, carton, or container via a receiving fee. However, you’ll pay an hourly rate for non-standard receiving. Non-standard receiving refers to items that don’t match your advanced shipping notice (ASN) description.
Similarly, Shipwire charges a per-unit rate for order returns or rejected orders. Shipwire refers to these chargeable actions as reverse logistics. Shipwire also charges a standard inventory storage fee, and you can also expect additional expenses for long-term storage beyond six months.
Finally, Shipwire may charge miscellaneous fees depending on your shipment or other needs. These can include:
Outbound serial capture
Third-party packing slips and labels
Package inserts
International preparation fees
Non-conveyable packages
Non-compliance fees
Shipwire Pricing Comparison
Unlike some competitors, Shipwire doesn’t provide any pricing details on its website. I had to dig around to find the company’s rate card. Unfortunately, even the rate card offers the bare minimum in terms of the pricing information. You’ll need to contact Shipwire for an accurate pricing estimate.
The public information is sufficient to compare Shipwire receiving rates with close competitors like ShipBob, Red Stag Fulfillment, and ShipMonk.
Shipwire’s receiving costs start at $0.59 per unit or $2.69 per carton. ShipMonk is slightly cheaper at a $2.50 per-carton receiving fee. ShipBob charges a $25 flat fee for the first two hours of receiving and $40 per hour after that. Shipwire’s receiving fee is slightly more expensive than the competition.
Returns at Shipwire start at $3.50 per unit, while ShipBob costs $3 per item. Additionally, Shipwire has a $500 monthly minimum pick and pack fee, while ShipBob’s threshold is just $250. Overall, Shipwire doesn’t offer the most competitive pricing on the market from what I can find.
Shipwire Trials and Guarantees
Shipwire’s software is free for all customers; it’s simply the usage of its facilities and labor that incurs charges. The Shipwire platform’s dashboard can monitor and manage inventory levels, fulfillment locations, order statuses, and sales. You only start paying when your goods arrive at a Shipwire warehouse.
Fortunately, Shipwire offers volume-based discounts. The company also compares rates for each order to find the lowest shipping fees for you during fulfillment. On top of that, Shipwire offers free onboarding to its new users, including assistance with connecting your sales channel to its platform.
Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Review
Shipwire is a renowned third-party logistics provider that leverages its proprietary technology to optimize fulfillment. The platform automatically routes each order based on the fastest delivery route analyzed from over 200 carriers, aided by Shipwire’s partnerships with most of the world’s top carriers, including USPS, UPS, and FedEx.
Shipwire has over 30 fulfillment centers across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Pacific Asia. Its platform supports over 100 retail channels and integrates with over 200 ecommerce connectors. Check out our review of the best ecommerce fulfillment services to compare Shipwire to other popular alternatives.
What Makes Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Great
Shipwire’s dashboard is intuitive and easy to use.
Global fulfillment centers: Shipwire boasts more than 10 million square feet of fulfillment space. In the United States, the company has warehouses in 14 different states. Shipwire also has centers in Great Britain, Sweden, China, the Netherlands, Australia, and Germany. The company can ship orders to more than 160 countries and is a terrific partner for ecommerce businesses set for global expansion.
Fast shipping: Shipwire offers same-day and next-day shipping, plus other service levels. Orders that arrive at the warehouse by 5.30 a.m. local warehouse time are shipped the same day, no questions asked. There’s also expedited same-day shipping available for a small fee, where Shipwire promises to fulfill your order if it arrives after the cut-off time or credit the extra fees to your account.
The company also offers best-effort same-day shipping even if you miss the cut-off time. For instance, Shipwire may still ship orders that arrive by 1:30 p.m. local warehouse time, it’s just not fully guaranteed. Finally, the company offers guaranteed next-day shipping if your order doesn’t qualify for same-day shipping, meaning you’re never waiting more than 36 hours for something to get shipped out.
Shipwire Anywhere: Shipwire allows you to integrate your ship-from locations such as warehouses, retail stores, or garages with its platform with ease. You can manage multiple fulfillment locations from the same dashboard, including your dropshipping vendors. Shipwire still follows up with your clients and updates your store inventory and tracking regardless of the fulfillment location. It’s a valuable service for businesses that don’t outsource 100% of their fulfillment or use multiple fulfillment channels.
Comprehensive marketplace coverage: Speaking of integrations, Shipwire provides you with connections to more than 200 marketplaces and shopping carts on its platform. You can easily connect with eBay, Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Etsy, to name a few. Shipwire also seamlessly connects to your marketing, CRM, and customer support tech stack, including software platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and Oracle.
Robust developer toolset: Shipwire offers an API for almost anything, including orders, rates, webhooks, stock, locations, vendors, receiving, and products. The platform also provides a sandbox account available on request to test your custom-built integrations. It’s a terrific platform for developers who want to customize how Shipwire connects to their business to match their specifications.
Easy to use: You’ll get expert assistance when first connecting your store to Shipwire and plenty of extra support thereafter. The platform uses artificial intelligence to calculate the most cost-effective shipping strategy based on your settings. The software also has an intuitive dashboard to manage work orders and track order information and transactions. You can generate customized reports for essential metrics like order inventory count, status, cost, carriers, and more.
Custom enterprise solutions: Shipwire offers bespoke services for nearly every aspect of supply chain management and logistics, hence the lack of a clear pricing structure. For example, Shipwire offers experts, technology, and insider knowledge to some users who want to improve transit times, boost customer satisfaction, or reduce shipping costs.
Some of these helpful solutions are an invoice consolidation platform called Parcel Pay, UPS parcel and freight audit software, and a spend management portal. In addition, you don’t have to change your fulfillment company to work with Shipwire. Shipwire can audit your current provider and renegotiate your contract for better rates, terms, and service level agreements.
Where Shipwire Fulfillment Service Falls Short
Shipwire will develop a personalized fulfillment plan for your ecommerce business.
Inconsistent customer experience: Shipwire has many happy customers and more than 40 years of experience in the logistics industry. Unfortunately, there are a good number of customer complaints regarding incorrectly fulfilled shipments. Curiously, the company doesn’t advertise its fulfillment accuracy on its website. Many fulfillment services, including ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment, proudly publicize this information.
Additionally, Shipwire doesn’t provide guarantees beyond helping you claim insurance in case your products are lost or damaged. On the other hand, Red Stag Fulfillment offers to pay the wholesale cost of lost or damaged items. Red Stag also waives the shipping fees and pays you an extra $50 if your orders aren’t shipped according to your service level.
High monthly minimum: Most fulfillment services have a monthly order minimum. However, Shipwire requires you to ship at least $500 per month, or else the company may charge you the difference. It’s not a problem for established businesses, but pre-launch brands and startups may struggle to meet this requirement. While ShipBob has a $250 monthly minimum, it also has a growth plan with no minimum monthly order requirement.
Opaque pricing: Unfortunately, Shipwire isn’t transparent with its pricing information. You’ll need to contact a company representative for complete pricing information. It’s frustrating if you are comparison shopping with other potential solutions. Similarly, Shipwire doesn’t offer a pricing calculator to compare prices with competitors. However, you can request no-commitment access to the platform to compare prices and confirm if Shipwire meets your requirements. In addition, you don’t have to pay until you send inventory to a Shipwire warehouse.
Miscellaneous fees: Shipwire charges multiple discretionary fees, including fines, interest, and various charges. So, read the contract thoroughly and agree to the company’s terms. Also, keep an eye on service fees and shipping charges.
Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Compared
Shipwire is an established logistics brand, but ShipBob is our first pick for the best ecommerce fulfillment service because of its transparent pricing, affordable rates, and no monthly order minimums.
Shipwire is one of the original ecommerce fulfillment pioneers and has been in business for nearly 20 years. The company’s strategic partnership with logistics giant Ingram Micro offers businesses easy access to international markets with a streamlined supply chain and logistics management. In addition, larger enterprises expanding to new markets will benefit from Shipwire services and presence in more than 160 countries.
Shipwire also offers invoice audit software and services and claims refunds on your behalf. Furthermore, the company helps with carrier contract optimization and transportation intelligence for companies that want to manage logistics costs. However, Shipwire may be too expensive for startups and small businesses that might fare better with a local or smaller ecommerce fulfillment company.
