Since we love to share success stories from the WordPress ecosystem, we asked Daniel Angeloff from Fastgecko with questions about his WP business. In the following interview, you can find out what tips and wisdom he revealed to us.
> Short introduction - What is Fastgecko actually?
Fastgecko is currently the easiest and fastest WordPressplugin for membership and e-learning sites. Thanks to the intuitive user experience, Fastgecko enables anyone to automatically sell and deliver video courses and e-books on their WordPress website in under 30 minutes.
Our mission at Fastgecko is to develop the best tools to help people get their first sales in record time with their digital content, building a semi-automated cashflow business.
In our experience, far too many simply fail because of the technology and never get to their first online course sales. But especially in the beginning, this is the most important thing to stay motivated.
> How did the idea for Fastgecko come about?
We have been working as an online marketing and web agency for several years. The call for our own product grew and grew, because we really wanted something that could also be sold "passively" via the internet without having to travel to customers all the time. So we started with online courses on Google Adwords.
We were so convinced by the topic of e-learning that we gradually set up further online course projects in a wide variety of niches (such as medicinal plants, self-defence, etc.).
In the course of this project work, we realised that there is actually no simple and quick solution for WordPress to sell its online courses. The idea of Fastgecko was born!
Our ambition was to develop a solution that would allow anyone to create a complete members' area for an e-learning product in less than 30 minutes. And we did it! 🙂
The normal working time with the solutions we worked with before was always around 8 hours - This just bothered us whenever we created a new course.
> What are your top 4 pieces of advice for someone who wants to build passive income with online training?
1. test the market
The first step is always to check the market for demand. The worst thing that can happen to you is to create a product that nobody needs.
Just check if there are already some competing products. You can also use the Google Keyword Planner to check how many people are searching for a solution to the problem you are addressing in the course.
2. bring the customer from A to B
Many complicate the creation of an online course and pack in many features, which then only confuse the end customer. If a student doesn't get results from your course, they will most likely not buy any more products from you.
Therefore, try to structure the course in such a way that you lead your student step-by-step from the starting point to their goal.
3. keep at it
All beginnings are difficult - also in online business. That's why you have to be patient and keep optimising. The big money won't come by itself.
But once the whole thing is up and running and a few adjustments have been made, you'll have an "evergreen product" that will keep putting money in your pockets for a long time to come - and it's automated!
4. bonus advice
Our new YouTube channel 'Digigecko - Daniel Angeloff' offers weekly tips on the topic of online business from practice.
> How can agencies and web designers benefit from Fastgecko?
Firstly, agencies and freelancers can of course very quickly sell their own online courses - filled with their valuable knowledge - with Fastgecko. Especially in the field of 'digital marketing and programming' there is a huge demand for good online courses.
Secondly, the market for digital information products is getting bigger and bigger, and this is not bypassing the "trainer, consultant and coaching scene". Thus, the demand for such e-learning solutions is also increasing more and more.
The cool thing is: Especially slightly larger companies in these industries are looking for "Done For You" services (D4U) for such e-learning solutions.
As a WordPress agency, in combination with Fastgecko, you can really serve this demand very well and get such lucrative orders (€ 4,000+) with requests for your own e-learning platform. Employee training portals can also be built with our system.
We also have our own Partner Programwhere we pay recurring commissions on referrals.
> Has it been your goal for a long time to develop a WordPress product at some point? In your experience, what are the advantages of a product business over working as a traditional WordPress agency?
Well, that it should be a WordPress product was not the goal from the beginning. But we had been considering going into the software field for a while.
In the end, we went into the product business because we think it's easier to systematise processes in business that way, and that's an important topic for us in the founding team. Because only through systems can you get more done with less time.
Unfortunately, it was often the case with our service contracts that they were always completely individual and difficult to structure for us. We simply spent too much time on administrative tasks that we could not charge the client for.
> What challenges do you face when building a product business?
Since we already had some WordPress development know-how through our agency business, this was not the biggest challenge so far. The biggest challenge in "online business" is definitely marketing.
If you sell a software product, you simply need many more new customers per month than with high-priced services. You also have to find out for yourself what you should focus on.
Here I would try to make a good network with people who are following a similar path but are already a step further, or hire a good coach.
Another "insider tip" here is to definitely check out the US market. You can learn a lot here, especially when it comes to online marketing. In part, we copy strategies from overseas 1:1, which work very well!
> In your opinion, does it make sense for WP agencies and web designers to work on client projects? and or should they focus on one area in the long term?
That's a good question 🙂 And I think it's also a question of where you personally want to go.
For us, the long-term plan is definitely to create more WordPress products and online courses for our target group, as this has become our passion.
The agency business runs in parallel for us and generates more funds to grow our online business faster. Our goal is also to run our business completely online from anywhere in the world.
I do believe that it is important to focus on one area. But I think it's even more important to systematise processes in the business so that you never have to do everything yourself and can concentrate on sales.
> If you had to travel back in time with your current knowledge, what would you do differently with regard to your business?
Well, there are actually exactly two things I would do differently:
First, I would focus 100 per cent on sales. Before I put time and energy into a nice website or blog, I would rather make a sales page first and try to sell the product. Only after I have mastered the sales process would I then tackle other things, such as a nice website etc., otherwise you quickly lose focus and earn little or no money.
Secondly: Systematise tasks! In the past, I often did things too individually and completely differently each time. In the process, you lose focus and waste a lot of time. Today, I try to standardise all tasks and can easily hand them over to freelancers and employees. That way you can grow faster!
Conclusion
In summary, Daniel's experience and tips for a successful online business can be broken down to the following five points:
- Analyse the international market and the Need for your product
- Concentrate first and foremost on Distribution
- Create a systematisation of your processes
- Automate as many tasks as possible
- Even if success is not immediate, don't give up!
Daniel not only had helpful tips, but also a special deal for OUT OF THE BOX readers in his luggage: with the voucher code Raidboxes you get a 10 percent discount on all Fastgecko products. If you also send an email after your purchase to daniel@fastgecko.org with the subject Raidboxes sIf you write a membership letter, you even get the 'Membership Mastery' training worth 197 euros for free.
With this in mind, we thank you for the interesting interview and say goodbye with a greeting to Austria!
