Without Code Member Update – Spring 2020

As web designers and developers, we are incredibly grateful that our work can be completed from home. We’ve doubled down on all this time in isolation, and the team has been working harder than ever to add new functionality, integrations and partnerships to our platform to ensure your business can survive, and even thrive, during times of uncertainty. I’m excited to share our plans with you below.

Our ecommerce provider, Ecwid, has introduced a special offer store, aimed at helping businesses transition to online sales without a major upfront commitment. Between now and May 31, 2020, the Free Demo Store option in our builder has been replaced with the Special Offer Store, which gives you up to 500 products, no transaction fees and a variety of premium features (gift cards, order pickup, coupons, etc.). This store is completely free until Dec 31, 2020, at which time you will need to purchase a standard ecommerce subscription for it based on the number of products you have created (our ecommerce prices can be found here).

After two years in business, we have identified our primary customer base as freelancers or agencies who often package and resell services to clients at a markup (hosting, SEO, etc.). When our team sits down to design a new feature or explore a partnership, we always ask ourselves “does this feature give our customers the ability to provide more value to their clients, resulting in more revenue for the designer?”. Many of the upcoming projects below have been purposely designed to give you greater up-sell abilities for your end clients.

• Media Storage Solution – we have been developing a media hosting solution that is built in to your WOC account. This can be utilized to host and share files, such as videos or large photo galleries, which can then be integrated into widgets using a single feed URL. Our goal is to simplify the process of creating large galleries, reduce restrictions on file types allowed within your site, and give you a simple storage option similar to what you may have had at an independent host (just without the complexity of FTP). Pro and Enterprise users will receive a block of storage free for testing, with the option to purchase a higher amount.

• Email Hosting – highly requested since we launched, our team has been working hard on integrating the ability to setup email accounts directly within WOC. Our plan is to allow users to purchase “blocks” of email accounts, each tied to a specific domain (up to 5, 10, 25, 50 emails, etc.). Each block is purchased as a single upfront annual payment to reduce billing and invoice complexity and can be enabled / disabled by the designer through a control panel. Email can be accessed via webmail or through traditional POP / IMAP setup, and includes storage up to 5GB. Pricing is not finalized; we plan to keep our prices very competitive allowing you room for markup.

• GDPR / Cookie Consent Partnership – with GDPR compliance becoming a major focus for sites with EU customers, we have been discussing partnership opportunities with a variety of third-party providers that offer powerful cookie consent functionality and legally vetted privacy policies. I am excited to say we have found a great fit with a very reputable company, and they have agreed to pass along very generous pricing to customers of Without Code (a perfect upsell opportunity for your end customers). Our team will provide extensive training and simplified integration of their service to streamline your GDPR compliance.

• New Widgets – widgets on our development roadmap include iframe integration, membership site functionality (via 3rd party plugin), stacking cards, flipping boxes, self-hosted videos, and more.

• New Themes – we have a beautiful new membership site template (based on a physical trainer) to showcase membership functionality through a 3rd party provider. We also have a veterinary theme and recruitment agency site design on deck.
  

Many businesses are being forced to move their operations online, and this is an incredibly daunting task for business owners. As web designers, you are well-positioned to greatly simplify this process for struggling owners, and in return grow your client base and build customer loyalty. Life will return to normal eventually, and when it does many of those business will continue to operate online. I guarantee they will not forget how valuable your advice and services were during tough times.

If you haven’t already, this is also a great time to explore recurring revenue / subscription services within your business. Potential clients may not be able to afford a large upfront investment right now, however if that cost is spread out across a year as a monthly recurring service it is much more manageable for them.

The major benefit for your business is that it creates a reliable revenue source – if new business dries up you can lean on your recurring subscriptions to survive. Services such as hosting, site maintenance / updates, SEO, email hosting, etc. are all great opportunities for recurring services.

Intimidated by the idea of managing recurring billing? In a recent poll, our members recommended services like and.co, waveapps.com, dubsado.com, squareup.com or even PayPal subscriptions to automate and manage the billing process.

This month marks the two-year anniversary of Without Code – a huge thank you to everyone that has supported us on this journey and followed us from our previous business, MuseThemes. I am excited to share that we are seeing consistent growth and steady renewals from our users, and we can’t wait to pour on the gas, expand our team and add powerful new features to the platform.

We hope you are as excited as we are about all of the projects and priorities above. 

Stay safe out there!

— Steve Harris