I hinted at a rebranding of my business last week, in my post about Thanksgiving Business Planning.
I’ve gone through with my rebrand and I wanted to explain why I’ve done this.
So drum roll, WPDude has become bada-bada-bada-bada-bada-bada-bada NeilMatthews.co, the crowd erupts into spontaneous applauds 🙂
Dooooood!
I cannot even say the word dude without wincing. It’s not a word I ever use in normal day to day conversation. Why would I brand my business as that?
Well, back in 2008 when I started this journey, a 6 letter domain name was hard to find, so I leapt at the chance for this domain. WPDude was born without too much thought. Let that be a lesson to you kids out there, choose your domain name wisely.
I’m 46 years old for flip sake, I’m not a dude I’m a grown ass adult. The dude had to go.
I’m going to paraphrase a comment from a client.
I thought I was hiring a kid to fix my website, much to my pleasure I found out it was a middle aged man, I felt much better knowing that
Tagline
My tagline has changed to, from “Your WordPress Help” to “I Fix WordPress Sites”, you cannot be any clearer than that.
The majority of my work is stepping in when a site breaks or needs complex work.
Clients Want My Skills
My clients pay me for my particular set of skills, people hire Neil Matthews, not some comic book character called WPDude.
Working under a personal brand
I still have a backend team looking after maintenance work, but I am their client, not you. I act as a middleman on all communication
I’m not building a business to Sell
I wrote about building a business you love, in it I talk about how difficult it will be for me to sell my business. Who wants to buy a job.
I’ve embraced this and I now know I probably won’t sell this business, so why brand it as something other than me that can be sold.
What Does WP Mean Anyway
There is a dance you have to dance when you work in the WordPress arena, you cannot use the trademarked term WordPress in your domain name you have to use WP instead.
You will see a lot of people using WP in their domain name, but does anyone know what that means outside of the WordPress community, I doubt it.
Here is the memo just in case you missed it https://wordpress.org/about/domains/.
Flexibility
Moving to NeilMatthews.co allows me more flexibility in the work I do, for example, I’m interested in writing more about building a µAgency I’ve got a book in me on this subject. Not branding myself as a WordPress only grants me more flexibility to do this type of work.
Apps are rising, my ability to sell app development services is also something I am interested in you don’t hire a WordPress dude to develop your app.
I cannot see this happening, but WordPress could drop out of favour for a new tool, rebranding NeilMatthews.co gives me redundancy against that.
I want to write about topics outside of WordPress on my blog, some of my most well-received posts are about building online business. Not having a WordPress moniker allows me to do this.
It’s Scary
I flipped the switch yesterday, and I’m anxiously watching my stats and signups
Guess what, nothing has changed, requests for work have dropped in everything is fine. All the stress and worry about a change like this has dissolved.
Wrap Up – The Rebranding of WPDude
My primary business is still WordPress support and development, I’m not changing that, I just want to step out from the WPDude brand and work as myself, Neil Matthews.
So I’m a card-carrying solopreneur now, thanks for your attention, announcement over.
9 thoughts on “The Rebranding of WPDude”
Ballsy, Neil.
Jeff Yablon
http://answerguy.com
(Yup … “The Answer Guy” … OH, THE IRONY)
Really good rebrand. The “dude” thing is off-putting. However, you have always done excellent work for me so I didn’t care. But, congratulations!!!! Good move, dude. 🙂 heh heh
Thank you very much for your openness in sharing your worries and your actions. Refreshing and brave. Wish you all the very best. Kind regards, Doris
I always thought WPDude was a great brand. Like “Kleenex” or “Amazon” in a lot of ways. I understand your motivations though and can’t disagree with them (oh! aren’t you happy that a complete stranger can’t disagree? Ha! LOL). With your change, you become your brand, but you lose the shorthand effect of the WP, which anybody looking for wordpress help is likely to recognize. Maybe that wasn’t your experience.
If it were me, though, I might keep the “WPDude” domain around to use as a “bit.ly” type URL shortener. Six is less than twelve and 9 is less than 14, as the allergy medicine ads say (actually they say 6 is more than 1, but you get the idea). Plus, WPDude is already associated in people’s minds with neil matthews, so there’s a slight value there.
On the other hand, I also might try putting it up for auction asking a high price (at least $1k) to see if I could start a bidding war and make some money. I’d probably wait on that move, though until my new brand was established so I minimize losses from people who knew me as WPDude.
I think the WPDude worked for you to build your business. It was friendly and approachable. I get it though why you want to drop unit.
You were always Neil in my mind but it was so easy to just think the Dude could fix any problem that was over my head. The dude was bigger than life. He could handle it.
We rebranded last year and let go of the dog in the green and orange logo. Once I decided to do it, i couldn’t stand looking at it the older retro look one more minute.
So hats’s off to you. Your the best no matter what!
Well done Neil. I think it’s certainly a wiser approach if you want to tackle wider projects. I dont think its a risk though. Your experience will speak for itself.
I’ve actually just rebranded / launched a new project myself because I want to launch a membership site and not just offer consulting sevices.
Now it’s time to get your name out there, get featured on podcasts, grow authority on forums and differentiate yourself.
Good luck Neil.
Matt
I liked WPDude. It sounded friendly and a little bit mad (which is a good thing!). But, we move on and rebranding is always nice. It opens up the road to better things. Good luck! You´re great to work with and that won´t change I´m sure.
In the spring of 2009 I typed “help for blown up wordpress site” into Uncle Google. WPdude shows up and I thought “Great, I’m going to get some high school kid. But if he has managed to get his way onto the first page of Google in an natural search, he just might be my man.”
Needless to say, I was surprised to discover the true identity of WP Dude and Neil has been my go to tech guy not only for when I blow my website to smithereens, but also for a variety of tech recommendations and sage advice on “owning” my one person business as well.
All solutions are temporary. The WPdude moniker got you started and brought you to this particular moment. And it’s been fun too. I totally get that you’ve grown your business into something beyond what it was in 2009, sometimes we need to shed a skin and set our sights on more distant horizons.
I’ve also been toying with changing my “brand” and business name. I too am in a different place than I was 2005 when I started the current incarnation of my practice, which now includes podcast shows, one published book and another in the works. I’ve grown beyond having a “clinic,” but I’m not yet sure just what to name this ship I steer. So thanks for the inspiration and nudge to move forward.
It’s great to be a solopreneur!
Whatever you call yourself, you’ll always be my superhero.
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