I was invited onto WP watercooler but in the end decided not to - having listened to their podcasts prior to my scheduled slot, all I heard was mocking of what we were trying to do.
Honestly, I had better things to do with my time than try and defend ClassicPress to people who thought it was a joke.
Tim is being very generous with his wording, but the reality is that we’re facing real censorship. Interviews have been scrubbed from popular WordPress outlets.
At the end of the day, people know which side their bread is buttered, and have made decisions based on that.
This is why I think it’s vital to reach outside the relatively small publications that talk about WordPress and reach the wider market.
Scott, given what you say, it makes sense that WP Watercooler, which features WP “celebrities” and staff, should be against the CP concept from the get go. There is no reason or logic in defending CP, only in discussing its benefits as an alternative. So I agree with not wanting to be exposed to that abuse.
My main reason for suggesting podcast appearances was to try to help CP gain exposure, which it will gradually over time regardless.
I throw my two cents here. We need bloggers to write about CP.
I mean, not WordPressers.
We need someone willing to write about CP honestly.
We don’t need to “defend” CP.
There are a lot of CMSs out there, competition exists… But we don’t need to “defend” ourselves. We need to compete. On their same ground.
WP has many bloggers writing tutorials, reviews on themes and plugins and the like. We need that also. We need our site to get traffic and Google ranking.
We will attract the right target if we ask the right questions.
My first post will be published on December 3rd on elisabettacarrara.com, I am going to be one of the bloggers we need.
That is why it’s better to prepare some marketing material me and other bloggers can refer to in their blogs.
Ummmm…okay? I don’t disagree with the sentiments. I think writing is fine. Should the writing be on the ClassicPress site/blog? Personally, I’d love to see a series of videos on YouTube with WordPress and Gutenberg in the SEO meta tags…but certainly content distribution will get SEO and eyeballs.
Blogging about CP and sharing on social is excellent. YouTube would be great but we need folks who actually do that sort of thing already to jump in and carry that ball forward.
These are all excellent ideas. They all require some combination of 3 things: time, resources, and money. As an all-volunteer project, how can we make it easier for those who want to share about us? What barriers can we reduce or remove?
I think anyone’s who’s comfortable on YouTube and has videos/vlogging already could certainly do one or two videos on ClassicPress. I’m not Brad Pitt but I could do a video walkthrough, just showing how CP works on a “dummy” or “demo” or even a real site installation and use “gutenberg” “WordPress” and “ClassicPress” and “wordpress fork” in the description and meta tags and title. Don’t know what one or two videos would do on YouTube but when I searched for ClassicPress on YouTube recently I couldn’t find anything. Would it be okay with you CP guys if I did one or two brief videos showing an installation and walkthrough? I could do a basic screencast with just music but at least there’d be something up…
I think also everyone who has a WP meetup could put something about ClassicPress in their meetup descriptions, create a discussion about it, add the “sponsored by” thingamajig.
We could all write a blog post about it and become more vocal about our support of it.
I used to run a PR/Marcom agency; I taught PR/Marcom for 11 years at two uni’s; I have started and run three B2B businesses; I headed an Innovation Assessment Center in a research university’s business college and… the problem that comes from doing all that is that my poor little tummy gets all queasy when I see people rushing into tactics before doing some secondary research, creating talking points and using that foundational information to map out a strategic plan. Absent that, the world becomes a scatter-gun of activity.
This is why I recommended at the beginning of my marketing statements that a comprehensive marketing plan be developed with multiple support tiers (or strategies) also written into it. Then that plan could be edited amongst whomever Scott thinks should be in that discussion. Then that plan is whittled down until it’s a lean startup growth plan that is directed, deliberate, focused and will reach a primary goal.
I’m not going to go over my experience in depth, suffice it to say that I’ve also taught at the University level, worked for multiple agencies for about 20 years, have freelanced for Microsoft and was a business mentor for SCORE where I advised hundreds of business owners one-on-one for about a decade. I offer input and then back off and let people do what they want that way I’m detached from the results. Ultimately, people in general often do what is easiest to execute on, which is disconnected random strategy work.
I’d be okay with that. It’s a slight difference types of plans, but any plan is better than taking a scattershot approach in my estimation.
When i work with clients, I zero in on a diagnostic approach so we can solve larger, real-world problems that impact them. They focus on tools or strategies, so nothing ever gets accomplished insofar as reaching desired objectives. When I advised business owners through SCORE, it was always the same thing: focusing on tools or strategies rather than taking a methodical organized, planned approach and working from that. What are we really trying to accomplish? How do we achieve that goal? What agreed upon methods can we use, what markets can we use, how do communicate, who is reaching out to media (if anyone)? Who’s writing blog posts, making video content, who’s appealing for funding and how’s that being done, what are the priorities from top down?
There’s quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily breakdowns of assigned tasks; just as if you worked at a large agency. There are team leaders who act as project managers within a group or distributed team. Organization is key.
Marketing would imply we have some budgets here we dont. Grass roots features will bring new users. Guides/help etc. Envato/cPanel auto installers etc.
Marketing is as strong as the people using it. If there’s no interest, nothing gets done. If those at the top say there is no money for marketing, then that option is stalled. Grass roots can bring in new users, yes; but only if it’s coordinated, repeated, and organized…which kind of takes us back to square one with no plan except go out and do stuff. Some might catch, but alot more could get done with organized effort and if you doubt that…just look at how any great movement achieved victory or how long-shot candidates won against seemingly impossible odds.
Using it? Its budget based and the execution comes next, what are we marketing here a new CMS a fork etc. We need features and we need to fill gaps in knowledge and also stability WP is leaving behind. Big thought wont get us far.
Equally a topic we could mull over for years, Im saying here actionable things. Not generic ones.
This is why I’m such a big advocate of planning first; building a marketing plan that divides and delegates approaches or tiers. I use the military metaphor just because I grew up around military people. I don’t like many things about the military as a “Navy brat,” but there are things about organization and chain of command and developing strategies that I took away.
What’s your thoughts on developing a focused plan with strategic approaches toward a unified goal? Obviously that’s vague because it’d have to be worked out and defined. Once that’s done, a budget makes more sense.
Is the logo / branding at a stopping point or is there interest in exploring and/or refining it further?
I’d be willing to help with this if there is need for it (formal education and work background is in branding and design before I got into web design, ux, etc.).
How about a Marcom PR plan instead though? Faster to develop than a marketing plan…