Pre launch / Idea Validation
Community forums
Researched the WooCommerce Ideas Forum to find a highly-voted feature request with no existing plugin solution. Selected WooCommerce Protected Categories as the first product specifically because it was uncontested.
→ Identified a validated, gap-in-market idea before writing a single line of code
Launch / First Sales
SEO — blog content
Published blog posts and tutorials targeting the exact search queries potential customers were using, e.g. 'how to password protect categories in WooCommerce.' Content was genuinely helpful and unique, matching the uniqueness of the plugin itself.
→ Ranked #1 on Google immediately; first sales within a few days of publishing
Early Growth – Product 2
Client work to product
Took a feature built for a client project, expanded it, and released it as a standalone premium plugin (Post Table Pro). Listened to early users of Plugin 1 for feature requests that became new plugin ideas.
→ Launched second plugin organically; established pattern for all future product ideation
Scaling – Portfolio SEO
SEO — blog content
Continued producing genuinely helpful, unique content covering a wide range of use cases related to each plugin across the growing portfolio. Made this the core and consistent acquisition strategy across all 20 products.
→ Organic search became and remained the #1 source of customers across all plugins
Monetization – Cross sell Infrastructure
Email marketing
Built cross-promotion into the post-purchase flow: 3 days after purchase, sent an email offering 50% off a closely related plugin. Segmented email list so existing customers received targeted recommendations relevant to what they already owned.
→ Multiple sales per customer; lifetime value increase across 17,000+ active subscribers
Seasonality – Black Friday Campaigns
Email marketing
Ran separate Black Friday email campaigns for new prospects vs. existing customers. For existing customers, used messaging like 'discount off your next plugin' to drive upsells. Timed higher-revenue months (November) strategically.
→ November identified as peak revenue month; Black Friday campaigns drove meaningful upsell conversions
Ongoing – In Product Cross Promotion
In product upsell
Added banners on plugin settings pages inside WordPress dashboards pointing to complementary plugins. Also added cross-linking between products in documentation pages and on the website.
→ Passive, always-on upsell channel requiring no ongoing effort after setup
Scaling – Bundles
Product bundling
Created one standalone plugin and two plugin bundles that package complementary plugins together. Each individual product page features a selected closely-related plugin as a recommended upsell.
→ Bundling and upsell pairings increased average order value and cross-product adoption
Lifetime – Portfolio Scale
Compounding portfolio
Continued repeating the cycle: listen to existing users for new plugin ideas, build the new plugin as a standalone product, market it independently, then integrate it into cross-promotion flows for the existing customer base. Beta-tested new products with existing customers.
→ $9.8M lifetime revenue; 90,000+ sites using premium plugins; $1.8M ARR across 20 products
MRR $150k Users 17k users