![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/monthly-income-expenses-bar-chart.png\")
All appears to be in order, particularly when we juxtapose 2020 with 2019, given 2020 reflects the fruitful outcome of the foundational efforts put in during 2019. Still, this is the overall view of 2020, even in light of our expanding expenses.<\/p>\n Now, let me get the obvious thing out of the way \u2013 the graph above doesn\u2019t spell trouble<\/strong>. It\u2019s a reflection of how we\u2019ve been investing our earnings as well as how well I\u2019ve been tracking our investments. The dreaded ROI.<\/p>\n To simplify this even further \u2013 I haven\u2019t. I haven\u2019t been tracking our ROI (Return on Investment) and that\u2019s one of the first things I\u2019m changing this year. For future decision we are going to make sure we\u2019ve first established our KPIs. All in the effort of making sure we do a better job at tracking our ROI.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not at the stage of bleeding money, but we\u2019re at a stage where we haven\u2019t prioritised our asset allocation.<\/p>\n W \u2026\u2026refocus our efforts and take a closer look at how we spend our time and money \u2013 more on this below. We\u2019re first going to start with our development process and allocate resources using the \u201cprofit-first<\/a>\u201d approach.<\/p>\n One of the easiest wins I\u2019ve identified, but yet haven\u2019t figured how to fix, is our homepage conversion rate. A lot of our traffic usually lands on our homepage.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, that\u2019s our worst converting landing page, through the entire site. We\u2019re way below industry standards when it comes to homepage conversion rate.<\/p>\n Our homepage conversion rate: 0.8%<\/strong>. Industry standard: 3%. We\u2019re -375% below<\/strong> industry standards. OUCH!<\/p>\n And to top things off \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026we\u2019ll have to re-work some of our website\u2019s underlying code, to take into account for Google\u2019s Core Web Vitals algorithm<\/a>, which will come into full effect on May, 2021.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be starting with Modula, CPOThemes and shortly followed by StrongTestimonials. And that\u2019s not the only aim here \u2013 our website re-work will also involve a lot of re-design work. The entire redesign process is based entirely on data and facts, rather than hunches or the old \u201cI just think it looks good\u201d.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be using heatmap software (Clarity<\/a>, by Microsoft is our tool of choice right now) as well as A\/B testing software (Google Optimise)<\/a> is easily the easiest to work with).<\/p>\n On top of the above, that generally offers only an overview, I\u2019m going to be implementing micro conversions<\/a>. A fancier way of saying we\u2019ll be tracking: homepage video plays, button clicks, page depth scrolls (how much a user scrolls on the page), menu link clicks and maybe more.<\/p>\n We will use this data to create a \u201cuser flow\u201d map and ideally uncover some patterns of how our users navigate our website.<\/p>\n And to close off this section of our report, another thing we\u2019ll be doing this year for which we\u2019ve laid down the groundwork last year, is improving our telemetry to actually return some sort of actionable data.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we\u2019re working with right now:<\/p>\n Not much to work with here. I\u2019d be more interested in seeing a grouping of popular plugins used alongside Modula, number of average plugins a site uses, specific gallery configurations, average image size, number of images per gallery, etc.<\/p>\n If you are a client, trying to learn more about the people who work on building Modula, Strong Testimonials, Check & Log Email \u2013 it\u2019d be like starting your own private investigation. There\u2019s 0 information on our websites about who we are, why we do what we do, and more importantly why we do what we do<\/em><\/p>\n This year, a bigger focus will be on the human component \u2013 our team, our mission, our core values as well as our vision for the future.<\/p>\n All things we do within this small company should be reflected throughout our products. Even more, I believe it should be reflected in our documentation, our automated support replies as well as through our UIs.<\/p>\n After considerate deliberation, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion we could be defined by the following core values:<\/p>\n To that extent, we\u2019ll be reviewing ALL our doc entries, tooltips, and automated user replies making sure every word aligns with our core values.<\/p>\n Another area that needs improvement is our hiring and onboarding process. I spent most of 2020 hiring and onboarding new employees. I\u2019ve had the pleasure of onboarding a total of 6 full-time employees as well as 3 part-time US based freelancers we work with. 2 of those full-time employees have left us before the end of the year and 1 at the end of January \u2013 I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.<\/p>\n Our team grew by 7 at the end of 2020. It has become clear that we need more focus on our SOPs<\/a> \u2013 trying to cut and standardise as much as possible of what the \u201cguess work\u201d involved in the process.<\/p>\n Modula gets photographers up and running fast, but every website could make use of testimonials. And what do most websites do? Send emails \u2013 guess which plugin comes into play here. Oh, and let\u2019s not forget that all websites need a contact form \u2013 Kali Forms is, while still young, up and coming.<\/p>\n We have to experiment more and see what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n The main goal here is not to save money, but see if we\u2019re not actually wasting money on a promise. What I like to call, the marketing promise \u2013 the promise that ONE tool will improve our workflow by paying a premium.<\/p>\n One such scenario was our emailing software, ConvertKit.We rarely used it, yet, we were paying a 3-figure yearly fee for something we only used to announce releases. An alternative solution, that\u2019s 100x cheaper (it\u2019s in their sales pitch) was Sendy. Sendy costs only $59 (a one-time payment) + $5\/mo for hosting.<\/p>\n Email sending for the first 62,000 emails\/mo is FREE. That\u2019s a total cost of $119 in the first year, and $60\/year going forward. For the price tag of $870, what we were paying ConvertKit\/year we can now pay for Sendy\u2019s hosting for 13 years.<\/p>\n Sending 10,000 emails\/release, now costs $0 instead of $900\/year.<\/p>\n \u2013 me, again.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Right now, it looks like we\u2019re paying north of $6,000\/year for hosting, client support and other various tools.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a wild idea: what if we could do without all these \u201cfancy\u201d tools, reduce costs and at the same time, re-invest that money into the team?<\/p>\n My initial research shows this is doable, as long as we\u2019re willing to sacrifice a few things. Hey \u2013 even with premium tools, things aren\u2019t always premium.<\/p>\n What we\u2019re currently paying: $6,070\/year<\/strong>. Yikes! \ud83d\ude31 After making the move to all the above mentioned tools, we\u2019ll end up saving $4,897<\/strong> in the first year and $5,206<\/strong>\/year afterwards. First year also accounts for the initial costs of the alternative tools.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s a wrap for this year. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/bar-chart-blue-red-data-feb-dec-1024x357.jpg\")
Here\u2019s what got done in 2020, by the numbers:<\/h5>\n
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Here\u2019s how our support load looks like:<\/h5>\n
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Here\u2019s how our content output looks like:<\/h5>\n
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Rethinking the way we make decisions<\/h5>\n
e\u2019ve<\/s> I\u2019ve been failing at actually figuring out ways to track meaningful data and act on it. I\u2019ve been winging it for the past year(s), somehow, managing to \u201ckind of grow\u201d 2 WordPress plugins. I started feeling like I was designated for this job and everything I would touch, would work. If that were true, our chart above would be heading up instead of staying flat. So, for my next move I\u2019m going to<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/fiction0fiction1\/0fiction\/fiction-10fiction4x10fiction4.png\")
<\/figure>\nEmphasising our mission:<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cartoon-bear-party-hat-1-1024x1024.png\")
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Cross-promote our products<\/h5>\n
Re-asses the paid tools we\u2019re using<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cartoon-bear-desk-calculator-1-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\nFree alternatives to the paid tools we\u2019 ve been using:<\/h6>\n
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Redistributing the money we\u2019d be saving:<\/h3>\n
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Conclusions<\/h3>\n
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