Episode 411: InstaWP Update With Vikas Singhal  ## Metadata - Author: [[The SDM Show]] - Full Title: Episode 411: InstaWP Update With Vikas Singhal - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/b1084449-eacb-463a-ad3d-ca15896e8c99 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Mark's Rapid WS Forms Integration** - Mark Westguard independently integrated WS Forms with InstaWP within 48 hours. - He uses this integration for his own website and enhanced the API functionalities himself. Transcript: Speaker 2 Of play itself? Speaker 1 I guess mark was looking for a demo solution for his own form product right and it's an excellent form product and he yeah, and then he Basically looked at our product and within like 24 Hours was figured out he was actually playing around with API piece Which we have already released and then Maybe another 24 hours go by and then he has developed an integration with Instead of the P And he's using that integration on his own website. So he's a customer He has integrated with us and means within three days Which I was just amazed on how much progress he made but it was all him On the integration front, but we are actually Glad to have this because a lot of people ask us Can we like use our own farm and then spin up product demos of our plugins or teams And then customize the form as as we need and the best form Is the answer for that ([Time 0:04:39](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8d89be6d-e1a6-45df-b33c-399fe7ca9e72)) - **Easy Website Export Options** - Export websites from InstaWP easily to local development environments with one click. - Utilize upcoming features to export static versions to improve speed and security. Transcript: Speaker 1 Some stuff in instant wp is it easy to export out of instant wp Yeah, so you can do like a one-click export to local and we are building export Integration with others as well and we are also Speaker 2 Working with simply static so that you can export a static version of your website Oh, that's so cool So from this deep perspective of static vision always goes faster speed security Speaker 1 Yeah, everything if it if it's like it is like a fairly static website anyway I think it's a great idea to host it and also like speed and security are two main ([Time 0:07:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0fcec005-0c80-4e17-9f2a-4995c2f58a65)) - **Security Requires Rapid Response** - Security vulnerabilities constantly evolve, requiring fast fixes and alerts from plugin vendors. - Developers need stronger education to build secure applications, leveraging frameworks like Laravel. Transcript: Speaker 2 My account is out and I'm a security guy. Speaker 1 So if it can happen to me, it can happen Yep, it doesn't it doesn't really matter if this cameras are now really really smart And with the advent of AI, you can just you can't even imagine Speaker 2 How far that can go Yeah, and actually it's funny and not that I want to turn this into a security podcast But since we're talking about it's worth mentioning that one of the biggest reasons For hack is cookies and there's still one being Assistance and that's um, I think Thomas we think at the event we both know quite well have posted that Recently and said, you know, it's An issue with long-term cookies and that's even more of an issue Than believe it or not themes and plugins other days interesting Um, no, no, it's interesting. Yeah, how do you handle the um, how do you handle security side on? Speaker 1 Instead of you giving away any of the For the sense Um, if you mean by like the instead of the p dashboard or the platform itself We follow standard security practices both for plugin and And the dashboard So We use Laravel internally and Laravel has very strong security built in as long as you use the framework correctly Which is like true for everything, right? Yeah, and also for the plugin we try to use that but you never know when a new vulnerability is found in your own plugin I think it's important for plugin vendors to quickly release fix And notify Um, and I think that's the best way to go about it Um, and also uh from the from the login perspective. We offer two factor authentication Uh, we try to expire quickly depending upon how you can figure it If you have remembered your account then yeah And I have broken the security industry For like over 12 years. Uh, I was a penetration tested. Speaker 2 So I know a little bit about it Um That helped a lot though No, I I think it does it gives you a totally different Perceptive than somebody is just building a plugin or even worse ([Time 0:08:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4e6f1ea7-d35f-473f-9290-9aac8e2bdd9c)) - **Email Marketing Boosts Sales** - Use email marketing with regular newsletters and campaign chains to engage and convert free users. - Black Friday email campaigns boosted InstaWP license sales significantly. Transcript: Speaker 2 Uh newsletter to those users and saying you know here's some good use cases why a Pay plan would be better because I still think there's big value in email marketing to the answer It is Speaker 1 Uh, 100 percent. So we did black Friday We we send regular newsletters to our users to newsletters every month And then they also get like a chain of emails when they sign up and they can always unsubscribe Whenever they want Um, but we did so email marketing for us really played out well when when we did the black Friday Uh campaign and we sold over like 400 licenses in two days. So that is amazing That is amazing. Speaker 2 That's like well done. Those are numbers that are not heard of in our space very often because that's well Yeah, and community responded really well because Uh, one more thing which I found that birdpress Speaker 1 Community in general has been spoiled with discounts ([Time 0:14:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/45c87eed-4b10-486e-b3c5-5b229085956e)) - **Discounting Undervalues Products** - Frequent discounting in WordPress products risks undervaluing services. - Sustainable pricing balances customer value and business viability. Transcript: Speaker 1 Right all over I don't know if you know that so Uh, and you obviously you know that I mean since you if you notice all the large like in developers They offer amazing discounts all the time And I I told you myself. Oh man. I have to follow the same bill. I have to follow the same thing Uh, maybe not right we don't need to actually follow the exact same thing, but giving them regular discounts. I have a feeling of It has to be balanced out right you can now just keep giving discounts because that discounted price becomes your regular price than right? Speaker 2 So Yeah, I agree It's funny you you ([Time 0:15:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/74cbe547-f80f-4a47-aae3-19f950c1ba31)) - **Value Your Services Enough to Raise Rates** - Raise rates if clients don’t value your services to maintain business health. - It’s okay to let clients leave if they do not see the value you provide. Transcript: Speaker 2 Do they up all my rates. I canceled all my grandfather didn't pricing at same time With couple exceptions. So I just said forget this and you know, I had some clients Scream at me. I must say that and my response is if you don't see the value in what i'm giving you It may be your better off going ([Time 0:15:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7a548d2e-a96c-4492-bbd8-de13c8578454)) - **Licensing Cost Imbalance** - Purchasing separate plugin licenses becomes costly for users not in agencies. - A unified affordable plan for essential plugins would reduce startup expenses. Transcript: Speaker 1 Feel that there is a huge imbalance The worst imbalance is that if somebody wants to buy just a one-side license. It is very expensive Yeah, not everybody's an agency not everybody's a freelancer. So for end users. It becomes really difficult By going to these vendors different different vendors And then purchasing these licenses and then that end up costing like the the startup amount itself Is like $500 plus When you want to buy let's say four five ten plugins, right? But it shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't means I should be just paying like 49 bucks or 99 bucks And I should get like all my core Excessor core Essential plugins right which needed for like a membership site or whatever Site, right? So I think that is a huge problem to solve and we should be doing something about it Yeah, I would agree Kind of the way I handle plug-in licenses is different than most agencies unless Speaker 2 It's a security plug-in or a backup plug-in The my users and my clients are on their own the cover ([Time 0:16:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/072996f7-5e71-4ec8-8d3d-f5875fe8c439)) - **Client Ownership of Plugin Licenses** - Having clients manage their own plugin licenses empowers them and eases agency responsibilities. - Agencies encouraging client ownership improves client independence and clarity. Transcript: Speaker 2 But you're paying for it. I'm not paying It's the same It's the same reason why as agencies we encourage clients to register their own domains ownership, right? Speaker 1 So in the ownership and the self-un Stop right with WordPress itself But I think as I said again, these end clients end up paying a huge amount and agencies they pay They have to buy like A 10-side or 100-side license. So I think there's a huge imbalance which can be solved at some point Interactions we ([Time 0:18:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1906f210-3a65-4c36-8c45-661a3e84f6ea)) - **New Launches: Go Live & Waas** - InstaWP will enable one-click go live from staging to hosting, supporting multiple control panels. - Creating Website as a Service empowers agencies to sell pre-made templates with streamlined checkouts. Transcript: Speaker 2 And we talked to the one with your book What is next on your website in the show? Speaker 1 Yeah, so two things are coming up huge one is Instead of the P-line, which is our hosting platform so So far you And everybody has seen our staging solution Which is a one-click staging Website and then the next part will be one click go live So you can just go live with with your staging sites Um, not only you can go live with our own platform You can you connect like a run Cloud or great pain or all those kind of Control panels to because we don't want any vendor lockings. Right. We we we are against that So we want to keep it open So that is one second thing which we is coming huge is Vass which is website as a service a lot of agencies are Looking for solutions to sell Pre-made templates Along with hosting a bit like a very basic one-click checkouts So and we are now empowering over 20, uh, excuse me the number is now 35 plus Uh, who are now selling via Instead of the P So for 20, 24, my goal is to Like build products which helps with agencies growth right freelancers and agencies can actually build solutions around Instead of the P Speaker 2 Which helps them grow their their business The last one i find really interesting because That sector is starting to take off big time Especially with small businesses that look at The price of the website They say i don't want to spend three grand to start I'd rather pay a monthly fee and and jump on that and i think that's that whole market place is kind of changing And it's easier for small businesses to swallow 50 or 60 bucks a month sometimes Or a hundred dollars a month or 200 dollars a month and this then three grand a fact So I think that that market's About to explode in a good way That is that is amazing And I think it's the only way For WordPress to take on the weebweeds and the square spaces of the world and it was about to say that When Speaker 1 An agency owner Or the wordpress what press wants to fight against these Vixes and we believe or the world. I think was can be an amazing Uh thing there and then the the office of they offer best of both world, right? You have a ready-made ([Time 0:19:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/67bb004d-20d4-4a4e-93a6-2c25960b2608)) - **Waas Model Benefits Small Businesses** - The Website as a Service model offers instant output for small businesses with flexible customization. - It blends benefits of ready-made sites and agency services, reducing startup costs significantly. Transcript: Speaker 1 Website If you want further further customization to it, you can buy our services, right? But you don't need to pay as you said three grand a friend to get like a basic output You get output day on day zero right away. Speaker 2 So that's the idea So true, um, have you acted any integrations? So people can do testing because we know what years are they see as instant WP for testing For like security plugins or anything around that sector to come back to So You got a lot of Rob Speaker 1 Maybe it's okay. Speaker 2 Have you have you worked at any security? Um, plug ([Time 0:21:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/34972302-6307-4782-bf9d-b555067a9f77)) - **Security Scanning Integration** - InstaWP integrates WPScan for vulnerability scanning of staging and live sites. - Using established malware scanners via partnerships is preferred over building from scratch. Transcript: Speaker 2 In Integration so that your users can do some Testing an instant WP of the Within a degree with wb scan So it is built into our platform. Speaker 1 So All staging is if you create a staging website with instant So you can scan it with the vulnerabilities And if you have another another point is that if you have A live website you can Install our plugin and we can do the scanning for you On that website. So both both are Scannable and this is this is general vulnerability scan not like a malware scan I would like to do that with some plugin at some point because developing malware scanner Ourself is going to be huge use tasks Yeah, you're you're almost better off. Speaker 2 I think going to somebody like a patch stack. I know Solid WP did that uh formally I think and they've partnered on all ([Time 0:22:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/802b9b75-7a9d-4c89-a3ac-72633f2f62f0)) - **Focused Growth Tools & Hosting Integration** - Agencies need sleek remote management tools and hosting integrations to grow efficiently. - Partnering with hosting providers reduces friction and enhances WordPress onboarding for new users. Transcript: Speaker 2 Is there any other things you see for instant WP coming down the road that we haven't talked about? Speaker 1 A lot of stuff I decided for now our focus is building solutions Which agencies can use to build that business on Uh, so hosting vase and a lot of stuff with our staging plugin and uh remote Management something like what manage wp offers but in a much sleeker manner Uh, and and we are also trying to enter into the hosting uh provider's world where a lot of hosting companies Are now partnering with us Uh to enable enable their playground. So a lot of uh companies in europe have now started using instead of the pso You know a lot of product companies in the word festival like gravity farms And others have already started Using our solution same goes with hosting companies as well They need like a one-click demo creator And then the democrat sites can be migrated into the hosting platform. So how cool is that? So people can actually start with using wordpress right away rather than like creating an account and then buying a hosting plan So that also like reduces friction for new new users Into the word festival. Speaker 2 Yeah, I and I think Reducing friction is a big Been overlooked lately in a number of places. So it's really good ([Time 0:23:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7fba1e9a-aa6e-4115-8e87-fcc8661e9dbd)) - **WordPress Needs Better Onboarding** - Improving WordPress onboarding end-to-end can retain users and reduce migration to competitors. - Addressing scalability and friction are crucial to WordPress growth against platforms like Shopify. Transcript: Speaker 2 On you guys for tackling that one Yep. Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean I have a firm belief that if wordpress had a better onboarding overall Not just like thanks creating a website but end-to-end then vixes and we please do not actually need To exist Um to exist they are good businesses. I don't have any problem with them But due to the gap which we had these guys are thriving, right? But if we fix those gaps, I can I think we can fix the leaky bucket where people are going into the other systems and then keep them Or retain them even better. No, I I agree with it And you can touch shopify internet mess too, but we're just 100% That I think shopify solved another problem with his scalability Uh with wordpress I think that should Be also stop at some point ([Time 0:25:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e21ffa22-2bd9-45aa-b652-3794d9f42889))