Adam Clark, founder of Bottlerocket Creative, just launched a new WordPress service that churns out a website in one day.
That’s right, a complete website in a single day, for $999.
This new project is called wptheory and the service claims to be be able to customize and launch a WordPress theme in a scheduled workday beginning with an 8 a.m. discussion and culminating in a 6 p.m. launch party. The service includes brand matching, content migration and setup (up to 10 pages worth) and plugin installation to make a client’s site look and feel just like the demo of the theme they have chosen. Hosting setup is also included in the flat rate.
Clark, who has long been providing custom WordPress development services for clients, is aiming to get website creation down to a science with his new venture. He’s hoping that packaging the services as products will be a successful business model.
“I’ve always wanted to productize my development services, but could never figure out a good way to do it,” he said. “The idea came from a friend of mine, Andrew Ramos, who has a productized design service called Appe Diem, where he designs your iPhone app in a day.” Clark brainstormed with him about a developer equivalent to that kind of service and landed upon the WordPress theme customization idea.
“I felt like I could provide a lot of value to customers by offering a service that customized their theme, uploaded all their content and launched the site in a single day.”
Clark is launching wptheory alone but is open to adding a team if there is a demand for the service. He believes that this specific theme customization service is the first of its kind but isn’t sure whether it will take off. “Theme customization is a service that a lot of companies offer, but I haven’t seen anything exclusively devoted to this one service,” Clark said. “And definitely no one doing it in a single day.”
Selling Peace of Mind and Convenience
There’s no shortage of developers capable of customizing WordPress themes, but Clark is hoping that his new service will offer customers a tidy, branded package of WordPress convenience.
wptheory provides more than just theme customization. It’s an end-to-end website launching service that includes theme customization, content setup and hosting setup. It’s designed to take your mind off your website and let you focus on running your business. A customer shows up at 8 a.m. with their theme and they have a fully-functioning, customized website that is live on the internet by the end of the day. I don’t know anyone who is doing that. My hope is that customers will find a lot of value in the tailored service we offer.
Clark’s target market is people who don’t have a budget for a full custom design and development package and customers who are looking to get a site up fast.
“Maybe you have an idea for a product or service and you want a way to quickly validate the idea, but don’t want to spend a ton of cash or invest a lot of time in getting a site up,” he ventured in an example scenario. “There are a lot companies you could go to, but none that I think would provide wptheory’s level of quality and peace of mind.”
wptheory is aimed squarely at those who would be anxious at the prospect of creating their own websites. Clark summarizes his intentions with the new service:
Mostly, I want to provide a lot of peace of mind. Launching a website is a complicated task for non-web-geeks. There are a lot of best practices to be aware of and I want to take all of that off your plate (even your hosting setup) and provide you with a beautiful, usable website before dinnertime.
It is important to note that wptheory’s basic package does not include custom development or structural changes to the chosen WordPress theme or plugins, although Clark does offer those services for an additional fee. The advantage for the developer in this kind of arrangement is that it clearly defines and limits the scope of the project. It also keeps the client interaction happening within one day and not spread out over many days’ worth of emails.
One challenge Clark may face is that this service depends heavily on the client already having all the content ready to launch a website in a day. Even the most well-prepared clients are often clueless as to what this will entail, especially those that fall within his targeted “non-web-geek” demographic.
For someone with a thriving WordPress development business, the venture isn’t all that much of a risk, given that it might as well be a natural extension of the services he already offers. But is there a market for websites launched in a day, just before dinnertime? Does wptheory have a viable business model?
Digital Robotics.