Mark Szymanski, a young web designer and thought leader in WordPress, discusses why many new designers shy away from WordPress in favor of drag-and-drop platforms like Squarespace. He believes WordPress still offers unmatched flexibility and customization despite its reputation as an 'old' tool. Mark also emphasizes the importance of a lean tool stack for agency owners and suggests that better marketing strategies could help WordPress attract younger talent. He reflects on community support shifts and the evolving landscape of page builders, sharing insights on maintaining relevance.
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Lean Tool Stack
Maintain a consistent tool stack for your web design business.
This reduces complexity and streamlines your workflow.
insights INSIGHT
WordPress: Mature but Challenged
WordPress's maturity is a strength, but also a challenge.
Competitors benefit from observing WordPress's successes and failures.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Divi's Dilemma
Divi, like WordPress, faces the challenge of being an early innovator.
It became popular but now faces competition from newer, faster page builders.
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Let’s get real and share exactly how it is…WordPress is not the tool of choice for most web designers getting into the game today.
It may be where most end up, because WordPress is the most popular, customizable, and only open-source platform online but as a starting point, it’s not where most new web designers are starting.
Drag and drop platforms like Framer, SquareSpace, and ShowIt and even more robust platforms like WixStudio, WebFlow, and Duda seem to be where young whipper-snapper web designers jump to first.
So it begs the question…is WordPress just for old people nowadays?
To dive into this topic and to explore both the challenges and opportunities ahead for WordPress, I’m pleased to bring on a young web designer and thought leader Mark Szymanski who, despite being a young whipper snapper web designer, decided to choose WordPress over all the options above.
We explore:
What made Mark decide on WordPress over more user-friendly builders
The challenges in competition WordPress has moving forward
How WordPress can market better to young web designers
How important it is to have a lean tool stack as an agency owner
The key ingredient that continues to keep WordPress leading as the most popular platform
Note: we recorded this conversation before the recent WordPress vs WPEngine drama happened so that is not discussed in this one.
If you have anything to add on this topic - feel free to drop us a comment on the show notes at joshhall.co/349
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Join me this week at Jason Gracia's (founder of Swyft Sites®) Million-Dollar Website Workshop if you're looking to offer a productized web design service where you get out of building and developing to focus on sales and marketing.
It's happening this Thursday, the 21st at NOON EST
Web Design Business with Josh Hall 