If you have been part of the Marketplace since last year, you may remember us doing a partnership with a plugin called WP FeedBack. They’ve just released something that I’m super excited about and you should be too, how does a social network strictly for WordPress users sound?
As I’ve been involved with the WordPress community for around a decade, my eyes are wide open to the power it possesses and how anyone can benefit from using its power correctly. Whether you own an agency, are a freelancer or product maker, there is a place for you and if you are willing to fill that place, you will most definitely prosper in whichever way you please.
However, for someone who has never been involved in the WordPress community, where do you go to get started? Even seasoned WordPress users that already engage with the community, how do you keep up with all of the different websites and platforms you need to visit to stay up-to-date?
In this post we are going to take a look at the problems people face when trying to interact with the WordPress community and how Vito’s brand new platform, WP FeedBack, is trying to tackle them.
If you’re already curious, sign up for free here using my invite.
If I haven’t grabbed ya yet, keep reading!
The Problem With Community
I’m part of so many different groups, social networks and platforms that sometimes I am actually overwhelmed or my activity drops in some places and stays high in others (whereas I want to be active in all of them!).
I’m part of dozens of Facebook groups generic to WordPress and for the plugins that I like to use, Slack channels filled with people I discuss topics with filled with 100s of different people, my Skype randomly going off, WhatsApp groups and chats, Twitter DMs, Instagram updates, LinkedIn Messages and on top of all that, I want to check 20 different WordPress blogs to stay up to date. The list is never ending.
When this all finally became too much, I began looking for a website where I could minimize the amount of different places I needed to visit in order to interact with the community how I wanted. And to my surprise, there were none. I got tired of seeing kittens, politics and baby pics by friends from high school being posted on my Facebook feed when trying to go into my communities. Frankly, those social platforms should stay exactly that, social.
What if there was one platform without all of the distractions and clutter, that hosts everything WordPress related that you want to consume and interact with?
A New, Free Professional Platform
This is how WP FeedBack was conceptualised. If you have heard of WP FeedBack before, you’ll know it as a WordPress plugin that allows you to communicate with your clients visually (We had an awesome sale with the plugin at the end of last summer). What was known as WP FeedBack is now WP FeedBack PRO.
The original concept for the WP FeedBack was to give WordPress Pros a tool that would make their lives easier when it came to interacting with clients, which in turn would save them time, make them more money and help them scale their business. While this still rings true, with the new WP FeedBack platform, Vito wants to provide an additional (and free) service that does all of these things at a much higher level for the WordPress community.
For those of you that are already using WP FeedBack PRO to redefine your web design feedback experience for clients and your agency, nothing has changed for you, but you are also more than welcome to join the WP FeedBack Network if you want to network with like-minded individuals and agency owners.
WP FeedBack itself is now the new home for the WordPress Community, where you sign-up (much like Facebook, Linkedin, Dribble or Behance – Only unique for the WordPress community) for absolutely free!
Being a focused platform allows the team to build unique tools that can benefit us all. Tools that will never be created by the more generic networks out there.
Let’s take a look at some of our features to further emphasize my point.
WP Feedback Community Features
FeedBack
First and foremost, we’d be silly not to include the functionality of WP FeedBack PRO into this platform.
Have you ever wanted to get FeedBack on a website or a piece of graphic design from the community? Maybe you posted it on a Facebook group and got a few comments. On WP FeedBack, we have used our PRO plugin to make this easier and a reliable way to get FeedBack from your peers, other members of the community.
In my opinion, this is crucial to a WordPress Pro’s development. More and more people are working from home, usually the only person who gets to see your creation before it goes live is the client (often they do not have the capacity to understand what they’re looking at).
How can you be certain your design is as good as you think? Tunnel vision is difficult to avoid, especially if you’ve been working on a project for a lengthy amount of time. Even as an agency, we all know executing proper QA is not an easy feat – Here you can leverage the power of the community for a free QA process before your project is delivered!
You can add a website or a piece of design to the platform, other professionals can then leave you live FeedBack in a much better fashion. Instead of you trawling through a bunch of Facebook comments and seeing what has been said, you will be able to see specific FeedBack on the points of your website or design. If you see someone who regularly leaves you FeedBack, connect with them and give them a message!
I wish I had this when I was still designing websites.
The Sandbox
I think the Sandbox is one of our greatest features, it has even helped with the continued development of WP FeedBack & WP FeedBack PRO.
You get a fresh WordPress installation with your account that resets every week, you generate this simple by clicking a button. It’s essentially a test environment where you can try out themes and plugins, mess around with code and break everything (if you want ?); with no consequence.
The best part: You will be able to explore and test premium themes and plugins for free (This is still in development)..
For the first time you will truly be able to try before you buy. We’re collecting thousands of the best products from some of the biggest authors, to give you the ability to simply click and install on your SandBox. Check it, like it? Buy it.
Community Groups
When you join, you are asked a few different questions. Based on your answers, you are put into a few different groups we know you will benefit from!
They have already got a bunch of group admins who are professionals in the field. They will be sharing great content, connecting with members and getting involved in any discussion happening inside each group.
Some of the group admins (or “Core Leaders” as we call them) you may recognise and we are pumped to have them involved:
Troy Dean: Co-founder of WP Elevation and Video User Manuals – One of the biggest resources for helping creative entrepreneurs build awesome online empires.
Vova Feldman: The Founder and CEO of Freemius, one of, if not the best and more expert place to learn how to sell your WP themes & plugins.
Kristina Romero: Creator of WP Care Market and a leading expert when it comes to creating the best WordPress care plans for your clients.
Mor Cohen: Founder of FlixFrame, The Branding Designer, and creator of DesignClass.io . An expert in design and branding, helping businesses with resources and education.
Ivica Delic: Infamous in the WordPress community. Creator of Freelancer Tools and the biggest WP Facebook communities.
Jan Koch: Creator of WP Agency Summit, an event on how to scale your business by attracting high-paying clients and building recurring revenue.
As well as Piccia Neri, Emily Hunkler, Nathan Wrigley, Dave Foy, Michael Short, Raleigh Leslie, Beth Livingston, Davinder Singh Kainth and more – You can view the incredible list of their Core Leaders here.
Also, we even encourage affiliate links, which is heavily frowned upon everywhere else from my own experience, but we are a business driven professional network in our industry! If the product you want to advertise brings genuine value to the group, we want you to post it! Connect with like-minded users, grow your business, get better at your craft and become embedded in the WordPress community with our groups!
Curated Content
I have been consuming WordPress content for quite some time. They have a news area where they have curated over 50 RSS feeds from the best WordPress resources on the internet, making it easier for you to consume and discover awesome content that will no-doubt be of great benefit to you. They cover a range of different categories which all gear towards you improving your knowledge and your skills.
There is also a learning section where they have curated some courses. The best part about that? You can directly message and connect with the author of the course on the platform!
How Can You Join For Free?
I want WP FeedBack to be the home of the WordPress Community, I fully endorse and believe in this platform. A platform where WordPress professionals from around the globe can hang out, consume useful content, get and give live FeedBack on websites and designs, and all improve and grow our businesses together!
Sign up here completely free and become a part of the WordPress Community.
If you have any questions about WP FeedBack that you’d like to ask, feel free to leave a comment below.
