We all want to build better WordPress websites. Unfortunately, they don’t always end up looking great. If there was a way that you could bundle it all and build a website in, say, a weekend, would you take it?

Well then, brace yourself, because it IS possible to build a WordPress site in a weekend! In this episode, we get a little help from Matthew Averkamp who knows all about building a website in a matter of days.

I spoke with Matthew about Launch Party, his new course and toolkit for beginner WordPress site builders. He’s created a program that can teach anyone how to build a website from scratch. Here at WPE we call it “a website in bag” because it literally comes with everything, all the way down to customizable color schemes. Tune in now to hear Matt and I talk about where he came up with the idea and why he’s offering his courses and templates absolutely 100% free forever.

Like Father, Like Son

Matt has been building his own businesses for the past 15 years, but his first foray into the world of online courses was actually with his father. Matt and his dad created Accounting Coach, a website for online accounting courses and toolkits that’s still seeing traffic to this day. The problem was that Matt didn’t want to keep creating new content for accounting when he’s much more interested in user testing and helping people build their own businesses online.

He started Launch Party this year with a focus on being able to build an entire website (from scratch, mind you) in a weekend. He teaches from the templates he’s created in order to help consultants and other entrepreneurs build beautiful websites quickly. Because the faster you get online and running, the faster you can grow your business.

Matt’s Nomadic Entrepreneurial Journey

Matt is addicted to traveling. In fact, right now he’s in Thailand. But no matter how long he’s traveling or where he goes, he’s always thinking about his business. That’s the luxury of working remotely and helping others build and host websites. It gives him the freedom to focus on what really matters, and this year it was split-testing. Split-testing is just a fancy way of making sure your website works the way you and your users want it to. For Matt, his year-long split test saw revenues increase by 30%, which is more than enough to keep this man comfortable as a nomadic entrepreneur.

“Structure your business in such a way so that you can step away from it.”

Matt’s business structure relies a lot on remote teams. He may be in Thailand, but his design team is in Canada, and his friend in the United States takes care of the customer service side of things. But Matt swears you don’t need to maintain daily communication to keep your business running smoothly. His strategy involves keeping everything project-based so that it’s much easier to manage across long distances.

While his team is working on their own projects, Matt spends his time doing what he loves most about this business: user testing. At the 27-minute mark, Matt breaks down why user testing is so important to his business model and how he uses it to create the unique structure of his Launch Party course and toolkits.

Some important takeaways from Matt’s user testing toolkit are:
Start out small with something like a course outline or an “about” statement to see what kinds of users are interested;
Advance with an easy tutorial to see how skilled your users actually are;
Pay close attention to user patterns and where users are having the most difficulty; and
Include plenty of visual tools, like timelines, so both you and your users can see where and how the growth will happen.

Now Let’s Talk About Building a WordPress Site with Launch Party

Through extensive user testing, Matt was able to figure out exactly what new users needed from a WordPress tutorial. Because it’s quite overwhelming out there. For example, if you go searching for elementor templates, you’ll have hundreds upon hundreds of options at your disposal. But with Launch Party, Matt created one killer feature that makes him stand out. I’m talking about the customizable color option!

“It was impossible to come up with premade color schemes that everybody liked.”

User testing showed that people were very sensitive to the colors used on their website, but Matt couldn’t come up with a universal color scheme that pleased everyone. So he simply made it possible for users to modify colors to fit their own unique tastes. You just find a color pack you like, customize the colors until they’re perfect for you, then download it and use it in any of your Launch Party templates. No other templates give you this much creative freedom!

Just don’t go overboard with it. I’m guilty of that. Tune in at the 19-minute mark to hear about my favorite Launch Party color scheme and what possessed me to try and change it all for no reason. It’s a weird element in human nature that Matt tapped into with his user testing. We all, for some odd reason, want to change things even if they’re perfect, just to see what happens when we do. Launch Party makes that possible to do with your website, and it makes it easy to change it back if your suddenly change your mind like I did!

What does the future hold for Launch Party?

While Matt, myself, and the rest of the world are waiting on the new WordPress to launch, Launch Party has its own new features waiting in the wings. New colors will be coming - Matt promises a pastel pack, but the toolkits and courses he’s designed are specifically catered to building a WordPress website from scratch.

The future of Launch Party will include a weekend-long course where new and seasoned WordPress aficionados can come together for a weekend and build their WordPress sites together. The course will end with a launch party for everyone’s sites, which is what inspired the name of the company to begin with. Users can look out for this course and others like it in 2019.

Wrap Up

The most important takeaway from this episode is not how quickly you can build a WordPress site, although that is pretty amazing. The nugget I’m focused on most is the custom content and user testing Matt put into Launch Party. He custom built his own LMS based on user testing so he could deliver exactly what his customers wanted. He listened to their feedback and logged their experiences on his site and tutorials in order to create a program that is not only user-friendly but also completely free. He noticed that there was no one else out there offering quite what he envisioned, and he empowers entrepreneurs like us by offering this invaluable content free of charge.

Reach Out

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn or on Twitter @avermatt

Links

Try Wordpress Elementor Page Builder if you haven't already

Check out a few Katka Templates

Matt uses Userlytics to do his user testing

We all want to build better WordPress websites. Unfortunately, they don&rsquo;t always end up looking great. If there was a way that you could bundle it all and build a website in, say, a weekend, would you take it?
Well then, brace yourself, because it IS possible to build a WordPress site in a weekend! In this episode, we get a little help from Matthew Averkamp who knows all about building a website in a matter of days.
I spoke with Matthew about <a href="https://launchparty.org/">Launch Party</a>, his new course and toolkit for beginner WordPress site builders. He&rsquo;s created a program that can teach anyone how to build a website from scratch. Here at WPE we call it &ldquo;a website in bag&rdquo; because it literally comes with everything, all the way down to customizable color schemes. Tune in now to hear Matt and I talk about where he came up with the idea and why he&rsquo;s offering his courses and templates absolutely 100% free forever.
Like Father, Like Son
Matt has been building his own businesses for the past 15 years, but his first foray into the world of online courses was actually with his father. Matt and his dad created <a href="https://www.accountingcoach.com/">Accounting Coach</a>, a website for online accounting courses and toolkits that&rsquo;s still seeing traffic to this day. The problem was that Matt didn&rsquo;t want to keep creating new content for accounting when he&rsquo;s much more interested in user testing and helping people build their own businesses online.
He started <a href="http://www.launchparty.org">Launch Party</a> this year with a focus on being able to build an entire website (from scratch, mind you) in a weekend. He teaches from the templates he&rsquo;s created in order to help consultants and other entrepreneurs build beautiful websites quickly. Because the faster you get online and running, the faster you can grow your business.
Matt&rsquo;s Nomadic Entrepreneurial Journey
Matt is addicted to traveling. In fact, right now he&rsquo;s in Thailand. But no matter how long he&rsquo;s traveling or where he goes, he&rsquo;s always thinking about his business. That&rsquo;s the luxury of working remotely and helping others build and host websites. It gives him the freedom to focus on what really matters, and this year it was split-testing. Split-testing is just a fancy way of making sure your website works the way you and your users want it to. For Matt, his year-long split test saw revenues increase by 30%, which is more than enough to keep this man comfortable as a nomadic entrepreneur.
&ldquo;Structure your business in such a way so that you can step away from it.&rdquo;
Matt&rsquo;s business structure relies a lot on remote teams. He may be in Thailand, but his design team is in Canada, and his friend in the United States takes care of the customer service side of things. But Matt swears you don&rsquo;t need to maintain daily communication to keep your business running smoothly. His strategy involves keeping everything project-based so that it&rsquo;s much easier to manage across long distances.
While his team is working on their own projects, Matt spends his time doing what he loves most about this business: user testing. At the 27-minute mark, Matt breaks down why user testing is so important to his business model and how he uses it to create the unique structure of his Launch Party course and toolkits.
Some important takeaways from Matt&rsquo;s user testing toolkit are:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Start out small with something like a course outline or an &ldquo;about&rdquo; statement to see what kinds of users are interested;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Advance with an easy tutorial to see how skilled your users actually are;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Pay close attention to user patterns and where users are having the most difficulty; and</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Include plenty of visual tools, like timelines, so both you and your users can see where and how the growth will happen.</li>
</ul>
Now Let&rsquo;s Talk About Building a WordPress Site with Launch Party
Through extensive user testing, Matt was able to figure out exactly what new users needed from a WordPress tutorial. Because it&rsquo;s quite overwhelming out there. For example, if you go searching for elementor templates, you&rsquo;ll have hundreds upon hundreds of options at your disposal. But with Launch Party, Matt created one killer feature that makes him stand out. I&rsquo;m talking about the customizable color option!
&ldquo;It was impossible to come up with premade color schemes that everybody liked.&rdquo;
User testing showed that people were very sensitive to the colors used on their website, but Matt couldn&rsquo;t come up with a universal color scheme that pleased everyone. So he simply made it possible for users to modify colors to fit their own unique tastes. You just find a color pack you like, customize the colors until they&rsquo;re perfect for you, then download it and use it in any of your Launch Party templates. No other templates give you this much creative freedom!
Just don&rsquo;t go overboard with it. I&rsquo;m guilty of that. Tune in at the 19-minute mark to hear about my favorite Launch Party color scheme and what possessed me to try and change it all for no reason. It&rsquo;s a weird element in human nature that Matt tapped into with his user testing. We all, for some odd reason, want to change things even if they&rsquo;re perfect, just to see what happens when we do. Launch Party makes that possible to do with your website, and it makes it easy to change it back if your suddenly change your mind like I did!
What does the future hold for Launch Party?
While Matt, myself, and the rest of the world are waiting on the new WordPress to launch, Launch Party has its own new features waiting in the wings. New colors will be coming - Matt promises a pastel pack, but the toolkits and courses he&rsquo;s designed are specifically catered to building a WordPress website from scratch.
The future of Launch Party will include a weekend-long course where new and seasoned WordPress aficionados can come together for a weekend and build their WordPress sites together. The course will end with a launch party for everyone&rsquo;s sites, which is what inspired the name of the company to begin with. Users can look out for this course and others like it in 2019.
Wrap Up
The most important takeaway from this episode is not how quickly you can build a WordPress site, although that is pretty amazing. The nugget I&rsquo;m focused on most is the custom content and user testing Matt put into Launch Party. He custom built his own LMS based on user testing so he could deliver exactly what his customers wanted. He listened to their feedback and logged their experiences on his site and tutorials in order to create a program that is not only user-friendly but also completely free. He noticed that there was no one else out there offering quite what he envisioned, and he empowers entrepreneurs like us by offering this invaluable content free of charge.
Reach Out
Connect with Matt on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewaverkamp/">LinkedIn</a> or on Twitter <a href="http://avermat">@avermatt</a>
Links
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/">Try Wordpress Elementor Page Builder if you haven't already</a>
<a href="https://elementortemplatepack.com/">Check out a few Katka Templates</a>
<a href="https://www.userlytics.com/">Matt uses Userlytics to do his user testing</a>

The WP Elevation podcast is the premier WordPress business podcast. We bring you interviews with successful entrepreneurs in the WordPress industry to help you build a successful WordPress business.

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WP Elevation WordPress Business Podcast

In this episode, we get a little help from Matt Averkamp who knows all about building a website in a matter of days.

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