My Secret Project, A New Plugin and Business as Unusual WPCP: 025

Kim Doyal

Where the bucket has 2013 gone?!

Seriously. I swear I say that every year…”where has the year gone”… and this year is no different. It felt like it was just 90 degrees yesterday and I was hanging out by the pool (o.k., so it was 90 degrees a month ago maybe, but still). For whatever reason I have had the hardest time getting back into the swing of things since our trip to Scotland (we’ve been home over a month now and I keep thinking I’m just going to wake up with a “ta-da” feeling… but no. Not happenin). I didn’t completely put business on hold while I was gone but I feel like I’ve been in catch up mode for a while. The truth is my business is simply growing. So naturally it makes sense to start something new, right? (just the way I roll… what can I say?)

Which is where my ‘Secret Project’ comes in.

Based on the image in this post – it’s probably not much of a secret, is it?

I’m officially launching KimDoyal.com.

You may (or may not) have read the post back in February of this year when I contemplated moving away from The WordPress Chick. I had an experience with someone I referred to as a ‘fizzy douche’ because, well… because he was. You can read the post here to find out why said individual earned this ‘oh so lovely’ title (it was definitely earned). It was more than just this one incident that made me consider giving up “The WordPress Chick”.

Long and short of it, I was tired.

I had created a perception of how things needed to be on this site and was worried that if I changed things up at all I’d lose a bunch of readers and subscribers. Of course as life tends to teach me over and over again, my perceptions aren’t always reality. I received lots of love and “NO! Don’t leave The WordPress Chick!”, which made me feel wonderful, truly. But I still knew I needed to mix things up a bit.

With the launch of my podcast and the content that as gone along with it you can probably tell I’ve been sharing a lot more than just WordPress news or Genesis news. There are so many other parts to my business that I enjoy that I knew I needed to branch out and bring more into this site and what I do. I’ve been bringing in more of my personal journey (as it relates to my business) and have to say that the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

But…

Something was still missing.

Time for a new platform.

Enter KimDoyal.com.

There are a lot of reasons behind the launch of this site, one of which is something I’ve started this year, almost accidentally (accidentally in that someone emailed me to ask if this was a service I provided).

And that is coaching.

Something that I absolutely LOVE!

I’ve done some tests running coaching off of this site and will probably do more of it in the first of the year, but the choice to run coaching and different products and services through KimDoyal.com is because it’s much less restrictive. There won’t be an expectation that everything I do on that site be tied to WordPress (even though in some round about way it may be… you just never know).

I am SOOOO TOTALLY Excited about this.

I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning.

You’ll see more of my quirky sense of humor, no-nonsense approach and desire to live life on my terms on KimDoyal.com. And of course that means another podcast (have I told you how much I love podcasting?).

While I finish up the branding elements and site design you can sign up to get notified when the site launches and my official ‘Launch Party’ (not exactly sure what that will look like, but it will be fun!).

A New Plugin

gumroad-email-connect-plugin

Nothing beats creating something because you need it, huh?

That’s where my ideas come from when it comes to plugins (the whole ‘few’ I’ve had created). I’ve been doing a lot of digging into e-Commerce and WordPress and what the best options are based on the customer experience and what is being sold. I went into more detail in my post titles ‘Selling With Genesis’, so you can view my suggestions in that post if you want to get a few more options than what I’m sharing here today.

I fell in love with Gumroad the second I saw it.

Clean

Easy to Use

gumroad-email-connect

Awesome design

AND… the customer NEVER leaves the page when they check out! Everything happens right where they are. No need to add an item to a cart, view the cart, go to another page, enter your purchase information and then checkout (and be taken to another page via PayPal or a different merchant). Too many steps.

There was only one problem.

Gumroad didn’t connect with any email auto responders. Bom bom bom…

So I dug into Gumroad’s developer info. and saw they had an API and a Ping option (didn’t really know how that worked). I contacted Gumroad and they set me in the right direction. I sent all the details to my developer and a couple months later we had a working plugin.

Next was testing it, tweaking it and seeing what additional options were needed.

I go over more of this in the podcast, so I won’t be completely redundant and list everything here, but the plugin is very close to public release (I need some more beta testers, so shoot me an email if you’d like to test it at kim@thewpchick.com). I’ve found a great solution for submitting support tickets (you’ll hear more about that in another episode) and am working on the documentation. Whew.

I think I should do an entire podcast on the journey into plugin development. What do you think?

If you want to be notified when Gumroad Email Connect is officially released, just drop your name & email in below.

Business as Unusual

That’s how the last month has felt. I start to feel like I’ve got a grasp on everything, schedule is down, work flow is good and then BAM!

Something shows up in my personal life or a big project comes along (I’m soooo not complaining) and it’s back to business as unusual.

Fortunately I’ve realized that my “unusual” really is my status quo.

My life is never dull.

I love that new people and projects show up in my life every single week… it’s truly what feeds my soul. So of course I’ll be sharing more of my “business as unusual” happenings in a few upcoming interviews and posts. I’ve got creators of new tools for content creation, an interview about podcasting, and a super fun interview with a creative genius (who helped me with the naming of some key elements for KimDoyal.com) and of course I’ll be sharing the journey behind the creation and launch of KimDoyal.com.

As always, Thanks for listening!

I’d love a review in iTunes and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss any of these cool interviews and happenings!

Links from this episode

KimDoyal.com

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8 Comments

    1. Thanks Andy! I’m really excited about it. I had the brilliance of Victoria to help me with a few naming projects for the new brand.
      Hope you’re doing great!

  1. Hi Kim,

    I have been an avid follower of ‘The WordPress Chick’ for several years.

    I am so glad to hear that you’re not going ‘quietly into the night’ (not that that would have been your style anyway) and have signed up for news of KimDoyal.com

    Here’s to the future!

    Jeremy
    (Singapore)

    1. Thanks so much Jeremy!
      I’m really excited about the new brand- and excited that you’ll follow me there too. 😉
      Thanks for sticking with me.
      Kim

  2. So excited for you Kim on this big decision!!!! Can’t wait…now I think I’m going to have to change my logo…as of course using my name I’m having someone design it with fancy writing similar to yours….YIKES!!!! Maybe great mines as we know we both have them. Now more than likely not the same font. But can’t wait to see the new site!

    1. OMG Barb! Do NOT change your logo! 😉 I’m excited to see your new site myself. And you’re right, great minds…. haha.
      Thanks for all your support, ALwAYS!
      Kim

  3. oh my gosh, i love it! will definitely be following you over there. so wait, does that mean WPChick will become KimDoyal.com or are you keep them both separate?

    1. Hi Marianne,
      Thanks! 😉 Nope, I’m keeping them separate and will continue with The WPChick. I’m pretty excited!

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