The other day I wrote a post about developers leaving money on the table by not learning a little more about mobile and creating mobile solutions using AppPresser. In case you didn't know, AppPresser makes mobile development easy for WordPress developers.
One developer read my post and sent me a pretty long email about how what I had written was silly because all he needed to do was create a responsive theme and it would look great on a mobile phone.
He was right – if that had been what I was saying. But let me clarify that I wasn't suggesting that at all. I was giving him a way to make a lot more money than just designing a nice theme. I shared with him a single example. And now I thought I would share it with you (in the video below).
[If you don't see that video, here's a link to it.]
Tools for creating a dating site with WordPress
The most wonderful thing about this is that most everything we need is already available to us – and most of it is free.
WordPress – well, you knew I wasn't going to suggest buying some PHP script that is out there for you to download, right? In fact, for the price of some of those scripts, you'll be able to purchase everything you need. Because, if you didn't know it, WordPress is free.
This will give you the base system for everything you build.
Restrict Content Pro – Restrict Content Pro will protect your site from those who haven't paid – and will charge people regularly, at the intervals you set. All for $42.
Now, to be clear, you don't have to use the rest of the items on the list. Because it's perfectly possible to create a system where people browse profiles (which are custom posts) and see details, and even watch video interviews, without anything else.
Or you can add a forum, like BBPress. And if you do, Restrict Content Pro has an extension for BBPress – I know in the video I say it's for BuddyPress, but that's incorrect – it's for BBPress. And it's free.
If you add a forum, then you can use it for public communication related to large and small group events, as well as a place for people to engage in topic-based discussions.
Of course, another approach is to create a social network, and to do that, you'd need a different plugin.
BuddyPress – this plugin provides the entire social structure for your site. Guess what? It's free too. Yes, the solution for user profiles, blog posts, forums, and more is all available to you for free.
If you're doing the math so far, you've only spent $42. For a site that makes money.
But you'll need a theme. I like to recommend getting a custom one from my friend David, who specializes in creating themes (especially for BuddyPress).
But you can also get some from ThemeForest that are specific to BuddyPress.
Wait, how does this relate to AppPresser?
Now, the whole point of this article was to show you how leveraging AppPresser could be very advantageous to you.
See, if all you planned to do was create a mobile version of a site, then building a mobile app is a waste of time. There's no upside.
But here, in this context of a dating app, you suddenly see how a mobile solution could be an extension to the site – and a very useful one at that:
- for finding directions
- for taking photos
- for writing quick reviews
- for sharing reviews of things
- even for splitting a dinner check
And for all of that, you'd want it integrated to the site, but the point is to do more than just connect your site to an app. It's to leverage the mobile device specifically for parts of the interaction that don't make sense on the web (because of timing, location, etc).
Obviously, the dating app is a simple example of a larger case of domain specific applications that extend beyond the website itself.
You've likely used Fandango for movies.
When I help product folks with ideation, we often work on a simple exercise like this one. We try to fill in the blank.
We're the Fandango of _____________.
You can imagine so many different product ideas, based on how you fill in the blank. And as you do, you'll realize you transitioned from thinking of the mobile app as the display mechanism for remote content, and instead see it as the location-aware, context-dependent, access point for so much more.
So that's my take on a real world example of using AppPresser to make you money. You're job is simple: fill in the blank line.
Then go pick up AppPresser and start building cool stuff.