“I have an idea that I'd like to run by you.”
I'll be honest. Most of the time, the result isn't an energizing conversation. The reality is that most ideas aren't very novel. They're rehashed versions of ideas we've all heard 100 times before.
But this time things were different.
This time I was talking to Cliff Seal.
This time we were talking about what would become http://evermo.re
Do you know Cliff?
I met Cliff a little over a year ago in person – as he spoke at WordCamp Chicago 2013. But that was in person. Before that, we met online as we were both writing for WP Daily.
He's from Atlanta and epitomizes how approachable WordPress is. Anyone else as smart as Cliff, in any other technology community, would be aloof, mobbed, or hiding in the speaker room.
Cliff is a really, seriously bright guy – like most of the people I love hanging out with. I do it because their ideas spark my own.
Evermore solves a lot of problems
And this time it was no different. We were sitting together at a hotel in Phoenix talking about the growing emergence of a large user base of new folks to WordPress that
- weren't part of the “community”
- were business-oriented first and foremost
- didn't know the “WordPress way”
- had needs for hosting, themes, and plugins
- could easily throw the baby out with the bathwater if they had a poor experience
He had a way to solve it all. And a pretty simple way at that.
He would combine hosting, a set of clean and easily supported themes, and a set of curated plugins into a single platform that business-oriented newbies could pay monthly for.
WordPress as a Platform (WaaP).
Does that idea sound familiar?
I wrote recently about RainMaker – the new platform by CopyBlogger. They've built a platform that serves their target audience. And they bring several components together:
- Hosting
- Themes
- Plugins
Of course, in RainMaker, most of the plugins and hosting are their own. And their focus is internet marketers and solopreneurs.
That isn't the case with Evermo.re.
Instead, what they've done is to create an open WordPress as a Platform (WaaP).
WordPress as a Platform
When you bring hosting, a solid set of themes, a curated set of plugins, and a pretty solid pricing structure, you get a platform that is perfect for small businesses. It will continue to evolve, I'm sure.
But it's an interesting approach in a time where lots of hosts are struggling to deliver and/or differentiate. This approach brings more to the table than hosting, but all for the purposes of creating a solution that hides all the complexity for customers and helps them focus on their own sites.
RainMaker has a customized GUI that Evermore lacks. But Evermore looks like it will provide a greater number of plugins than RainMaker does.
Either way, we're starting to see these new platforms that look really inviting.
Want more info? Check out my buddy Brian's post.
Will you check it out?