2020 Year In Review

on December 15, 2020

What a journey this has been since I wrote the first blog post introducing DiviWP to the world back in May.

This post reflects on some of the highlights over the past 7 months, what we can do better and what the future holds.

We launched DiviWP in May 2020 and received our first batch of paying customers a few weeks later.

I wrote about some of the challenges we faced after launch and although it took a bit longer to release new Sections, the “unsexy” tasks behind the scenes helped shape our roadmap and get us to where we are now.

Documentation and it’s importance

I’m a big fan of the “done is better than perfect” maxim, however after our initial launch, our documentation barely qualified as “done”.

We therefore had to double down on creating comprehensive articles and guides so that our customers could find answers to their questions when they needed it.

These articles also help to communicate our design thinking and gives insight into how and why we’ve made certain decisions for our Layouts and Sections. The feedback we’ve received from customers has validated these efforts.

Over the past 7 months, we’ve published 48 articles and plan to add a whole lot more as new sections, layouts and templates get released – including a series of videos which we’re very excited about.

The Divi Marketplace

On 30 July 2020, the Divi Marketplace was introduced to the world and with it our initial batch of Layouts and Sections.

Having our Layouts and Sections on the Divi Marketplace provides a unique opportunity to place our products in front of the hugely passionate and growing Divi user base.

It also meant that we received the stamp of approval from Elegant Themes, the makers of Divi.

We believe there is huge value in our Yearly, Lifetime and Agency Plans but realise that some customers might not be able to afford it or would prefer to just purchase one or two layouts or collections of sections.

That’s why we’re so proud to be part of the Divi Marketplace because it enables folks to purchase what they want while also exposing them to other great Divi products.

  • As of writing, we have made over 305+ sales on the marketplace
  • Our most popular products are our Header Sections with over 100 sales followed by our Feature / Content Sections and Footer Sections.
  • We will be adding and updating these products in the coming months. More on that below.

Perhaps more importantly to our team, and to me personally, are the 5-star reviews we’ve received.

These reviews reflect our commitment to delivering an exceptional product and standard of professional support to our customers.

I’m a big believer in investing in quality support and we’ll certainly continue to invest in and uphold our high support standards in 2021.

New Sections and Updates

We released 7 major updates to our Sections and Layouts this year:

In addition to the new sections we published 7 blog post updates and closed over 100 support tickets.

In August we launched our affiliate program which has some of the highest commissions available in the Divi ecosystem.

What we could do better and looking ahead

Releasing new Sections and Layouts takes time because we go the extra mile in making sure they work optimally across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Our attention to detail and our emphasis on quality design is what sets DiviWP apart from other providers.

That said, we would have liked to release more throughout the year we’ll be investing in new designers in 2021 to help us quality control our various sections, layouts and templates we have in the production pipeline as well as create even more components for our customers. And we even have a few top secret projects in the works 🙂

We can’t provide ETAs on our production schedule, much the same way Elegant Themes can’t provide ETA’s on their release schedule.

That’s because, like Elegant Themes, we are striving to produce an exceptional product and with that comes prioritising quality assurance, quality design and quality documentation.

Our goal, starting first thing next year, is to ramp up our release schedule.

We’re actively working on so many exciting new layouts, sections, videos, teardowns, tips, resources, tutorials and freebies – I can’t wait to release them all.

And finally…

2020 was the year my daughter turned 1 and the year I learnt to truly appreciate Dad Jokes.

Raising a toddler during a global pandemic and within the restrictions of hard lockdowns all while trying to grow DiviWP – has proven to be extremely challenging.

But throughout it all I’ve tried to maintain a sense of humor, as evidenced by the Dad Jokes that make their way into our changelog and I’ve truly appreciated all the feedback and encouragement from our customers who are all facing similar challenges around the world.

As my daughter took her first few wobbly steps just before her first birthday, I realised that we can all only take one step at a time and keep persevering through it all.

Thanks for being part of the journey.

Tristan – Founder, DiviWP

P.S You can follow me on Twitter or drop me a line in the comments or via our support form

About Tristan Owen

I’m a web developer currently in Cape Town, South Africa and the founder of DiviWP. I'm an aspiring guitarist with a deep love of the blues and hope to one day own both a '60s Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster.
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