New, new, new…

This is a bit of a long post, but that’s the way things go sometimes.

I’ve had quite a few people write to me the last couple of weeks asking what’s going on. I think the last email I sent out was about a month ago, and I’ve been very quiet ever since. But I haven’t gone away.

I’ve had emails asking specific things like “Any new plugins?” and “Is PLAhh coming back online again?” and “Any new themes?” and also general questions like “Everything okay?”

I’ve answered everybody individually, and to some I’ve given out specific details about what’s happening, but I thought it would be a good idea to share some of my secret little doings, and so here we go.

#1 – A brand new monthly newsletter.
#2 – I’ve hooked up with two new programmers.
#3 – New format PLAhh.com.
#4 – Version Checker plugin and PluginGreat.com.

Now as you can see I’ve had quite a lot going on, and I’ve gone completely against one of my rules of one key project at a time. It can’t be helped this time because of the way things happened, and the unfortunate side-effect of working on several things at once is that everything slows down. And that’s one of the reasons why we don’t do it folks. As I said, this time it can’t be helped and things will resolve themselves once I’ve gone through the pain barrier.

There are actually *more* projects going on than this which are longer term, and I’ve even had to walk away from some other opportunities because I just don’t have the time right now. Maybe in a few weeks.  😉

In detail then…

#1 – Amin Motin and I will shortly be releasing (expected Wednesday 6th March) a new monthly newsletter called “Proven Income Success” (yeah…) that will cost just $7 so it’s not going to break anyones bank.

The newsletter will contain several sections, including details about the things that we’re working on (real world examples) and how you can do the same. There will also be techy sections (tools we use), self-improvement mindset stuff, marketing strategies, and all the cool things that we know will please so many people.

Every month, we’ll show you what we’ve been doing and share with you what’s working and what isn’t. If things go well you’ll hear all about it. If bad things happen, then we’ll give you all the grisly details so you can avoid doing the same thing.

We’ll add audio versions of the newsletter and also slip in the odd videos when appropriate – they may even become a regular feature if they prove popular.

This is a newsletter that you SHOULD buy into even if only to see how we’re going about it so you can duplicate it yourself. And it’s just $7 for all this lovely goodness.

#2 – About a month and a bit ago, and within 72 hours of each other I had two PHP/WordPress programmers contact me separately and we quickly agreed to do some projects together.

Glen lives in the US and came to me asking for marketing advice on a really exciting HUGE project (watch this space later this year). Apparently he’s been stalking… er *watching* me for several years and thinks I bring a degree of sanity to the online marketing arena. Ahem. (I didn’t think anybody had noticed.)

He has lots of experience in IM (been working in the shadows for years) and the chances are high that at some point you’ve bought a script or plugin that he’s coded for another marketer.

Apart from the long term million dollar project we’re working on, he’s also agreed to do some smaller stuff with me and has 95% coded a really interesting plugin that he’ll be releasing in the next week or so. If you have any interest in IM and running your own special offers, accumulating affiliates and buyers, and building a mailing list, then you’ll want to get hold of that plugin.

Watch out for my email about it next week.

Mandy lives in the UK and is an experienced WordPress programmer who’s been doing custom WordPress plugin and PHP work for clients. She wrote to me offering her skills after a few back and forth emails and after a Skype conversation I was more than pleased that she knows what she’s talking about.

She’s going to do some scripts and plugins and I’m going to “show her the ropes” as regards running a WSO, so that works really well for both of us.

As with Glen, I bring to the table my long experience, plus sales copywriting skills, plus contacts, and last but not least my secret weapon of my graphics/theme guy. We both have lots of ideas…

And that’s how partnerships are born.

#3 – PLAhh will be launched in a revised format containing plugins that Glen has offered to write. As I mentioned above, Glen has been in IM a long time and as a result there isn’t any related topic that he can’t write a script or plugin for.

The new format will consist of the plugin plus editable documentation and instructions as normal, plus a sales page and sales copy to go with it.

The sales copy is something that I didn’t want to do as I know that the most successful PLR put to good use is when YOU write your own sales copy, but I’ve had so many people ask for this that I don’t feel it fair to ignore it any longer.

So even though I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, I’m going to do it because that’s what people want.

The new format also won’t include the 5 sales or squeeze pages – people who have commented don’t want them.  I’ll put the resource spent on those into a single very nice sales page design plus sales copy (as I said above) so it all balances out.

The membership will re-open at $20/month for one weekend and then immediately goes to $47/month thereafter. Expected launch Friday 8th March, but we may put this back, so you’re getting at least 7 days notice.

#4 – Finally, one of the main things I’ve received criticism for is that it’s not been easy to get updates for plugins I release. The thing is, WordPress has a built in system that when a free plugin is updated in the repository, then WP checks and tells you about the update. With a couple of clicks you can get the update downloaded and installed.

I wanted to do the same thing with my own plugins, but it’s a little bit more complicated than following the exact same route that WP has done.

I’ve spent a LONG time thinking about this and I came up with a method that’s almost complete.

Believe it or not, some people out there have actually been selling my plugins as their own, and even giving them away. Yeah we all know this happens and it’s part of being a software vendor – it’s not the kind of thing I lose a lot of sleep over, but I’m not really *that* happy about it.

I don’t encode my plugins in any way as that’s not what genuine customers want, so it’s difficult to protect a plugin when it’s all plain text. But not impossible.

My solution to this is to create a new plugin called Version Checker that will control all the updates and who is allowed to use the plugin. When we’re done coding (90% there), you install it and you just enter the email address you purchased with and then all the plugins you’ve purchased will become available and ready to download and install all from within WordPress.

If there are plugins you haven’t purchased then you’ll still be able to download them but you won’t be able to activate them. If the Version Checker plugin isn’t installed and active then the plugins won’t activate. This makes it really simple to install any of the plugins I release and it should mean no more FTP, and updates will be quick and easy to do.

As I said, I’ve really spent a lot of brain power over the best way to do it and this is the fairest method I could come up with.

As soon as it’s ready, we’ll start updating the plugins to work with Version Checker and then issue it.

***

Okay?

One last thing. I was asked about one of my Multiple Streams Themes (#3) by a customer who has all the others and I said I’d run a sale as soon as I was able, so we’ll do that Friday 1st March at 6.00pm GMT (1.00pm EST). And just to sweeten the deal I’ll include my Affiliate Ticker plugin as a bonus.

I’ll send you an email tomorrow (Friday) with details about the sale.

All the best,
-Frank Haywood