🌐 Justin's Blog

Over the past 15+ years, I have had the pleasure of meeting some incredibly smart people in the WordPress industry. Some of these people have businesses (such as selling courses), and others are building products for WordPress users (plugins & themes).

With recent news that WordPress now has 43% CMS market share, one thing is for certain: the WordPress business landscape is maturing.

We are seeing consolidation, higher pricing, more complex offerings, mature advertising campaigns, and more. It’s truly an exciting time!

There is also a lot at stake. So much so, that the people who have helped create this new, mature WordPress environment are feeling like they need to self-sensor for fear of retribution.

I understand this fear.

For many years, I would just sit, observe, and discuss with my friends in the WordPress space my unfiltered view about what was going on. Topics like:

• Product pricing
• Dealing with pain-in-the-ass customers
• Gutenberg
• Product sales and promotions
• Maximizing profitability
• WTF moments from Automattic
• WordPress idealism
• Unexplored opportunity areas

And the list goes on.

These backroom conversations that I had with my friends were incredibly helpful to my business, and in some ways therapeutic. The problem is, these conversations were behind closed doors.

There is a real, tangible benefit to having tough (somewhat controversial) conversations in a public setting. So far, very few folks do this in WordPress. For me, Matt Mederos from The Matt Report and The WPMinute is one of the few daring to occasionally broach these topics.

There is no shortage of podcasts in the WordPress space, but there is a shortage of conversations backed by proven success.

At the beginning of January, Matt put out a tweet asking folks what they wanted out of a WordPress focused podcast in 2022, so I threw in my two cents:

Honest, experience-based commentary on WP norms and business practices. What works and why, what could be better and how. Less platitudes and more specific (straight to the point) advice/opinions/guidance.

Too much?? ?

— Justin Ferriman ? (@JustinFerriman) January 4, 2022

The more I thought on my reply, the more I realized that I could help bring this to fruition. Since the sale of LearnDash, I have more time. So, I got to thinking…

I should take the backroom conversations (the ones that helped me create a multimillion dollar, international brand) out into the public.

So, that’s what I am doing with…

NoFilter.fm — No BS WordPress Business Commentary

Every two weeks, I will host a gathering on Twitter Spaces to share proven methodology, tactics, and opinions directly responsible for generating multiple millions of dollars in revenue.

Co-hosting with me will be Ross Johnson from 3.7Designs.

Ross started as a freelancer right out of college and today with his wife runs a 7-figure WordPress design agency. He also has a handful of WordPress products that result in over $100,000 of revenue each year.

Over the years, Ross and I have bounced ideas off of each other as we grew our respective companies to millions of dollars.

Our goal is to help other WordPress entrepreneurs by discussing business topics that I wish were talked about when I was first starting. We will also discuss business themes as it relates to the industry as a whole.

The conversations will be recorded and published later as a podcast.

Here is what you should do next…

• Follow the NoFilter.fm Twitter account (this is where the spaces will be hosted).
• Subscribe for updates on the NoFilter.fm website (replays will be here and on major platforms such as Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts).
• Last, just show up and join the conversation!

I look forward to seeing you join us in the next conversation!

#WordPress

The new year has started and with it, I have a few goals in mind, one of which being my desire to progress to a more advanced level of Spanish.

Last year I spent most of my time in informal conversations. I just didn’t have the energy to study formally with my teacher, so we would spend our hour-long Zoom calls just chatting.

In addition, Lorena and I spent six weeks in Mexico, and I felt like that helped to improve my comfort in conversations. I had my good days and bad days. It can be incredibly frustrating trying to learn a language in a world where everyone wears a mask.

Now that we have returned from yet another extended stay in Mexico, I feel like I am trapped at my current language level. If I am honest with myself, I would say that my comprehension and speaking abilities are at a B2. Not an advanced B2 by any means. There are days when I would say that I am B1, especially if I am tired.

My goal is to be advanced B2 (or low C1) by the end of 2022.

My first year of learning Spanish was 2020. I didn’t know any, and by the end of the year I was at a pretty good A2 level. It wasn’t easy getting there, but my gains were very noticeable as I was starting from nothing.

During that time, I had three to four classes per week with my tutor. We went through the structured workbook during our time together, and outside my lessons I would read, study vocabulary, and try to watch shows in Spanish (with subtitles).

2021 was the year of conversations, as I mentioned.

Which brings me to this year. I have a strong desire to progress to that next level, and I know that I need to follow a similar strategy as 2020 to achieve it. This means I need my lessons with my tutor to be more structured again so that I can learn the more advanced grammatical structures and vocabulary.

I am up for the challenge. My primary motivation is to better communicate with Lorena and her family in their native language. I also want to better understand Mexican culture, and the best way to do that is through language.

No sense in waiting, either, as my lessons start up again this week.

#personal

Defining success in a modern world.

Let’s talk about “success”. We are all striving for it, but it's rarely talked about in a specific way.

Maybe that's because success is a hard thing to pinpoint. It can be defined an infinite number of ways. My version of success might not be your version.

I fully recognize this reality, but I also know that my opinions about success formed as a result of people sharing their perspectives on the matter.

Which brings me to The Success Manifesto.

This document is how I define success in my life (both professional and personal), and the proven way that I know of to obtain it. Happiness and wealth.

My goal is not for you to agree with everything, but to at least think critically about what is written here and to determine how (if at all) it applies to your views of success.

Success ≠ Money.

Money is what people often associate with success. However, what is actually desirable is not money itself, but the things that money affords you to do.

The things you can purchase, the places you can go, and the freedom to not worry about everyday expenses. These are the byproducts of money. Money is not the primary focus.

With very few exceptions, people who have money get it because of the byproduct of what they enjoy.

Bill Gates didn't set out to make millions. He had a burning desire to bring his vision of computing to life. Steve Jobs wasn't trying to build up his retirement fund, he had a burning desire to... beat Bill Gates. 😆

The point is that money is a poor long-term motivator. It can be incredibly motivating for a final push on a project or for getting something actually released, but it's not something anyone can hold for extended amounts of time as the only motivation for the actions they take in life.

Even people who claim that they are only in business to make a lot of money are lying. They get their joy out of the process, not the money itself.

Never in my life have I focused on money. I focus on happiness and the money follows. My happiness derives from owning my time. That is priceless.

Before being an entrepreneur full-time, I was a consultant at Accenture. I was told where to go and for how long. I was told that I had to work weekends. I was told that I couldn't leave the office before 7PM. Not only that, but I was told when I could and couldn't take vacation.

After about five years, this wore me down. I was not happy. I longed to be the master of my time. If I could own my time, I would be richer than the most powerful CEO because at the end of the day, I answered to no one.

When are You “Wealthy”?

I am a realist: money does matter.

So, when are you considered wealthy?

Some people want to reach a certain level of monetary wealth before they claim they will be happy.

In my early 20s, I used to think this way too. I would start to focus on how much money per month I would need to make to be happy. For some it's six-figures, others it's more.

I am reminded of a moment that I had with my dad when I was a teenager. We were driving back from a soccer game, and we were talking about a family friend who was really financially well-off (his family owns some car dealerships).

I remember asking my dad if he ever got jealous of friends who made more money. He calmly told me “no”, and further explained:

"No matter how much money you make, there will always be someone who makes more than you." - My Dad

Focusing on money is like building a house on sand. It's not stable and it's constantly changing. The more money you obtain, the more aware you become of how much money someone else has in comparison. This is a dangerous mindset.

When I sat down to think about what wealth meant to me, I tried to clearly define it in the context of dollars. Yes, I feel incredibly wealthy by owning my time, that's the most important currency for me. But money is essential, and it does open up opportunity.

I have never been one to associate lavish vacations or purchases with wealth. Sure, those things are cool and are status symbols, but that is not wealth to me. For me, true monetary wealth is being able to buy groceries and to have any health related procedure without looking at the bill.

If you consider the number of people in the world that have to carefully budget their food and health expenditures, then you start to see how truly wealthy you are if you can do those two things without having to worry.

Without your health, you have nothing. Your money is no good to you without it.

The Secret to Enjoying Wealth

You ever see someone who is super rich but seems unhappy all the time?

They take the tropical vacations and post them all over Facebook, buy the fancy new car, and live in a mansion — yet somehow they still don't seem content. They are chasing happiness.

Money solves many problems, but it doesn't settle an unsettled soul. Buying things provides temporary excitement, but can just as easily make someone keenly aware of those around them who “have more”.

I am reminded of what it is like learning a language. I have been studying Spanish weekly in a goal to become comfortably fluent.

The better I get at Spanish, the more I am aware of how much I do not know. There are so many words that I will probably never know in Spanish. It's easy to get complacent. I'll admit, I sometimes get jealous when I see another non-native Spanish speaker effortlessly use the language. In reality, I should be proud of where I am at in my language journey rather than comparing myself to others.

Focusing on the monetary aspects of wealth is similar. The more you make, the more you become aware of who around you makes more money. It's easy to become jealous. To want what they have.

And sadly, once you reach that level of monetary wealth, you'll be saying the same thing because there will always be someone making more money than you.

Here's the secret: if you're able to buy groceries and take care of any medical bill without any worries, then everything else you get is just icing on the cake! The vacations, the new car, and the nice home are unexpected bonuses. You live in a state of gratitude rather than jealousy. You can be at peace and happy.

This is how I focus on happiness instead of profits. It drives every decision that I make.

Of course, I am bias and believe that this Success Manifesto could be adopted by everyone, including you. It is liberating and puts into perspective what really matters.

At the very least, I hope that I have made you think critically about what success means to you. The real work comes in trying to achieve this kind of success.

#happiness

I am not one to make hard-set resolutions, but I do think about the upcoming year and I have some goals in mind:

• Help Lorena launch additional offerings at LoreFit.
• End the year at a very solid B2 CEFR level in Spanish.
• Start a podcast, and keep it going for the year.
• Go on more personal trips, COVID permitting.
• Get an idea of where we want to live (not Texas).
• Continue to write (somewhat) consistently on this blog.
• Visit close friends.
• Show more gratitude, laugh easily, and love deeply.

I’m sure over time I could add more to this list. For the moment, this is what is on my mind heading into 2022.

Have a safe and happy new year!

#personal

It is the end of the year, and while I am quite busy with family events during the holiday, I am also keenly aware of the impact 2021 will forever have in my life.

The coming year will have milestones as well, but there was something special about this year that will be hard to beat. Things like:

1. Getting married

2. Selling my business

3. Visiting (and shopping for a home) in Lake Tahoe

4. Progressing in Spanish

5. Traveling to Mexico

6. Getting vaccinated

And so much more – such as having the opportunity to travel to Dallas, Vegas, Denver, Michigan, and Connecticut with Lorena.

Of course, this year has also had its hardships. Most notably, I lost my grandmother. That has been tough, and I find myself thinking about her daily. In a way, her passing has reminded me of how precious life actually is, and to not take anything, or anyone, for granted.

For now, we are ending the year in the same way that it started: busy and with family! We will be in Chicago, Michigan, Cancun, and Mexico City over the coming weeks.

After which, we come back to Austin – but only for a short period of time, as Lorena and I will be looking to make somewhere else our home in 2022.

Merry Christmas, and see you in the new year!

#personal

It's the easiest decision you'll ever have to make.

Can we talk about Black Friday sales?

Can we also make it the last time we talk about Black Friday sales?

Okay, good. I’m glad we are on the same page.

This article is the “be-all, end-all” for the discussion of whether you should, or should not, run Black Friday sales in your business. Next year, when this conversation comes up, just send this article to the person who is asking the question.

When you first start a business, you wear many hats, from janitor to CEO, and everything in between. You are the one to make the big, strategic decisions for the company, and then you are the person who has to implement them.

Smart entrepreneurs understand that they don’t have the answers to every unique situation, especially the first time around. As such, they often rely upon their network for advice on certain topics.

And inevitably, one of those topics is Black Friday.

I am a member of a few entrepreneurial groups (mostly around the WordPress space) and like clockwork, around October people begin to ask whether they should have a Black Friday sale. This then sparks lengthy discussions that go into weird directions, from ethics and capitalism to politics and cultures.

Whether you should have a Black Friday sale or not is an odd question, as the answer is quite obvious: yes, you should.

There is No Gray Area

It is incredibly stupid to not have a Black Friday sale.

For a few years while running LearnDash, I decided not to have a Black Friday sale, and I convinced myself that my decision was the right one using the same arguments I see others use today. I’m sure you have seen, or maybe even used yourself, one of these:

“Black Friday sales devalue our product.”

“It’s not fair to people who purchased before the sale.”

“It feels dishonest.”

“Current customers will get mad.”

“Current customers will want the sale retroactively applied.”

Every one of these statements is unequivocally false. If you think this way now, purge it from your head. You are wrong.

Whenever I see people present (terrible) arguments against having a Black Friday sale, I want to shake them to their senses. Though over time I have come to realize that this is just a “growing pain” that every early entrepreneur has to go through.

Look, I get it. I know that being an entrepreneur is hard. We are constantly faced with decisions, and the answers aren’t always clear. We are used to solving these complexities. But that’s not the case for this one, and this super easy decision will add thousands upon thousands of dollars to your bottom line, like it did for Maarten:

That's a wrap! Black Friday was a success! pic.twitter.com/TUXgjigqpG

— Maarten Belmans (@PoeHaH) November 30, 2021

Maximize the Impact

My first year doing a Black Friday sale, I didn’t do any kind of promotion. I just threw up a site wide sale announcement on my website and slashed the price by 50%. Even then, it resulted in over four times the normal sales on a typical day.

Over time, I added some more elements, but I never went overboard with the promotion. At a certain point, it can have diminishing returns. Remember, the point of Black Friday is that you maximize revenue for very little effort.

Here are some tips for maximizing your Black Friday sale reach. These are the exact ones that I used to reach strong six figure Black Friday sales:

• Offer 50% off – Anything less than 50% is a waste of time and isn’t enough to elicit impulse purchases.
• Use countdown timers – Put a banner on every page of your website advertising the sale and include a timer for when that sale is over to create a sense of urgency. Important: include a button to your purchase page on the banner!
• Create affiliate materials – Leading up to the sale, email your affiliates to let them know of the discount. Give them promotional materials like website banners, images, videos, and email swipes. Make it as “point-and-click” as possible.
• Don’t offer lifetime deals – I won’t drain this topic, as I have written about it quite extensively already. The biggest benefit of doing a yearly Black Friday sale is that it will compound over time, assuming you have a yearly renewal.
• Renew at full-price – Black Friday special pricing is for new customers, not existing. When renewal comes for these purchases, it should renew at the full price or close to it. Be upfront about this with your promotion and you’re all good.

Black Friday is a great time to experiment with your marketing in general as well! It’s the perfect testing ground to try out those strategies you have been thinking about implementing. My friend Joe Casabona did this and had his best Black Friday ever!

? A new episode of @howibuilt is out! This week, I talk to you about lessons learned from my best Black Friday sale ever.. https://t.co/2zNJ7P8REZ https://t.co/LnYYZiouYg

— ?? Joe Casabona (@jcasabona) December 6, 2021

Black Friday is Not a Hard Decision

Many people overthink Black Friday. If that's you, then stop. It’s actually the easiest one you will ever have to make for your business.

The best part about Black Friday sales is that the world understands how it works. There is no educating people on what it means and why the sale exists. Consumers know they can get a deal on products, and that this deal is limited in time. They also know that the deals around this time of year are often the best deals ever offered by a company.

There is absolutely no need to apologize, feel bad, or feel like you owe something to those who purchased previously. If you feel this way, you are overthinking it.

Keep it simple because the reality is that Black Friday is exactly that: simple.

It is a win for your customers and a win for your business. My advice to anyone questioning Black Friday is to take the win, and put your energy into the real issues you are facing with your business. You can then use some of that Black Friday revenue to help solve it. 😉

At the end of the day, the best way to help your current customers is for your business to do well. The more money you make, the more you can do for those who have trusted you and your product. If you choose not to have a Black Friday sale, you aren’t doing everything possible to properly serve your customers.

Have the sale, and know that everyone benefits from it.

#entrepreneurship

Comment

Normally posts like this come at Thanksgiving, but truth is I’ll be too busy to write something by then, so I’m posting a week early. 😅

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, no doubt. Though that could be said for every year that I am alive and in good health. That said, three events that come to mind:

• Getting married
• Selling LearnDash
• Visiting Mexico

The older I get, the more I realize how lucky I truly am. I’m married to in incredible woman, I am part of a loving and supportive family, I have professional success beyond what I realized ever possible, and I have my mental & physical health.

This year, Lorena and I are going to Michigan to celebrate Thanksgiving. My brother and his family recently moved back to the U.S. from Germany, so it is the first time we all are together celebrating the holiday together (yet another thing to be grateful for)!

We will be relaxing, going to a hockey game (go Wings!) and heading to Ohio to visit my grandpa. Afterwards, we fly from Detroit to Mexico City for a quick trip to celebrate Lorena’s younger sister graduating from university.

Heading back to Austin, we will catch our breath briefly before doing the rounds again for Christmas and the new year!

#personal

Lorena and I are off to Connecticut again to visit family. The trip is quick to celebrate a couple of birthdays, but it’s means a little more than that to me.

A year ago, visiting Connecticut was the first trip Lorena and I took together, and it was the first time I met her family.

Fast-forward to today, and so much has happened. We were engaged, moved to Austin, Lorena left her corporate job, we got married, traveled some more, I sold LearnDash, and now Lorena’s fitness business is starting to gain momentum. We are only just starting our lives together, and we have created some incredible memories already.

It’s always easy (and fun) to look ahead and what is to come, but I have always been someone who looks back at the path traveled. We lived a lot of great life this year, although it wasn’t without a little heartache.

One year later and life is so much different. I am not meeting strangers for the first time, I am part of the family, and it feels good.

#personal

What is happiness to you?

How do you continue to have vigor for life?

What motivates you daily?

These are questions I have asked myself over the years, and when I think on the answer, I always come to the same conclusion:

Happiness is learning.

Vigor in life is when something I learn becomes useful.

Learning new things is what motivates me daily.

I believe that humans are not meant to be stagnant physically or mentally. If we aren't moving our bodies and minds, we shut down. The easiest way to prevent this is to always be learning.

This doesn't necessarily suggest that you need to learn something new. It can simply be learning an existing skill more deeply. For me, that would be learning to speak Spanish. I could study it my entire life and still never reach the same level as my English — but that doesn't mean I will stop trying!

I recently started a blog written only in Spanish as a way to practice writing and my vocabulary. It's a challenge, but I think I am up for it. I am aiming for a blog post per week on entrepreneurial related topics.

What are you learning?

#happiness

I remember when Matt Mullenweg first announced the Gutenberg editor for WordPress, there were a slew of review posts (many critical). I have been largely quiet on the matter, as I have always felt that time was needed to give it a chance to fully develop.

When I heard news that the classic editor in WordPress was going to be replaced, I was pretty happy about it. Truth be told, the classic editor was so dated it was becoming embarrassing. While once a class leader, by 2018 it was more enjoyable to write in a Google Doc.

WordPress was ready for an upgrade. While I knew it would mean a lot of work for my developers to update LearnDash accordingly, I was pleased with the direction Matt and the WordPress core team were taking to remain competitive (and to keep their investors happy).

What I didn’t expect was a complete shift from the typical WordPress value proposition.

In my ignorance, I thought that the updated experience would focus on making a killer writing experience for bloggers. Something like Medium or Substack, but better. Something done the “WordPress way” that helped writers bring their words to life on the world’s greatest CMS.

What we got was something in-between a page builder and writing tool, and as of the date of this article, it’s not a class leader in either category.

You can’t be two things at once, at least not very well. Yet, this is what we have with the Gutenberg editor.

From Day 1, Gutenberg was sold to us as a front-end page builder.

First, it was pretty apparent to everyone that it was nothing close to a front-end builder. Like, not at all.

That was a mistake, and I think the core team realized it afterwards. Since then, corporate has changed that terminology slightly to “full-site editing”, and it has caught on. This is probably for the best, as there is nothing front-end about Gutenberg, but it still conveys a similar value proposition to users.

But not only were we promised a site builder, we were also told that the new editor experience was an excellent writing tool. It was clear to all of us in attendance during its unveiling that Gutenberg was definitely not that, either.

I was okay with this at the time because everything was new. It has been years since then, and Gutenberg has come a long way (in particular as a page builder). I have seen folks create some pretty attractive websites using it. I particularly think that Kadence does an impressive job with their layouts. Websites using Gutenberg also load very fast, which is of critical importance.

But I feel that these page building developments have come at a cost: the writing experience in the Gutenberg editor is pretty bad. Is it the worst thing out there? No. It’s sufficient, but its performance largely depends on your site and the number of plugins you may have installed.

Now, I know of regular bloggers who think it’s somewhat enjoyable. While that’s great, I have to ask: is the writing experience actually better than platforms such as Medium and Substack?

I put out a tweet about how I felt Matt’s Gutenberg editor was positioned more as a page builder, and not for writing. I received some replies from folks who said they have grown to appreciate it, like this one from my friend Alex:

I like the block editor. It’s a little quirky sometimes, but I’ve gotten quite comfortable with it. Now when I go back to classic I feel the same as you.

— Alex Standiford (@AlexStandiford) August 28, 2021

This seems to be the prevailing sentiment. The experience is something that you get used to using. Though, I am not certain if that's the tagline WordPress would want to use:

“Writing in WordPress: you'll get used to it!”

The lack-luster writing experience is what gets to me the most. So much so that I don’t even bother using WordPress for this blog. I use WriteFreely instead, another open-source software but with an emphasis on writing and simplicity (I have a deep-dive article that I am finishing related to this. If you’re interested, subscribe at the end of this post to get notified).

All of this said, I always recommend WordPress to people looking to build a business that relies upon organic traffic from Google. And as a CMS, WordPress can’t be beat! You can create super advanced functionality without any code.

So, what is the real plan here?

I have to believe that there is a long-term plan with the editor experience that we are not privy to in the WordPress community. This feels especially true given the large amount of investment to come Automattic’s way in recent years. But to be fair, long-term plans are never shared from corporate. Two and three-year plans maybe, but not five to seven-year objectives.

And while the community has for the most part adopted Gutenberg, it did feel a little forced. Meanwhile, Elementor continues to crush it. This is starting to create an awkward scenario where Matt’s homegrown page builder is losing out to a third-party page builder for WordPress. It’s not a good look currently, but I do think that the gap is starting to narrow.

I continue to pull for Gutenberg. I know that it will grow as a page builder, and maybe along the way it can become a decent writing tool as well, but I am not confident that this is a top priority. Regardless, there are smart people behind the whole project, and it shows.

#WordPress