3 Articles this week! And WHY I’m doing this
Controlling the Narrative ????????♂️
I wrote a lot last week, and I want to guide you to the most interesting things for your interest.
But I also want to tell you more of the WHY behind what I’m doing.
My Experiments with Free Product Marketing
I’m not entering the popup market. I’m not excited about popups. But I am doggedly excited about helping freemium product owners WIN in an increasingly crowded and competitive market.
Folks have told me that I had it easy when I shipped GiveWP. Those were the “if you build it they will come” days. Push a plugin to .org and Voila! You get a steadily climbing active install count and a ready user base who wants to buy your Pro products.
I hear that – but I’ll tell you there was nothing “easy” about marketing GiveWP for growth. Still, things are different today. Content marketing used to be the thing EVERY product owner had to be an expert at. Now it’s Youtube, and Tik Tok, and Bluesky or Reddit forums.
So this little free plugin is my way of forgetting everything I “know” and getting my hands dirty in the daily grind of product marketing. If you want to get in the weeds with me on this, here’s two unique things:
- I’m logging all the activity I do in terms of marketing and versions and milestones. See and comment on the Doc here.
- I’m experimenting with Indie Hackers, and they have a product section where you can post updates. I’m not planning to launch a website for this product so this is a nice middle-ground for the time being.
If you’re fascinated with any of this and have questions or comments, just reply to this email and we can chat about it. I answer every reply I get and love chatting with subscribers.
Backstories and How-Tos
Last week, I just wrote and wrote and wrote. It was great. But I always promised you only ONE email a week. So here’s a summary of what you can catch up on and why it might be interesting to you.
A five-star review isn’t the end of the customer journey. Learn how to turn positive reviews into deeper engagement and better products.
Why I rebuilt my delayed admin notice code and now ship it in every freemium WordPress plugin I build, plus how others can use it too.
A walkthrough of the product decisions behind a small WordPress plugin and what they reveal about the gap between vibe coding and real product creation.
Of course I’d love it if you started using Synced Pattern Popups and tell me all the good and the bad of it.
I’d love to chat with you!
If any of this sparks something for you, I’d love to talk. Just reply to this email and I’ll send over my calendar. Whether you want to chat about your own product journey or explore a way we might work together, I’m here and listening.
~ Matt Cromwelll
Other Recent Writings
If you missed any previous article, here’s the easiest way to catch up.