Concrete5 Grabbing significant Market share... from Wordpress!
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Well it could become reality!
I recall Franz saying the major upgrades of the past were also times of significant growth in the popularity/use of Concrete5. I believe he was saying those times saw a "bump" or higher than normal influx of interest and "new blood". This would make sense. A major release is a time of heightened attention.
Well we are talking about the next big release, 5.7
Frankly, this really is a publicity and public relations opportunity as well.
This is about business, and growth. So let's look at this
http://www.opensourcecms.com/general/cms-marketshare.php...
and this
http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all...
and talk!
Look, I think the Drupal and Joomla camps are already watching us, and they may even be a little scared (and rightly so). However, I doubt the Wordpress camp is. Why not? Because it's a monster. They are so big and have so much momentum, most who are a part of it probably think it's unstoppable. But there's HUGE HUGE HUGE OPPORTUNITY THERE!
Most of those developing with Concrete5 know how much better Concrete5 is for most use cases.
And so do end users who are fortunate enough to have had their site done in C5... maybe even after experiencing the non-intuitive Wordpress back end... or after having their Wordpress site break after installing a plugin... or after having their site built in Wordpress, and finding themselves boxed in, unable to do what they want to easily or at all because Wordpress was never the best platform for their use case (can you say "most eCommerce sites"?)
Yet how many new websites are built on WordPress, & how many users, new developers, etc. all flock to WordPress, just because of it's dominant market share (by a HUGE margin)? Much of it is the "Sheeple" mentality. Perhaps many here enjoy being the big fish in a small pond. But what about being positioned ahead of a wave? How about being "on the nose of a rocketship"?
What Concrete5 theme developer wouldn't be happy having a nice slice of the WordPress theme market share?
And what C5 add-on developer wouldn't want the added sales from such a market share increase. And what developer... and do I have Franz and Andrew drooling now...
The fact of the matter is the numbers are HUGE, and that's potential! I'm not sure what exactly we should be discussing, but getting a dialog going seems worthy if not prudent. Maybe the discussion itself will add "fuel to the fire" of what we can hope will be a shift in this direction. But it's often about timing, and with the 5.7 release and the current discussions leading up to the release, I say the timing for this discussion is now.
On that note, here's A SMALL SAMPLING of WordPress theme sales on Theme-forest alone
3936 Sales
KriesiKriesi
2833 Sales
Dream-ThemeDream-Theme
1771 Sales
GoodLayersGoodLayers
1740 Sales
QODEQODE
1556 Sales
ThemeNectarThemeNectar
1400 Sales
peerapongpeerapong
1391 Sales
aitait
1367 Sales
keenthemeskeenthemes
1267 Sales
TommusRhodusTommusRhodus
1208 Sales
QuanticaLabsQuanticaLabs
1136 Sales
Sara_pSara_p
1082 Sales
SwiftIdeasSwiftIdeas
1053 Sales
pexetopexeto
1015 Sales
bitfadebitfade
970 Sales
artbeesartbees
909 Sales
mo3asermo3aser
874 Sales
pixelgradepixelgrade
867 Sales
RockNRollaDesignsRockNRollaDesigns
856 Sales
Now imagine the Concrete5 Marketplace growing from a mass exodus of from Wordpress to Concrete5! It can happen. Be a part of it... please respond with your thought, ideas, etc. Thankyou.
I recall Franz saying the major upgrades of the past were also times of significant growth in the popularity/use of Concrete5. I believe he was saying those times saw a "bump" or higher than normal influx of interest and "new blood". This would make sense. A major release is a time of heightened attention.
Well we are talking about the next big release, 5.7
Frankly, this really is a publicity and public relations opportunity as well.
This is about business, and growth. So let's look at this
http://www.opensourcecms.com/general/cms-marketshare.php...
and this
http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all...
and talk!
Look, I think the Drupal and Joomla camps are already watching us, and they may even be a little scared (and rightly so). However, I doubt the Wordpress camp is. Why not? Because it's a monster. They are so big and have so much momentum, most who are a part of it probably think it's unstoppable. But there's HUGE HUGE HUGE OPPORTUNITY THERE!
Most of those developing with Concrete5 know how much better Concrete5 is for most use cases.
And so do end users who are fortunate enough to have had their site done in C5... maybe even after experiencing the non-intuitive Wordpress back end... or after having their Wordpress site break after installing a plugin... or after having their site built in Wordpress, and finding themselves boxed in, unable to do what they want to easily or at all because Wordpress was never the best platform for their use case (can you say "most eCommerce sites"?)
Yet how many new websites are built on WordPress, & how many users, new developers, etc. all flock to WordPress, just because of it's dominant market share (by a HUGE margin)? Much of it is the "Sheeple" mentality. Perhaps many here enjoy being the big fish in a small pond. But what about being positioned ahead of a wave? How about being "on the nose of a rocketship"?
What Concrete5 theme developer wouldn't be happy having a nice slice of the WordPress theme market share?
And what C5 add-on developer wouldn't want the added sales from such a market share increase. And what developer... and do I have Franz and Andrew drooling now...
The fact of the matter is the numbers are HUGE, and that's potential! I'm not sure what exactly we should be discussing, but getting a dialog going seems worthy if not prudent. Maybe the discussion itself will add "fuel to the fire" of what we can hope will be a shift in this direction. But it's often about timing, and with the 5.7 release and the current discussions leading up to the release, I say the timing for this discussion is now.
On that note, here's A SMALL SAMPLING of WordPress theme sales on Theme-forest alone
3936 Sales
KriesiKriesi
2833 Sales
Dream-ThemeDream-Theme
1771 Sales
GoodLayersGoodLayers
1740 Sales
QODEQODE
1556 Sales
ThemeNectarThemeNectar
1400 Sales
peerapongpeerapong
1391 Sales
aitait
1367 Sales
keenthemeskeenthemes
1267 Sales
TommusRhodusTommusRhodus
1208 Sales
QuanticaLabsQuanticaLabs
1136 Sales
Sara_pSara_p
1082 Sales
SwiftIdeasSwiftIdeas
1053 Sales
pexetopexeto
1015 Sales
bitfadebitfade
970 Sales
artbeesartbees
909 Sales
mo3asermo3aser
874 Sales
pixelgradepixelgrade
867 Sales
RockNRollaDesignsRockNRollaDesigns
856 Sales
Now imagine the Concrete5 Marketplace growing from a mass exodus of from Wordpress to Concrete5! It can happen. Be a part of it... please respond with your thought, ideas, etc. Thankyou.
Thanks Jessica. Nice post. That's a great thing for all of us to remember.
In reading your post and Andrews reply I get the feeling maybe my own post came across the wrong way. I only thought it would be a good idea to get a dialog going about Concrete5 market share. It's not meant as taking a competitive stance with winners and losers per se. So thank you for for your post, and I agree with Andrew. Having said that, why not talk about it more (or at all)? Again, who here wouldn't want to see Concrete5 market share increase? So if everyone agrees that would be a good thing, well I was just surprised there wasn't a bit more dialog already .
@OKDnet I agree that there's room to improve when it comes to marketing. The more people use C5, the more revenue potential for 3rd party developers in the marketplace. I'm hoping (and expecting) that there is a fresh influx of new users when 5.7 hits the shelves. I agree that the biggest room for potential is not just poaching users from another CMS but from no CMS - static HTML sites.
Apparently the 2013 Joomla conference content has disappeared.
Even http://conference.joomla.org/2013/...
didn't really work totally.
And of course, Joomla magazine has moved ahead a month or two.
Even http://conference.joomla.org/2013/...
didn't really work totally.
And of course, Joomla magazine has moved ahead a month or two.
Here's a good related read on "2014 Predictions for Web Design"
by Collis Ta'eed, the CEO & Founder of Envato
http://inside.envato.com/2014-predictions-for-web-design/...
by Collis Ta'eed, the CEO & Founder of Envato
http://inside.envato.com/2014-predictions-for-web-design/...
I see some problems that will be a hurdle to C5 taking a large market share.
First, with Wordpress, there's a lot of support out there. Any question I have, there's an answer somewhere for it.
For C5, I know I've posted five things so far and only received one response. That's not a big deal except inasmuch as it's forcing me to go elsewhere to get the answers to what I need. And in the search to one of those answers, I found my first add-on that I liked. I've not bought either my template or my first add-on from here.
The more time I spend on this site, the more I buy. The less time I spend here, the less money I spend here, and I have been known to spend over 5k to 10k just for some software. 50 buck software is nothing to my budget.
The fewer answers I get here, the less likely this place is going to be seen as the authority on C5. The less that buyers like me hang around here, the less your need will be to stick around also.
I initially was very interested in the add-ons I saw here, but the documentation is pretty scant. I've yet to find one of the add-ons documentation to answer the questions I have. And some of the documentation was clearly written by people who are far too technically inclined. If I have to get a degree just to speak the lingo, I'll just move along to the next one. That's also kind of an oxymoron considering this is a website for the un-technically inclined.
I've just moved my site from CMS Moto to this, so I hope this community survives.
Anyway, I may check back in on your add-on community from time to time just to see if anything much has changed. But for right now, there's not much here for me.
First, with Wordpress, there's a lot of support out there. Any question I have, there's an answer somewhere for it.
For C5, I know I've posted five things so far and only received one response. That's not a big deal except inasmuch as it's forcing me to go elsewhere to get the answers to what I need. And in the search to one of those answers, I found my first add-on that I liked. I've not bought either my template or my first add-on from here.
The more time I spend on this site, the more I buy. The less time I spend here, the less money I spend here, and I have been known to spend over 5k to 10k just for some software. 50 buck software is nothing to my budget.
The fewer answers I get here, the less likely this place is going to be seen as the authority on C5. The less that buyers like me hang around here, the less your need will be to stick around also.
I initially was very interested in the add-ons I saw here, but the documentation is pretty scant. I've yet to find one of the add-ons documentation to answer the questions I have. And some of the documentation was clearly written by people who are far too technically inclined. If I have to get a degree just to speak the lingo, I'll just move along to the next one. That's also kind of an oxymoron considering this is a website for the un-technically inclined.
I've just moved my site from CMS Moto to this, so I hope this community survives.
Anyway, I may check back in on your add-on community from time to time just to see if anything much has changed. But for right now, there's not much here for me.
I don't think the forums or "community" as you put it here on concrete5.org should be looked to as "the authority" on Concrete5. Rather, the entire Concrete5.org site should be. There is a lot of documentation and instructional info, how to's etc. Just see the Documentation Menu!
People are not paid to help here in the forums. Yet there are many who regularly volunteer their time trying to help. And much of the documentation and how to's are contributed (again without compensation). And it's constantly being added to. So not only should you keep that in mind, but consider that it's unrealistic to compare the community here to the Wordpress community and expect the same level of anything, when everyone knows how much larger the wordpress community is, by an immense margin. Yet many "in the know" would argue that Concrete5 is still so much better in so many different situations.
Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. Unfortunately we can't just waive a magic wand and be perfect for everyone anytime. Most everyone here would like to see things grow and improve, and I think they are. It just takes time. Coming here as someone new, and just complaining, however, won't help or get you far either.
Anyway, just food for thought in a friendly spirit. I wish you luck.
People are not paid to help here in the forums. Yet there are many who regularly volunteer their time trying to help. And much of the documentation and how to's are contributed (again without compensation). And it's constantly being added to. So not only should you keep that in mind, but consider that it's unrealistic to compare the community here to the Wordpress community and expect the same level of anything, when everyone knows how much larger the wordpress community is, by an immense margin. Yet many "in the know" would argue that Concrete5 is still so much better in so many different situations.
Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. Unfortunately we can't just waive a magic wand and be perfect for everyone anytime. Most everyone here would like to see things grow and improve, and I think they are. It just takes time. Coming here as someone new, and just complaining, however, won't help or get you far either.
Anyway, just food for thought in a friendly spirit. I wish you luck.
I did not mean for my post to be viewed as a complaint. I apologize if I came across that way. It was meant more as a way to bridge the divide between programmers and end consumers.
In a nutshell, it was saying, the more time I spend here, the more money I spend here, and the only way I'm spending more time here is when what I'm looking for can be found here.
There are a lot of great products here. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of documentation to go along with the products. I see quite a few programmers here who have missed out on sales due to lack of documentation or documentation that was meant for the masses instead of being written for other programmers. I have passed on quite a few of those offerings myself because the documentation wasn't clear.
Just makes no sense to make a really great product and then not tell people how to implement it. I think it hurts the community as a whole when there's lack of documentation.
I can appreciate that there aren't enough hours in the day to answer people's questions, but I believe that programmers are missing out on valuable sales opportunities by passing on answering questions. When I ask questions here, I'm not so much looking for answers as I am looking to develop a relationship with somebody that has knowledge that I don't have. And if I develop a relationship, I will buy what that person is selling.
In a nutshell, it was saying, the more time I spend here, the more money I spend here, and the only way I'm spending more time here is when what I'm looking for can be found here.
There are a lot of great products here. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of documentation to go along with the products. I see quite a few programmers here who have missed out on sales due to lack of documentation or documentation that was meant for the masses instead of being written for other programmers. I have passed on quite a few of those offerings myself because the documentation wasn't clear.
Just makes no sense to make a really great product and then not tell people how to implement it. I think it hurts the community as a whole when there's lack of documentation.
I can appreciate that there aren't enough hours in the day to answer people's questions, but I believe that programmers are missing out on valuable sales opportunities by passing on answering questions. When I ask questions here, I'm not so much looking for answers as I am looking to develop a relationship with somebody that has knowledge that I don't have. And if I develop a relationship, I will buy what that person is selling.
>>>>>Look, I think the Drupal and Joomla camps are already watching us, and they may even be a little scared (and rightly so).
However, I doubt the Wordpress camp is. Why not? Because it's a monster. They are so big and have so much momentum, most who are a part of it probably think it's unstoppable. But there's HUGE HUGE HUGE OPPORTUNITY THERE! “>>>>>
I call your bluff - Wordpress is aware :)
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jg781/i_am_matt_mullenweg_co...
Of course other CMS’s are watching Concrete5. Scared-- absolutely not.. OSS is changing the world!
I invite you and the rest of the community to view this months Joomla Magazinehttp://magazine.joomla.org/
http://conference.joomla.org/ was by far the most inspiring conference I have ever attended.
Angie (Webchick ) Drupal
Andrew Nacin - WordPress Lead Developer
Matt Mullenweg - Cofounder of wordpress
and of course the Joomla Development team came together, shared stories, frustrations, experiences and had a few beers.
Market Share:
http://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management...
65.0% of the web doesn’t use a CMS at all. That is where we should focus our efforts - together!
That's the end of my brain dump!