If you want a WordPress blog, you should go check out Johnny B. Truant’s promotion. Basically, he’s offering free WordPress blog setup to anyone until Thursday. On Friday he’s going to start charging for this service. You do have to meet some basic criteria (such as buying your hosting through GoDaddy following his instructions), but it’s still a darn good deal.
I basically adore Johnny, but the first time I heard about his offer I got a horrible sinking feeling.
Why? Well, I was charging people money to help them set up a blog on Blogger.com, and here comes Johnny offering to get people on WordPress for free. On the face of it, that’s a no-brainer. Why would you pay me (or anyone) for a Blogger blog when you can get a WordPress blog from Johnny for free?
Good question. And it turns out there are some pretty good answers.
One way to answer it is by dissecting the specifics of the respective offers. For instance, Johnny won’t set up your blog if you already have hosting. And you need a domain name to take advantage of his offer. For the workshop I was teaching, you didn’t need hosting and you didn’t need a domain name. Signing up for the workshop means you’re making time to attend six classes and do your homework, but Johnny’s offer gets your blog installed for you, then he hands you the keys. And of course there’s the fact that he’s using WordPress and I was using Blogger, which are completely different systems.
Another way to approach the answer is to consider the type of person each offer is designed to attract. If you take a look at Johnny’s create-a-blog page, and then you read my page, you’ll see that they each speak a different language. Johnny is brash, and hilarous, and he swears (and I love him for it). While I am, let’s face it, a touchy-feely tree-hugger type. Nothing is wrong with either approach; they simply appeal to different people.
And then there’s the fact that the product/service is actually entirely different. Johnny’s very clear about the fact that his service is great for people who don’t want to do it themselves. My workshop was specifically designed for people who do want to do it themselves, and need some help with that. Johnny says “Sorry, but I can’t walk you through it all personally.” And that’s exactly what his Right People need to hear. My Right People, on the other hand, really need to be walked through Blogger.com personally, and that’s exactly what I do for them.
So the horrible sinking feeling is gone, replaced by a heart full of warm wishes for Johnny (c’mon, I said I was touchy-feely!). He’s not competing with me, not at all. My Right People are totally different, and there are plenty of both groups to go around.
Plus, if people are specifically interested in the WordPress part of his offer (and they certainly seem to be), that means there’s probably a market for me to create new services and products that are similar to the Blogger workshop, only for WordPress. Or to offer WordPress-specific help and coaching for those who don’t know what to do with their WordPress blog once it’s been created. In other words, tools for My Right People who happen to use WordPress. I’ve discussed elsewhere why I think Blogger is a good choice for complete beginners, but there are certainly people who know that they’ll be moving to WordPress eventually, or who want to start with WordPress to avoid moving at all, but who are just as new to blogs as my Blogger workshop folks. More areas for creative collaboration, not competition.
So rock on, Johnny B. Truant. Rock on.
Update: Johnny’s free promotion is over, but he’s now offering WordPress blog setups for a measly $39, which is an incredible deal.
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Posted by Wendy Cholbi, your friendly neighborhood swim-goggle-wearing technology-to-English translator
Exaaaaaaactly. I hardly think these are competing services. Now, some of our other stuff? Hahaha… yes, in competition. But I’m hardly for everyone, as you mentioned. I think many of your folks might not like me and vice versa.
Maybe we should team up on a project. Don’t'cha think?
Johnny B. Truant’s last blog post..FREE SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG SETUP FOR EVERYONE!
Yeah I really do think.
Great, now I’ve got Alanis Morrisette in my head, only instead of breathily singing “isn’t it ironic…don’t'cha think” she’s singing “team up on a project…don’t'cha think?”
And I am not going to get into the question of whether she’s horribly misusing the word “ironic.”
Anyway. Project: Yes! I’m all for it! And I still believe that even for the places where we might be in direct competition, our audiences are different enough that there’s plenty of pie for both of us.
TOTALLY impressed by your POV here, Wendy — LOVE how you approached the issue, broke it out, offered the distinctions, etc. Just a great lesson in ‘the more the merrier’ for all of us. Many thanks for this post, a smart and graceful piece that really hits home.
( And yes, there’s plenty of GirlPie to go around ~ ! )
PS: HOW the HELL is there NOT a ‘follow me’ twitter button on this page anywhere? (I already DO follow you guys, but wanted a short cut to go tweet you something…)
Button, button, who’s got the button ~ ?
(Raises eyebrow squarely at the blogger-starter-uppers…) Hmm?
Great job on this one, Wendy. I was the same way with Dave Navarro for awhile until I really looked at 1) what we each offered and 2) who our right people were. There’s a lot of overlap, but clearly, there’s plenty for both of us to do our thing and support each other.
When us coaches figure out who we can help and how to help them, and then realize that we can help other coaches at the same time, then ideas of competition fall away. We’re just each adding value differently.
Charlie’s last blog post..Why Are You Trying to Save Time?
I do think it boils down to audience. There are a billion and one people who want to learn this stuff, and the people who are going to gravitate to me are different from you folks.
I did have to jump in here to point out to GP that there is a LARGE “Follow on Twitter” button on BOTH sides of the page, too!
Johnny B. Truant’s last blog post..FREE SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG SETUP FOR EVERYONE!
@TheGirlPie Oh, you got me good there. You are absolutely right. Totally a case of the cobbler’s blog not having e-shoes. Er, something like that, anyway.
So check it out, I just added enormous “follow Wendy” and “follow Mynde” buttons below each of our tweet-sections in the sidebars. AND I added huge “subscribe to the YWC blog” buttons to both sidebars for good measure.
Thanks for the kick in the pants I needed to do this tweak. Maybe Our Right People will subscribe now that there’s an obvious button to do it with!
(And thank you for your gracious compliments, too — they’re sincerely appreciated by this blogger-starter-upper!)
@Charlie thanks for weighing in here. Your example is timely and on point (you and Dave Navarro have each helped us in different, yet similar ways, and we’ve been thinking of making our next product launch a full-on case study for his Launch the *** ebook, for mutual benefit).
When you really think about it, there are as many ways of coaching and subjects to coach on as there are coaches, and coachable clients. So it becomes a matter of naming and finding Our Right People — because they’re definitely out there somewhere.
Yeah Johnny, NOW there are great big FOLLOW buttons — HA! You can’t ‘gaslight’ me ~ !
Hey Wendy, we all do it — too busy helping others, and you guys are SO helping others — keep up the good works!
Hi Wendy,
It was great meeting you at SOBcon ‘09. I will be e-mail you the picutres soon.
I look forward to getting to know you better.
Have a great day!
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action