1. The pitch of "instant blog theme to match your website" is a compelling one, and could lead to a profitable business model IMO.
2. For a version 1/MVP, I think it worked reasonably well.
3. However, I don't think it's a compelling enough feature to build YetAnotherBloggingPlatform and convince people to switch. I'm convinced Blogic would be way more enticing if you simply created themes for WordPress, Tumblr, and Posterous and charged $ for it. If you can scrape my site and build a blogging platform, then you can easily create the CSS/HTML/PHP necessary for these platforms.
Besides, do you really want to deal with 1000s of abandoned blogs, battling comment spam, and trying to play feature catch-up with these guys? ("Posterous does X. Why don't you? WordPress has Y. Why don't you?") Trust me, you don't
Of course, this means you're now competing with the likes of ThemeForest, et al. But that's not a bad thing. They've proven that people will pay to make their blog look good.
First off this is a great idea. I'd pay (see caveats below).
100% agree on YABP. It never even occurred to me that this would lead me into your "non-standard" blogging platform. I can't imagine most people wanting to do that. I know I wouldn't.
But I think combining this with WordPress hosting would make for a killer unique selling angle for non-tech savvy folks that need to setup a blog for their business. Selling a one-time use blog template generator isn't super compelling. Recurring revenue is SO much nicer.
If it was me I'd either:
1. Go into the same business as http://wpengine.com/ and use this as the differentiator or
2. Make this in to an engine you could sell to every company that hosts WP and it's friends.
It might me much nicer but the market is a lot smaller. The market for WP Themes from your main website includes every website with custom design that wants a blog. I also wouldn't underestimate how many people would pay a lot of money for this. Not 20$ but more like 200$. Not ramen startups that do everything through sweat equity but normal companies that would have to pay someone to do it. 200$ doesn't get you very far if you tell a designer to create a blog template based on your website. As an added plus they can already show you the end result so if you like it there is absolutely no risk involved.
Also the two products are in no way mutually exclusive.
Glad to hear this because we are working on a WordPress theme generator, with others to follow. It was the biggest piece of feedback we received from TechCrunch Disruptor.
I think its a very compelling idea and having gone all the way through was very impressed with your execution.
As for point 3..
- Yes you should look at charging for themes. I was half expecting you to offer to charge me to download a theme and even (literally) had my CC ready to go. So, that's what I would prefer actually.. a starting point for my theme, rather than blog hosting (in my case).
However I think it is a very compelling feature not so much for people who already have a blog and need to switch but more for people who already have a website and need a blog (which is me right now).
I completely agree. Working in web dev / internet marketing this is deff something that people would pay money for. I would even think that an agency level pricing model would be something to consider if you went that route.
Callmeed and anyone else interested in a Wordpress theme generation option: Email wordpress@alanhogan.com and I’ll personally ping you when we launch that.
Comments
Went through the demo. Here is my advice:
1. The pitch of "instant blog theme to match your website" is a compelling one, and could lead to a profitable business model IMO.
2. For a version 1/MVP, I think it worked reasonably well.
3. However, I don't think it's a compelling enough feature to build YetAnotherBloggingPlatform and convince people to switch. I'm convinced Blogic would be way more enticing if you simply created themes for WordPress, Tumblr, and Posterous and charged $ for it. If you can scrape my site and build a blogging platform, then you can easily create the CSS/HTML/PHP necessary for these platforms.
Besides, do you really want to deal with 1000s of abandoned blogs, battling comment spam, and trying to play feature catch-up with these guys? ("Posterous does X. Why don't you? WordPress has Y. Why don't you?") Trust me, you don't
Of course, this means you're now competing with the likes of ThemeForest, et al. But that's not a bad thing. They've proven that people will pay to make their blog look good.
My $0.02
First off this is a great idea. I'd pay (see caveats below).
100% agree on YABP. It never even occurred to me that this would lead me into your "non-standard" blogging platform. I can't imagine most people wanting to do that. I know I wouldn't.
But I think combining this with WordPress hosting would make for a killer unique selling angle for non-tech savvy folks that need to setup a blog for their business. Selling a one-time use blog template generator isn't super compelling. Recurring revenue is SO much nicer.
If it was me I'd either:
1. Go into the same business as http://wpengine.com/ and use this as the differentiator or
2. Make this in to an engine you could sell to every company that hosts WP and it's friends.
It might me much nicer but the market is a lot smaller. The market for WP Themes from your main website includes every website with custom design that wants a blog. I also wouldn't underestimate how many people would pay a lot of money for this. Not 20$ but more like 200$. Not ramen startups that do everything through sweat equity but normal companies that would have to pay someone to do it. 200$ doesn't get you very far if you tell a designer to create a blog template based on your website. As an added plus they can already show you the end result so if you like it there is absolutely no risk involved.
Also the two products are in no way mutually exclusive.
Glad to hear this because we are working on a WordPress theme generator, with others to follow. It was the biggest piece of feedback we received from TechCrunch Disruptor.
I agree, but with a caveat on point 3.
I think its a very compelling idea and having gone all the way through was very impressed with your execution.
As for point 3..
- Yes you should look at charging for themes. I was half expecting you to offer to charge me to download a theme and even (literally) had my CC ready to go. So, that's what I would prefer actually.. a starting point for my theme, rather than blog hosting (in my case).
However I think it is a very compelling feature not so much for people who already have a blog and need to switch but more for people who already have a website and need a blog (which is me right now).
Same thoughts here, I also love the Theme Extracting Wizard, very slick!
I completely agree. Working in web dev / internet marketing this is deff something that people would pay money for. I would even think that an agency level pricing model would be something to consider if you went that route.
Callmeed and anyone else interested in a Wordpress theme generation option: Email wordpress@alanhogan.com and I’ll personally ping you when we launch that.
>(...)if you simply created themes for WordPress, Tumblr, and Posterous and charged $ for it.
And blogger!