What Does It Take To Build A Successful Web Design Agency: At The End of 2025

Discover what it takes to build a successful web design agency with expert insights from Imran Siddiq of Web Squadron. Get proven strategies now.

In this insightful show, Imran Siddiq from Web Squadron shares the essential steps for establishing a thriving web design agency. From mastering client relationships to honing technical skills, Imran reveals the strategies that have propelled his business to success. Discover valuable tips and industry secrets to kickstart your own agency journey. Don’t miss this opportunity — watch the video now to learn from an expert.

This Week’s Sponsors

Kinta: Kinta

LifterLMS: LifterLMS

Rollback Pro: Rollback Pro

The Show’s Main Transcript

[00:00:00.000] – Jonathan Denwood

Welcome back, folks, to the WP It’s episode 983. In this show, we’ve got a great guest. We’ve got Imran Siddiq with us from the Web Squadron. He’s a well-known influencer on YouTube and in the WordPress space. We’re going to discuss everything you need to know about becoming a successful web designer and running your own agency in 2025 and at the beginning of 2026. What are the realities of building a successful business? Imran has been producing some fantastic videos recently, and I’ve been watching some of them. I agree with almost everything he’s been trying to say. I think you’ve been doing an excellent job. I thought we would have you on the show. Would you like to give a brief 15- to 20-second introduction? And then, when we delve into the meat and potatoes of the show, you can provide a more detailed outline of your background.

[00:01:30.000] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah, so Imran Siddiq, Web Squadron. I joined the Web Agency full-time in 2022. I love helping businesses’ clients get the most out of their websites, as well as providing marketing and video marketing support. This is why I create a lot of content on YouTube and produce tutorials.

[00:01:51.520] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s fantastic. And I’ve got my ever-helpful and patient co-host, Kurt. Would you like to introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers?

[00:02:00.000] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Sure thing, Jonathan. My name is Kurt von Ahnen. I own an agency called MananaNoMas we also work directly with the great folks and team over at WP Tonic.

[00:02:09.280] – Jonathan Denwood

As I said, we could be entering the realities. I still believe it’s possible to have a highly successful career, but I also think things are changing rapidly, and this trend is expected to accelerate in 2026. But I think if you follow somebody like Imran and listen to what he’s got to say and other influencers that I agree with, I think you will be ahead of the pack. But before we get into the meat and potatoes, we have a message from one of our major sponsors. We will be back in a few moments, folks. Three, two, one. We’re coming back. We also have a monthly sponsor, which is greatly appreciated, and I’ll hand it over to Kirk for him to tell you about our monthly sponsor.

[00:02:58.700] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Well, thanks, Jonathan. Today’s episode is sponsored by Mastereo LMS, and here’s why we’re excited about having them on the show. Their free version isn’t a trial; it’s unlimited, and you get access to an unlimited number of courses, lessons, students, and this is available forever, with no credit card required. So if you think about that, you can build your entire course business without paying a cent. The drag-and-drop builder is there. The quiz creation is there. Student tracking. There’s a built-in payment processing with PayPal or Stripe, and we got all that in the free version. When you’re ready for a certificate or content trip or advanced features, you can always upgrade to pro. However, most course creators will be able to launch their courses for free. If you’d like, feel free to check out Misterio LMS. That’s M-A-S s-t-e-r-i-y-o. Com, Misterio.

[00:03:50.060] – Jonathan Denwood

We really appreciate their monthly contribution this month. We’re going to make an effort for the first couple of weeks of November, and we really appreciate their support. Let’s go straight into it, Inran. I know by watching a lot of your videos that you were working for a number of years with the UK National Health Service in project management, IT support area. I think I’m right about that, but you’ll correct me. It must have been quite a big jump. How did you get into the web design development area initially, and what led you to make this decision to move away from the National Health Service? Because that is a big decision.

[00:04:39.820] – Imran Siddiq

My journey actually began in 1997, when I first attended university. It was my first time experiencing the internet with Netscape Navigator. Back in those days, whenever you visited a website, you would sit there downloading an image, and it would take absolutely forever. I remember I remember downloading an image from the Fantom Menace, which hadn’t been released yet, just to get a picture of what Jaja Binks looked like. I just sat there for about an hour just watching it scan. But I was mesmerized by the power websites gave us. Fast forward to 2002, when I began working in the NHS as an analyst, and I eventually progressed to become head of department. However, during 2002, I started to realize just how atrocious websites were. They were very noisy, very heavy, full of the Ali McBeal dancing baby, and an animated GIF of a dinosaur running across. They were everywhere, weren’t they? Yeah, just everywhere. I started playing around with HTML and a bit of CSS here and there. However, I struggled quite a bit because when I worked in the NHS, I was primarily an SQL specialist, focusing on data mining, data warehousing, and report creation.

[00:06:00.000] – Imran Siddiq

So I was trying to manage my brain with SQL, and then there was the whole website side of things. When WordPress came on the scene, I got into it in about 2003, and I loved it because it suddenly meant… It was almost like you had the foundation built for you, and now you could just go and add to it what you wanted. It was very basic back then.

[00:06:22.780] – Jonathan Denwood

That is quite early, isn’t it? I think I got involved in it around 2012. So you were quite early, weren’t you?

 

[00:06:32.240] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah, it was like a breath refresh share. I mean, it was very, very early, but it just meant that you weren’t building from… Without anything in place. You had a foundation, you could build onto it. And I played around with it, and I spent a ridiculous amount of money using Theme Forest. Every time I wanted like, Oh, I like to look at this, spend 30 dollars or 30 pounds. Two weeks later, I buy another one, and I must have spent a ridiculous amount of money in the first two years. And I played around with WordPress for a good 10 years, and I did work on building websites for friends and family, and then a friend of a friend and whatever. So it was always a side hustle. It was always like a hobby. And I might have done a website one a year. And it wasn’t until 2011, but I then took it a bit more seriously. And I started really thinking more about what do you need to build to make it work for whoever you’re building for. Don’t just load up a template and go, right, that’s what you get. Let’s just drop your logo.

 

[00:07:38.540] – Imran Siddiq

Don’t do the go daddy approach. Logo images, change the name, and that’s it. But again, it was still a side hustle. But it was during COVID, 2020, I was now working from home a lot more, obvious reasons. And that’s when I realized I actually prefer or I enjoy creating content. And that’s when I went more neck deep into WordPress. I do use Elemento a lot. I played around with other page builders as well, but I really went deep into it.

 

[00:08:11.960] – Jonathan Denwood

What year, what year, what couple of years are you talking about?

 

[00:08:16.720] – Imran Siddiq

So we’re at 2020 now. So we’re at 2020. And it was during 2020, I basically accelerated how am I going to get clients and how am I going to build websites. And it was in 2021. And I do feel like this is the COVID phenomenon now. During COVID, I think a lot of people experienced an upsurge in how many people wanted websites because so many businesses realized we now need websites to get found and whatever. But during 2021, I built 83… Well, I had 83 clients in that one year. And that’s when I realized, I think I can make this work. Now, I realized I was never I’m not going to get that many clients year on year. So I was just like, if I only achieve 30 % of what I did in 2021, and I increased my prices by certain amounts, could I make this work? And I made a decision in January 2022 to retire from the NHS, and I’m glad I did it. I don’t regret making that decision. It took me another year and a bit to be earning to what I was earning in the NHS, and now I’m earning more than I ever was, and I’m happier.

 

[00:09:36.420] – Imran Siddiq

I’m working from home. I’m doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, work with who I want to work with. The freedom it’s given me is huge. But I know going forward, we are going to go through uncertain times with AI, and a lot of people now are going to turn to AI DIY solutions. But I do still feel like you can carve an area for yourself. And the advice I would give to everyone is just live within your means. Anytime you do get work, don’t just go and throw and burn the money and go, Right, I’m going to go on holiday. Just be wise with your money and what you do with it. And if you’re careful, even when you do maybe have a drop in clients or work, you will get by. And if you love what you’re doing, you will get through the bad times because we are going to have some uncertain times. But I always feel like I’ll end it here so that you can get back to talking. But what I will say is, in 2011, all of the publishers in the UK were saying that the paperback book is going to die.

 

[00:10:41.800] – Imran Siddiq

Ebooks are the big thing in 2011. No one’s going to buy a hardback, no one’s going to buy a hardback. No one’s going to buy a paperback. The industry is going to die. We now have more hardbacks and paperbacks being sold than ever before. Something new comes on the scene, people get excited, everyone jumps in, and then they realize, actually, I want to go back to either having something I know or having someone who knows what they’re doing and just letting AI build a website for me. And we’ll get on to that probably more with the other questions.

 

[00:11:13.380] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, thanks for that. Over to you, Kurt.

 

[00:11:17.140] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Well, I just I want to make sure this doesn’t get lost in the show notes somewhere. Imran pulled amazing ability in that Ali McBeal dancing Baby reference. That was awful. I had a flashback back to… I used to work with Flash, and I had an amazing Flash website that was amazing, but to your point, it was noisy. It was a mess. So I see exactly what you were talking about in your answer. But some of the stuff I think we do miss, some of the fun and the craziness that we used to put in the sites that we don’t do anymore. Let’s jump over to talking about your YouTube channel and some of the things you’ve been discussing and the realities of what it’s like to actually run an agency. I’ve been doing similar content with the WP Minute on their show as well, so you and I could probably do this all day. But what do you think are some of the key things that a founder of an agency needs to know besides living within their means, which is fabulous advice. But what do you think are a couple of things a founder of an agency really needs to know going forward this year?

 

[00:12:29.460] – Imran Siddiq

So to To survive in this industry, what you need is clarity. I think the thing that goes missing is there’s too many people out there that will say, you can make it as a web designer, you just need to learn this, learn WordPress, learn Gutenberg learn bricks, learn elemental, and you can make it as an agency. What’s missing is clarity over what can you do and what can you solve? Because there’s a million people out there that can make a website. Why does anyone need to come to you to get their website built? Now we’ve got AI and all these solutions that you put in your prompt and it will generate your website for you. What can you do? And I think what people need to do is bring clarity. So when you’re telling someone, I’m a web designer, what you really want to be saying is, I help local charities to build websites to raise awareness of whatever they’re doing. Or maybe I build websites for coaches to help them generate leads and get more clients and bookings. And I feel I don’t know if I’m answering the question very well here, but I would say that if you’re an agency, whether you’re an existing one or you want to start one up, first take a moment to decide on what clients do you want to work with.

 

[00:13:46.820] – Imran Siddiq

And I don’t just mean landscapers and dentists. What I really mean is what people do you get? So don’t just make out you can build an amazing website if you’re actually kidding yourself. If you know you can build a good booking website for someone that’s going to actually help them so you understand them and what they need, then say it and do it. Because When we say booking websites, a hairdresser will want a certain type of booking facility compared to a dentist. So there’s going to be different needs, deposits, calendars, who needs to know about when the booking goes through, how does email communication work? And I think if people just take a moment to work out, how can I help you? They will get further. It’s a bit like if you have a problem with your car and You’re going to have loads of people that go, Yeah, I can look at cars. I can do your servicing and your MOT and whatever. But if you know there is someone who works on your brand or make of car and they know what to do certain types of problems, are you just going to go to the generic garage, which is half the price, or will you be prepared to probably pay a bit more to go to someone who offers clarity because you feel more secure and you’re going to trust them more?

 

[00:15:16.160] – Imran Siddiq

Did I answer, Kerr, or did I go off on a tangent?

 

[00:15:19.660] –  Kurt von Ahnen

No, you’re doing a great job, Imrin. It’s like when I listen to Chris Badget talk about having the right avatar and isolating pain points and It’s like what we talk about on the Membership Machine show. It’s having good clarity about not just the what, because I think that’s where some folks get lost. I talk to a lot of agencies and they’ll say, Well, I’ve been a WordPress agency for a lot Or we use these tools. And I’m getting to the point where when I talk or I advise other agencies, I’m like, Nobody cares about your tools. They don’t care. They just want to know what’s their problem and how are you going to solve it? And how much is it going to cost and when is it going to be done?

 

[00:16:03.080] – Imran Siddiq

Can I just say something? Sure. When I’m designing websites in the old, old, old days, I would almost always start off with going, Yeah, we will build you a website and we’ll be using WordPress and Elementor and then da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da or they need to be aware. No one needs to know that. When you go McDonald’s and you get a double cheeseburger, you don’t need to know what oil they use in the back or what the temperature heating was. You just want a damn good cheeseburger that melts in your mouth, which they rarely do, but you want a damn good one. So the the owner so many people put on trying to wow the client with, We’re going to use this and, And I could be controversial now and say no one cares if it’s elemental bricks, breakdowns etch, Gutenberg, Wix, Squarespace. The client does not care. All the client wants to know is, is this website going to help me to be found? Is it going to help or guide people to contact me, make a booking, make a sale? And if you get that in your mindset as to how you can help them, you will survive.

 

[00:17:29.380] –  Kurt von Ahnen

So I want to take this example that we’re talking about, you and I, and just expand it slightly before we pass it back to Jonathan. As an agency, do you personally think you’re selling the website? And you’re doing the website and maybe you sell the hosting and the maintenance with the website and it ends? Or are you in favor of almost becoming a quasi vendor partner of the client and being responsible for local SEO, SEO conversion, stuff like that? Like, at what point does an agency stretch themselves too thin in a knowledge base offering too many services?

 

[00:18:09.340] – Imran Siddiq

So I prefer to say I like to work in terms of being a partner, not just a web designer. So I want to hopefully be talking to the client in 20 years time. It’s actually something I do say to clients. I want to be talking to you in 20 years time. I want your business to be successful, whether you use me or not, to build more pages. That’s That’s not what I’m after here. I just want to know that you did well and it was because of my support. Now, there are elements of stuff you mentioned there, like the hosting side, maintaining the email, all of that. I will offer that, but I don’t push for that. Because I have to say that’s probably the most, the least enjoyable aspect of doing web design, because technology changes all the time. Phps, this and that, DNS, everything. It gets messy in all of that. And I don’t like to get massively involved. I will guide them as to what they should use, and I’ll help them, and I’ll set things up. But I don’t want that to be… I don’t want to be the point of failure all the time with sorting things out.

 

[00:19:12.980] – Imran Siddiq

When it comes to the longevity of your partnership with SEO, and now we have AEO with boosting your AI visibility with LLMS and things like that, looking at their keywords and how are they comparing to their competition, That is important, and that is a great source of recurring income, but you have to be very realistic. I will never, ever tell a business that I will get you onto page one of Google, that I will triple your income. Now, People who’ve worked with me might say, I did that for them, but that’s the result of how I worked with them. That does not mean I’m promising that to you. And I feel like if you’re realistic over what you can do, so if they want a website where they can rent apartments or get bookings or sell products, you have to deliver that. That’s within your means. You can do that. But as far as the agency goes, offer the SEO, offer the performance reporting, offer the fact that you will do revision versions for them, and as long as they pay for it, let them know that you’ll be there to guide them. So when it comes to accessibility statements, making their website more accessible, maybe it’s to do with their privacy policies, like a Mageddon, for instance, I use with some websites.

 

[00:20:32.500] – Imran Siddiq

They’ve done an update, I’ll let the client know. Be honest, but don’t push it. So what I always say to my clients is, SEO has changed. You got to start thinking about AEO, or you got to start thinking about accessibility, or you got to start thinking about privacy policies, whatever. I’ll let them know. I will never push it. So I will say, if you don’t want to do this, that’s fine, as long as you’re aware of it. So you don’t come back and have a go at for saying, why did you not tell me about this? So always be there to let them know. But don’t be the person who… Don’t be the one who uses fear to make them use you, because I always feel like that’s not a good relationship. That’s not a partnership now. That’s just like… That’s like being employed, isn’t it? Where you have to please the boss because you fear that you’re going to get sacked. You don’t want to make your client start to feel like that, where there’s resentment at all.

 

[00:21:32.380] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, I hear you 100 %. Jonathan, over to you.

 

[00:21:37.520] – Jonathan Denwood

Where do you think WordPress is with its bedrock, or I think it’s bedrock, is regional cities, regions, digital agencies, the five-person digital agency or larger regional digital agency that use WordPress for the bulk of their work, but they’re not part… They don’t watch YouTube channels or the great channel that you have, maybe, or they don’t go to word camps, or they don’t download any podcast, or maybe the WordPress developer in the agency does, but the owner, the principal of the agency. But I’ve been surprised in a how resilient WordPress has stood up, really, in this reality of the digital marketing agency. What’s your own thoughts around that? Would you agree with what I’ve just outlined or you got a different view on it?

 

[00:22:48.900] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah. In a nutshell, WordPress isn’t dying. I think it’s always evolving, sometimes at a slower rate than we would like to see with things like Gutenberg and whatnot. I’ll be controversial and say I was astounded how a couple of weeks ago everyone got excited because the block editor, you can now do border radiuses. And I thought, big deal. Like the amount of people that were jumping up and down about that. But I think that with regards to WordPress, I don’t think it matters if the agency boss or whoever doesn’t watch YouTube videos, doesn’t know me, doesn’t know you, doesn’t know anyone. Because I feel like in the UK, there’s loads of writing festivals, but you can have an amazing fictional writer who’s never been on a creative writing course, never been to any festivals, never watched any guidance or anything like that. When you know what to do and how to do it, you just do it. Because one of the great things I think about web designing and anything, you don’t need a qualification. About three years ago, there were some companies that popped up on some events saying they were going to start a qualification.

 

[00:24:07.540] – Imran Siddiq

And I really was not impressed by that because I felt like, why do we have to start now having certificates to say I’m a qualified WordPress designer? Because I feel like the creativity and the way you use WordPress or bricks or elemental, it’s subjective to you and how far you want to go and what you want to do with it and how much you need to learn. Because I feel like you could have an amazing WordPress website that’s just absolutely basic, or you could do something that’s ground-breaking, but the one that’s basic might do better. It’s all down to your audience. So if you’re an agency and you are working regions or wherever, I don’t think it matters because, again, I feel like the use of WordPress, that’s your tool. You could use Canva to do logo and You could use Photoshop, you could use Adobe, you could use what you want. As long as you deliver on what the client was expecting or what agreement you have, how you do it, it’s one of those things where I just feel like… I don’t hire chefs, but let’s say I hired a chef and said, Right, I want you to cook a meal.

 

[00:25:24.860] – Imran Siddiq

And all he did was actually go and get some stuff from Tesco and he it together. So half of it was already prepackaged. If he’s done it in such a great way, and I’m satisfied, who cares what they used for it? So I think with WordPress, as long as it’s usable, and that’s probably the crux of this. As long as we never get to a point where we go, I’m really struggling now. And I think that’s the great thing in that even though Elemento is so old, even though WordPress is so old, even though Lo loads of tools out there, some of them haven’t really evolved much. Can you, hand on heart, still use it to get done what you want to get done? And if you can, then I would say just go with it. It’s a bit like you’re going to have a friend who drives a really, really, really old car. And there’ll be times you’ll say to them, why are you still driving that banger? And they will always say, because I can still get from A to B. So who cares how old it is? And I feel like that’s probably the same thing with WordPress at Until we get to a stage where AI completely removes the need for WordPress, that’s a different conversation.

 

[00:26:38.460] – Imran Siddiq

But I don’t think we’re there yet.

 

[00:26:40.780] – Jonathan Denwood

I’m talking about the freelance or the small agency in any… I’ve moved to Kansas recently, and I’m in driving distance of a reasonably large regional city called Wichita, and the Like any city that’s got over half a million people, it’s got a load of one-off freelancers that are doing websites, let’s say between $7,000 and $10,000. Then you got the five-person agency that are probably doing a load of jobs. They probably wouldn’t take a job if it isn’t between $10,000 and $15,000. But any business that approach them based in the region of Kansas or in the West, Central Western region, they’re probably going to be quoted minimum 10,000 to 15 and plus. Have you been surprised, and I don’t know if that’s the same situation. I think it’s probably the same situation in the UK. Have you been surprised? I’m still surprised how WordPress is still seen as the main tool. What What would you say about that?

 

[00:28:04.360] – Imran Siddiq

Again, I think it matters less on what tool they use. I think it just comes down to who they’re working with, because if they’re able to command $10, $20,000, they’re probably going after a certain type of client. And we know that if you’re able to get your foot in the door with big businesses, big businesses will not want to work with you.

 

[00:28:29.640] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, they’re medium. They’re small, but they’re between 20 and 100 people businesses between one million and 10 million turnover in Kansas, aren’t they?

 

[00:28:43.640] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah. And they People usually have budgets set aside. So if someone says, I can build exactly the same website for a thousand dollars, they don’t want to know you because they don’t believe it. If someone says, I’ll do the same thing for 10,000, even though they’re both using the exact same page the exact same website, they’ll go usually with the 10,000. So I think if you’re able to get it, you’re able to get it. And if you’re a freelancer and you’re not able to command those fees and you can only get smaller websites, then go for it. Don’t be afraid of increasing your prices because I think you have to experiment. All of us have gone through this stage where we doubled our prices at some point. And if you win business, you stay there. If you don’t win business, you stay there. And if you don’t win business, you tweak it a little bit. So a lot of it just comes out to testing the market. But I know some people that are able to… They get paid ridiculous amounts of money for building very basic websites, but that’s just because they’ve managed to get their foot in the door with some big industries.

 

[00:29:53.840] – Imran Siddiq

I mean, their websites are tragic. I look at them and I go, this is atrocious. I’ve seen websites built by companies for the NHS and for the councils, and they are tragic. But they, I don’t know, they’re friends with someone who works in that department or building and they’re able to get continual work. And if it works for them- It’s normally integrated with the back-end systems.

 

[00:30:22.080] – Jonathan Denwood

It’s normally integrated in my experience, but I know totally what you’re saying. I think it’s a good time for us to have our We’ve had a great discussion with England, where we will be back in a few moments. Three, two, one. I want to take the opportunity to point out we’ve got some great special offers from the sponsors that are much appreciated of the show, plus a created list of the best WordPress plugins and services and technology, aimed at the power user, the freelance or the small agency owner. You can get all these goodies, and it also save you a load of time by going over to Wp-tonic. Com/deals, Wp-tonic. Com/deals. You find all the goodies there, my beloved tribe. What more could you ask for? I say probably a lot more, but that’s all you’re going to get on that page. Over to you, Kurt. Are you with us, Kurt?

 

[00:31:28.400] –  Kurt von Ahnen

I was muted. I I was listening to the very beginning of the answer from Imran, and what I caught was the same thing I had gone through, and I want to touch on this a bit. It came up in another discussion I was having with Tobi Crines. I started my agency in 2007, and I didn’t even know there was a community. I was just, to your point, Imran, was like, I was seeing needs, I was filling needs. I was getting referrals, I was growing my business. And before I knew it, and this was the height of the economic in America, 2008, 2009. And next thing you know, I got 80 clients, and I’m running their Facebook and their Twitter and building their startup websites. And then came the community, and then came the podcast, and then came the content, and then came all the stuff that we do. And I had an interesting conversation with a couple of different people regarding this, and it was like, well, wait a minute. Is all of that really helping, or is it actually hurting my agency? Because there’s tons of people I know running agencies that aren’t making any content, that aren’t on any podcast, and they’re thriving, they’re doing just fine.

 

[00:32:39.560] –  Kurt von Ahnen

So when we think of how people get to developing that success, how much of it do you think is from an agency perspective, how much of it is dependent upon boots on the ground, networking, shaking hands, and just growing the business brass tax versus go on the content route? We’ve all seen Mark Zemanski publicly say, I might focus more on content and less on agency work and see how that goes. But that’s a big question mark.

 

[00:33:12.440] – Imran Siddiq

I think it all depends on what opportunities and how comfortable you are. Because I worked in the NHS, it was difficult for me to manage my work life and then the side hustle of doing the web design. How much was I going to let people know that I’ve also got this side hustle on? Because I hate to admit it, but even to this day, to an extent, if you tell anyone you’re a web designer, they go, Oh, that’s dead easy. Oh, that’s simple. That’s not really difficult job, is it? They almost look down on you a little bit, which I hate. But I find it’s down to opportunity. So if you are someone where you’re a chamber of commerce or you’re always meeting business people or meetings or you’re always networking or you work in an area that’s loaded with people that you know might want a website or not, then I think boots on the ground is a great way. People will come to know you and you know you’ll get word of mouth from referrals. You don’t need to worry about building a brand identity. I, however, found that because people knew me as the NHS person, I had to build up my brand, and it And this happened accidentally.

 

[00:34:31.920] – Imran Siddiq

So I would say that, and I’ll tell you about that in a moment, but I would say that if you are someone who’s not visibly exposed to lots of people, then I would say it’s good to build your brand virtually And what worked for me was, and this was all accidental, in that I didn’t officially start the Web Squadron YouTube channel until June 2021. But one year prior to that, I was the elemental Facebook group like every day, helping people out, answering questions. I never asked them to hire me, but I was always there. I become quite well known. And the only reason I started the YouTube channel was because I got sick of answering the same question the same time. You get fed up of writing things out. So I started the channel and I started doing videos and it grew and grew and grew. And then over time, that built my brand up and people started wanting to work with me on the back of that. So I was able to start getting clients and word of mouth, whatnot, without me having to go out and cold call or contact businesses and stuff like that.

 

[00:35:45.120] – Imran Siddiq

Because I never really ever enjoyed that side of things anyway. But if your boots on the ground or you haven’t got time to create content, you don’t have to create content. If you are visibly exposed, then I feel like If you can get your foot in the door and get out there and meet people, then go and do it. But the advice I would give to anyone now, even if you are visibly exposed, and I actually say this to businesses as well. So if I’m working for a client and they want a website and I go, right, your website, we can’t do it for another two months or a month or whatever. I want you right now start posting on Twitter, LinkedIn. If you can start to do videos on TikTok, maybe you’re a gardener who mows the lawn. Just do a video showing how you mow, what settings do you use, what equipment do you use. Don’t talk about what you charge. Don’t talk about your prices. Show off what you do and how you do things. Start building the hype now so that when you do go live with your website, whether you’re a business or a web designer, when you do now start advertising your services or telling people about who you are, people are already going to know you.

 

[00:37:01.560] – Imran Siddiq

So I would say that if you’re in an area where you’re surrounded by businesses, just get out there and meet and greet and you’ll get business. If you don’t have that pleasure, then I would say start building up your brand now Start getting out there. Start engaging. Start conversing. Even if you’re just watching YouTube videos like you’re watching this right now, just put a comment in. Do you like what we’re saying? Do you not like what we’re saying? You might spark a conversation someone else. But the more you do that, the higher… Well, you’re going to increase your chances that someone might recognize you and might want to work with you.

 

[00:37:41.880] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, that’s really insightful. It made me flash back to, I work directly with the folks at Lifter LMS, but I was the guy that was answering the Facebook questions or helping someone out or doing a messenger thing. And then eventually Chris just said, dude, you just want to come work for us and help people? And it’s been fun. I went a different path than you were there. But yeah, get involved, get in the groups, find out where the people are and just add value. Jonathan, over to you.

 

[00:38:12.240] – Jonathan Denwood

Can I ask you a quick question that’s not on the list about your YouTube channel? Because it’s a great achievement. I think you got over 100,000 subscribers, and I know how much work that entails, because I’ve been publishing to YouTube for quite a while, but it was only last year that I really started to get serious, and I need to do more work, but I’ve got now about 12,000 subscribers, but they’re very niche. They’re about membership, or they’re mostly about membership and technology around membership. But I know to get Because am I correct that only about 3 or 6% get over 10,000? I think it’s some low figure, isn’t it?

 

[00:39:08.760] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Very low, yeah.

 

[00:39:10.140] – Jonathan Denwood

Very low, isn’t it? But what are some of the lessons that you feel happy to share with us about your journey with YouTube? Because it’s an amazing achievement that you’ve done. I know there’s other channels that have 50, half a million, a million, and that, but in the area of WordPress or web design, to get 100,000 is a great achievement, and I give you full marks to doing it.

 

[00:39:40.340] – Imran Siddiq

So I speak a lot behind the scenes to some of my subscribers or people that follow me or part the forum. And a lot of them do say to me that the reason they’re attracted to me and the channel is that I don’t do a lot of sponsorship videos. And they say that I’m very consistent with what I use, so I won’t suddenly jump between different add-ons or different stuff to use for SEO or performance. They say you’re very consistent for the last four years. So I don’t, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I don’t sell out. So I get hounded every day by some hosting companies or some people.

 

[00:40:25.440] – Jonathan Denwood

And I would imagine with 100 thousand subscribers, you’ll hit almost every day.

 

[00:40:33.800] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah, yeah. And there are some that are continuously upping their offer. And I go, look, I’m not interested. I don’t want affiliate commissions. I’m not going to sell a product that I’m not even using myself on an everyday basis. But what I would say is that it comes… In terms of the channel… Sorry, what was the question again? You’re going to have to remind me, Joel. I’ve lost myself. I’ve started talking about- No, because it was out of the It wasn’t on the list.

 

[00:41:01.680] – Jonathan Denwood

But are there any lessons you’ve learned about building the YouTube channel that you could share with the audience?

 

[00:41:11.600] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah. Okay, so what I would say is I’ve actually got videos. I’ve just checked. I’ve got videos already uploaded and scheduled into YouTube until February the 18th, 2026.

 

[00:41:24.020] – Jonathan Denwood

Wow.

 

[00:41:25.880] – Imran Siddiq

At the moment, that’s actually seven videos I’ve booked how much I’m putting out a video a day. So I’ve just got stuff coming out. And what I’ve done is try to ensure that nearly everything I put out is what I call as evergreen as possible. So I have found that if you are going to create videos that solve a problem, there’s a good chance that people might still be watching that video in a year or two. If you put out a video that says, and guess what, Gutenberg or whatever, they’ve now got border radiuses in version It’s only relevant for that point in time, and it loses traction quite quickly. So whenever I’ve done a video, whenever Elemental have a new beta version, for the first two days, it will shoot up. And then after that, it just dies and dies and dies of death. What I try to do is as much evergreen videos like how to do Bento grids, how to handle clients like scope creep or boundaries or difficult clients, or you’re not getting paid, or how to plan your or how to design X, Y, Z. And I would say that if you can think in an evergreeny way, your videos will probably get…

 

[00:42:39.980] – Imran Siddiq

I mean, I’ve got video. Some of my most best performing videos on a weekly basis, there’s one video that’s four years old and it still gets watched nearly every day by someone. I can’t quite understand why because it’s quite a bad, rubbish video. But people keep coming back to watch it. So it’s evergreen and possible. And what I would also say is, so you mentioned how there are other people out there that have got like half a million or way more subscribers.

 

[00:43:10.140] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, there’s one, I’m not going to name him because I don’t know. There’s a couple, but it’s one particular one, and I mentioned it. We interviewed Matt Madeas last week, and I mentioned this particular video, and it was a new video, and the influencer, he’s got a much bigger audience than you and me. He was saying that he didn’t feel any WordPress plugin should be more than $50. If it was more than $50, basically, he was saying that the plugin company were ripping people off, and I just found it horrendous. I just found it quite sickening that somebody would look in the camera and say that, but he was fine with it, and I don’t know if he really believes that or not. I can’t tell, but he’s got over half a million subscribers, so it just blows my mind a way.

 

[00:44:17.180] – Imran Siddiq

All I’m going to say is, and I’m not going to name names, is that I used to be Head of Business Intelligence, so I read between the lines and I can analyze data and discover things that people don’t always want to admit to. And I would say that a lot of the people that have got very, very big subscribers, it’s very much like people who pay sponsored adverts to get onto page one of Google. And that’s all I’m going to say, is that there’s a difference between earning your subscribers and your following honestly and transparently.

 

[00:44:56.280] – Jonathan Denwood

I’ll get the drift.

 

[00:44:58.040] – Imran Siddiq

Getting it via alternative ulterior means. You can see the trends. You can look at the historical trends and you can go, I’m not sure how you gained 200,000 subs in one day. It makes no sense.

 

[00:45:14.220] – Jonathan Denwood

I got the picture.

 

[00:45:16.360] – Imran Siddiq

The beast doesn’t get that much in a day.

 

[00:45:20.560] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, but it’s more the messaging, isn’t it? What I was saying, there seems to be a group in YouTube, WordPress, and Webdesign Development that makes outlandish statements, don’t they? And one of the things I’m on my about you is you can be a bit edgy sometimes, but in general, they’re not outlandish, are they?

 

[00:45:44.560] – Imran Siddiq

No, no. And I wear my heart on the sleep. I know I started some noise and chaos in July when I spoke about WordPress cliques and word camps and how a lot of them are, we’re moving away Well, I thought you were right about that myself. I know. And I have to say, though, that what I found, and this probably isn’t the topic for this talk, but what I found quite funny is that I was very careful to not name anyone’s podcast or anyone particular. But I found it confusing how so many podcasts started quoting me or discussing it openly because they were almost having to defend against what I’d said. And I just felt like I I feel like that confirms the point I’m making in that if you’re going to have a WordPress event, let’s make it about WordPress. Let’s not just make it an event where sponsors pay in and we talk about stuff that deep down the average freelancer or person does not care about. Let’s get back to basics of designing and how you do X, Y, Z and how you get clients and how you build up and scale up.

 

[00:46:58.900] – Imran Siddiq

Let’s get back And that’s why I’ve actually started a local meetup in my town that I started on Saturday. And I’m going to do it monthly. And my aim is to make it so damn big that Matt Mullenberg and Automatic have to make WordCamp UK happen again because it’s for me an atrocity that we don’t have a UK word camp proper event. I just feel like it’s about damn time. And I’m going to make it about WordPress. That’s my aim. It’s all about WordPress and It’s not mental, but it’s about WordPress.

 

[00:47:33.520] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, hopefully you invite me as a speaker. I can see my family and put it as a business expense if I can afford it.

 

[00:47:42.000] –  Kurt von Ahnen

I just got to jump in. I’m loving this trend because Imran is doing the meetup in the UK. We just interviewed Devon, who’s doing the meetup in San Diego, and Manana Nomas is hosting the meetup in Hutchinson, Kansas. We’ve been on a streak lately with people that are super motivated at helping WordPress, but at the grassroots level, it’s really cool to see.

 

[00:48:05.180] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah. Over to you, Kurt, for the next question.

 

[00:48:09.780] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Oh, I got to get back on the rails. That’s my job, huh? Ai tools, Imran. Just give up the ghost, man. What are the AI tools that you use that you could share with our viewers and listeners that you think add to your efficiency or productivity?

 

[00:48:26.560] – Imran Siddiq

There is just one. It’s ChatGPT. I know Some people like Perplexity, Claude, Grok. I dabble with them now and again, but I just feel like ChatGPT was the first one on the scene, and I just love using it to delve a bit deeper sometimes into certain questions I have about something I’m doing, or maybe I’m trying to write a bit of code, a code snippet, or I’m experimenting with a bit of HTML or CSS. But I use Notion for my planning, but I use that just for planning, not as AI. But ChatGPT has really, really helped me to… I mean, in the last two and a bit years, I’ve developed so many code snippets, especially this year, to really help people do stuff for their websites that I don’t think they ever thought they could ever do. And I don’t sell them. I create them, make sure they work, and I let people have them for free. And again, that’s something that’s helped my channel and me to grow. But ChatGPT, what about you? What about both of you? What do you use? Do you have a preference for anything?

 

[00:49:39.220] –  Kurt von Ahnen

I’m a sucker for a lot of things that are like lifetime deals. So I keep trying these new packages But Emre and I have fallen in love with a subscription that is Magi, M-A-J-A-I. Co, I think. And what it is, it’s a collection of the tools. So for the one subscription, I get to use ChatGPT Criby, Grok, Claude, and then it tracks all of those chats on those different channels in one dashboard. So I don’t get lost on where I look something up because I’ll look up at something in Grok while I’m on X. Well, then when I want to reference it later, I can’t remember. Did I look it up in Magi? Did I look it up on Magi, did I look it up on. I like the thing where everything’s together. And so Magi is affordable and it gives me access to all the main tools, not all the tools, but it gives me access to the main tools and it tracks everything for me on one screen. That’s my spot.

 

[00:50:32.760] – Jonathan Denwood

I use quite a lot, Imran. I use something called word hero for quick and dirty meta descriptions or one or two paragraphs. I use something called koala as my AI writer. I do use AI writer. I got in a little bit of trouble with Google, but I use with Koala. I use a very expensive humaniser to… Because I edit all the content I produce in AI, and I’m not producing hundreds of articles every week. I produce like a humaniser to from three to five. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been slacking, but I’ve been dealing with a few issues. But I use a very expensive humaniser called Ryan. Hopefully, I use video on the articles and I do edit them quite extensively because there are a lot of factual mistakes in the articles. They’re quite well written, but they need fact checking. Every article needs fact checking. I use Claude as well. But I’ve got about… I use another tool called Nuon Writer as my SEO tool with Koala. I’ve got a whole group of writing SEO tools to help me, that I use. Are you okay to stay on for some bonus content, or do you have to leave us on the hour?

 

[00:52:13.400] – Imran Siddiq

No, I’m fine.

 

[00:52:15.350] – Jonathan Denwood

Because we got to wrap it up now because Kurt’s got a prior engagement. He’s got to go on. So we’re going to wrap up the podcast, but we’re going to continue talking. You’ll be able to see the whole interview on the WP Tonic YouTube channel. I think it’s been a great interview. So, Imran, what’s the best way for people to find more about you and what you’re up to?

 

[00:52:38.720] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah, just do a search for Web Squadron on YouTube. You’ll find the Web Squadron channel. Go and watch every single one of my videos from start to finish to ramp up my view rate. And that’s all you need to do for the next five years of your life.

 

[00:52:53.640] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s fine. And Kurt, what’s the best way for people to find out more about what you’re saying in your ideas?

 

[00:53:01.040] –  Kurt von Ahnen

Well, maniananomas. Com is for business stuff, and we’re Maniananomas on all the social channels. But if you want to connect personally, I am the only Kurt von Annen on LinkedIn. So hit the connection there and we’ll talk.

 

[00:53:14.380] – Jonathan Denwood

And if you If you wanted to support the show, you really enjoyed this interview, and I thought it was a fantastic one. We’ve been on a row lately with some great guests. If you want to support the show, me and Kurt would really appreciate you leaving a review on iTunes or Spotify. If you’re listening on your phone, they make it on the app of either of those platforms. They make it really easy to leave a review, and if you can, leave a review, and I see it, I’ll read it out. Good, bad, all you We’ve been getting some great reviews lately. It’s more to do with the guests than ourselves or me, but we would really appreciate that. We will be back next week. We’ll see you soon, folks. Bye. Let’s go on to the bonus content. You remarked about when you said this. I’ll just give you a quick story, and I’ll also give you a little bit of feedback. I won’t name names. I have a couple of people that remarked on what you said. Now, I can’t remember because I’m getting old. I’m slightly over 60 now. I can’t believe it. I went to Word Camp.

 

[00:54:35.950] – Jonathan Denwood

It was the one just after COVID, and it was down in Southern California. I went there and I booked 16 people to interview, live interviews, during the three days. I was on a table in the corner because they wouldn’t give me a private room. When I asked for one, they said, Well, we don’t see you as media. I did it in the hallway. I found a corner of the hotel, and I did these 16 live videos. I know Chris Badger, Matt Madeas. I know a few people, but there was definitely a click there. They were intrigued because I had a few quite senior people at Automatic that had agreed to be interviewed, that don’t normally. I knocked out the 16 interviews live to YouTube, right? People were wondering what I was doing, but it was so clicky. They really didn’t want to socialize with me or make me feel as part of the click. And that’s just the truth of it. They came up to me like Adam Silver. I get on with him fine. But there was definitely a click there that had been going to these word camps, the word camp USA for a long time, and they definitely didn’t make you feel that you were part of their group.

 

[00:56:18.120] – Jonathan Denwood

But it could be me, but I don’t think I am being unfair. So that’s why in some ways I agreed with you. Has that been your experience with some of these camps?

 

[00:56:31.480] – Imran Siddiq

So I’ve never been to any of the word camps, but from observation, when I have spoken to other people or I see what they put out on Twitter, it’s always the same crowd. They only ever promote one another. You have to be in the automatic scene. It always just seems to be like a little bit of a boys club in a way, and there are females as well, but it’s always the same people. They’re just scratching each other’s backs. If you say anything that goes against anything that any one of them works with, they all pile in to go against you. I just found that When was the last time I saw a review about any of the word camps where people came out saying, I really enjoyed that, I really learned from that. I just feel like all they’re going to do is promote each other, not give opportunities to other people or push other people out. If you had been an automatic employee, they probably would have got you a room and stuff like that. I feel like they always it seems to be an agenda. I just found that when I released my videos to say about the cliquing us, I did notice that within a couple of days, loads of them started putting their out Twitter posts of photographs of themselves and talking about how we’re the most open, armed and welcoming crowd.

 

[00:58:10.150] – Imran Siddiq

And we don’t care who you are. We welcome you all in. The trouble was, is nearly every photo all of them did, and I could easily name all of them, it was the same people. So Andrew Palmer is only with certain people, and Mark Zmansky is only with certain people, and Matt is only with certain They’re always with the same people. So I go, you’re trying to show that you’re not a clique.

 

[00:58:37.130] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, but to be fair- But you’re still a clique. Yeah, I think there’s an essence of truth there. But there’s also, I’m just being the devil’s advocate here. There’s the other part is that I was talking to a lady this morning, and she’s a lovely lady. I was going to get my coffee and something to eat for breakfast, and I spent too much time. She’s a photographer, and she’s been very pleasant to me. She goes to a lot of these marketing events where they supposedly teach you how to market online, and they are very clicking. She must have signed up for 20 different Facebook groups, paid ones, where they start at 495, and then they try and get 15,000 out of you, and then they try and get 50,000 out of you. They’re all selling, and that makes what you’ve just said about WordPress, that’s on a different level. It’s ClickFunnel, isn’t it? It’s Branson, and it’s GoLevel. Selling GoLevel with circle, that’s That seems to be the combination at the present moment that they’re all pushing, right? When you compare it to that, WordPress is nothing as bad as that. But the other criticism of I just want to be frank with you.

 

[01:00:16.780] – Jonathan Denwood

A couple of people did remark, it didn’t come… I was fine with what you said. I actually agree with a lot what you said, but the pushback was said, Well, he complains, but he never has guests on his YouTube channel. He never invites anybody on his YouTube channel. It’s all about him plugging his stuff. He’s never part of the community and he never offers, he never has anybody on the YouTube channel. You don’t, do you? I got to admit, I think the criticism is correct to some degree.

 

[01:00:51.970] – Imran Siddiq

No. The reason for that is in 2022 and 2023, I used to invite quite a lot of people on. Paul Chalton obviously came on. I had Jeffrey, I had Verdi, I had other developers, other people coming on. I had some plugin companies. Every time I did that, I always got people coming back to me privately saying, We don’t like it. We joined your channel to watch you because you present in a certain way. I can be quite animated or I crack a joke here and there. What they said is when you do the interviews, we’re now watching a different personality. And if we want to know about that, we would go there and watch their stuff or whatever. So in 2024, I think it was early 2024, I stopped doing live chats for about four or five months. In fact, it was when you asked me if I wanted to come back and do another WP tonic interview. I said, I’m not doing it.

 

[01:01:54.240] – Jonathan Denwood

You said no, didn’t you? You said, but I was fine with it.

 

[01:01:57.000] – Imran Siddiq

It was literally because I got so much criticism over people saying, We don’t want you to invite people over, ‘ whatever. So I stopped them. And it was literally because of that. That was the reason. It’s because people were I can understand it.

 

[01:02:16.340] – Jonathan Denwood

I think it’s finding a middle ground, isn’t it, myself? But it’s your channel, you’re there. Some people have been very nice to It might be me because I can be a bit blunt, but I think I’ve got a decent heart. I’m not looking for trouble. I’m really not because you don’t have to because it’s going to find you quite easily. You don’t have to go look for it, do you? But I have this idea that they’re very open and inclusive. I haven’t found that. They are very clicky, so I do agree with you there. I think the criticism, I do understand it. I think it’s trying to… You got to satisfy what your audience wants. But if you don’t invite anybody, I can understand some of the criticism. I’m just being honest with you, all right?

 

[01:03:14.170] – Imran Siddiq

No, no, no. To be honest, though, I know one person, he actually did a blog post after I did my thing, and he made a point that he had offered to come on a live chat with me and Paul Chaltern, and he And we had never got back to him. The reason being is, if I’m brutally honest, is because that person has got nothing to offer our audience. Because at the end of the day, if all that person does is Gutenberg, We don’t do Gutenberg videos. I have to be brutally honest and just say it makes zero sense for us to invite them in. And they were offended by that. And it’s a bit like… See the difference between me and him?

 

[01:03:57.480] – Jonathan Denwood

If you’re really into Gutenberg, you’re not the right channel, really, are you?

 

[01:04:01.290] – Imran Siddiq

No, no, no. And I think the difference between me is, and I think you can appreciate this, is that I don’t go out canvassing to be on podcasts. There are other people that do go out to say, Hey, look, I’m open for podcast. I’m a bit like, If I’m interested, I’ll do it, but I don’t go out there hunting to be on anyone else’s channel because I don’t do it myself and invite people. People on. I feel like I’m not going to go out there and put myself out there either. So some people might not like it and they wish I did do that. But if I’m really honest, I always look at it and say, I’ve grafted to build the channel up, you might as well do that as well. And if you’re upset because I haven’t invited you onto my channel, it’s a bit like, get over it, thing. Just work on your own channel and work on what you put out because I don’t want to be a stepping stone for someone to become popular just because I did them on my channel. I don’t know if I’m making sense, but I don’t think it would work.

 

[01:05:19.540] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, I found a lot of people in the WordPress space are very easy to upset. It’s a strange It’s a change-hold environment, really, isn’t it?

 

[01:05:32.650] – Imran Siddiq

To be honest, though, I feel like what I said was I feel like what I said was something I’d heard a lot. I’m talking about years and years and years, way before COVID even. I kept hearing this same thing about… I’m not just talking about word camps, I’m talking about the Atterim event, I’m talking about the Page Summit event, Loop Comp, I’m talking about the Croco Block event, all of these events. When you When you look at the agenda, and this is the reason I’ve never gone to any word camp, when you look at the… When I say speakers, it’s not the speakers, it’s what they’re doing. When you look at it, do you look at it and go, I’m going to learn from this. This is going to help me as a freelancer in an agency or WordPress? I look at it and go, these are random. I used to go to the Festival of Writing in York. I went six years in a row from 2011 to 2016, ’17. And the agenda was packed with how to edit, how to write prose, how to do your cliffhanger, how to do your character arcs.

 

[01:06:36.640] – Imran Siddiq

This is stuff that even though you know how to write, you’re going to go and you’re going to come back going, I now have a different way of doing it. I’ve evolved as a writer. Honestly, when you look at all the… Look at WordCamp Asia that’s coming up, right? Look at the… Not the WordCamp Asia, the one that went US. Look at the agenda. Do you really look at that and go, As a freelancer who’s not earning a lot and I’m struggling and I can’t get clients and I’ve got to travel over here, and I’ve got to book and pay a ticket and get a hotel, am I going to come away and feel like I’ve learned and evolved now as a WordPress person? And I honestly don’t think you can. Just look at the future events, Page Summit, Atrium, all of them. They always feel like sneaky avenues for people who speak, but really they want to get you into a funnel you might hire them or get their product. That’s what they are. And I feel like WordPress events need to be about WordPress. Right now, we’ve just done your talk, right? And it was mainly about freelancing and about business and thinking about, talking a little bit about clients and haste fight.

 

[01:07:48.560] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s what you’ve been talking. I thought I would have you on because I’ve been watching you and I thought you had some common sense stuff you were talking about. So I thought you could…

 

[01:07:58.500] – Imran Siddiq

And this This is stuff that is going to be relatable for people out there, anyone out there. People are going to… It’s going to make you go, Ah. Whereas we could have done a talk talking about the Something that is so on the edge of the spectrum for web design and WordPress, that maybe if there’s a thousand people watching now, maybe one or two would go, Oh, that’s good. But we’ve ignored the 998 that came to learn about WordPress or their business or how to better them?

 

[01:08:33.520] – Jonathan Denwood

I do agree with you. I’ll give you an example. It must have been over five years now. I went to WordCamp Europe to Porto. I really enjoyed it. I liked Porto a lot. Then I went to the UK to see my family, so I could put it as a business. It was a good event. They got a fantastic attendance and it was well run. Did I learn anything there? No. I was going around the different booths talking to people, but the actual sessions, no, not really. About 20% of them were interesting in some way. Was it really anybody going to get fabulous value from it? Probably not. But it’s just the truth, isn’t it? Now, I wanted to go back to to finish I want to finish up. I want to go back to your YouTube channel. Now, you’ve made the decision to make a certain percentage of your videos, membership only. When did you make that decision? And you’re using Google’s membership where they take the 30 %. I think I’m correct about that.

 

[01:09:50.120] – Imran Siddiq

Am I not right? No, it’s about 19 %, something like that anyway, something weird. A weird number.

 

[01:10:01.700] – Jonathan Denwood

All right. Well, I had a podcast a couple of weeks ago and I did some research and obviously it was wrong because I said 30, so I’m wrong about it.

 

[01:10:08.840] – Imran Siddiq

I might be wrong on that as well. It’s very weird.

 

[01:10:11.220] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, you’re probably more right than me. I’m wrong about it a lot.

 

[01:10:13.880] – Imran Siddiq

You could have monetised it. I YouTube is a weird thing. Yeah, anyway.

 

[01:10:18.240] – Jonathan Denwood

So when did you start doing that and why did you start to make that decision?

 

[01:10:25.780] – Imran Siddiq

So it was from a business point of view, really, because it feels like when we release a video, and I think anyone out here who does content creation, if I release a five minute video today, people view, you’ll see the five minutes and you’ll watch it, take something from it or not like it and move on. That five minute video might have been an hour thinking time, an hour recording, an hour editing and then uploading. There’s probably three and a half to four hours effort went into that five minute video. And when you start to work out the fact that you’re not actually, in a way, earning, if that makes sense, because that five minute video I do, it ain’t going to break the bank. I might, if I’m lucky, make 50p over the lifetime of that video from what I’ve done. So I started thinking about, I’m putting so much out there and people are getting it for free. Can I earn back? So I started a Webdesigner Reset series, which is about how can you your business model to survive in the world of AI. And so far I’ve released 15 episodes, and they’re members only.

 

[01:11:39.860] – Imran Siddiq

But to become a member, the lowest level is 99 pence or 99 cents. So it’s not like I’m saying you got to pay $20. But what I have decided, and I have revealed this to a few people, is I also do elemental website courses and CSS courses, where When I redo them in the probably 2026, I will not be selling them on my website. I will now be releasing all of the content and videos via YouTube members.

 

[01:12:14.140] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, right. So are you not a little bit fearful that for some reason you up a copyright strike or something and you get free somehow, you get some audio music or something and you get banned from YouTube or something.

 

[01:12:34.060] – Imran Siddiq

No. All of the music I use, if I ever do use any music for my outro or intro, I use it from the YouTube audio library. When you go to YouTube Studio, you have the audio library. I take my music from there, so I never have to worry about that. So what I’m saying to people is, I know a big chunk of my audience come from India, Pakistan, and some of my African countries. They are never, ever going to pay $75 for a course. Let’s be frank here. They’re not going to pay that. So what I’m saying is, I’m not teaching you rocket science. I’m just teaching you how to use elemental or how to build a WordPress website. So in a way, maybe 99p a month, and I will release the videos, say, at a rate of three or four videos a week over a three, four month program. If you want them and you want to learn, and I’ll update them whenever they need updating, they’ll be there. And so even though it’s a member level and you can only get it if you’re a member, I’ve made it more accessible for people around the world.

 

[01:13:44.440] – Imran Siddiq

And of course, that won’t stop me still releasing five videos a week for everyone, whether you’re a member or not. So I’ve tried to be conscious. I know some people don’t like it. Some people go, well, I don’t want to pay I was bothered because I’m just wondering the business and you’ve explained it very coherently. For me, it’s like if you want the After a topping on your pizza, you pay for it. You don’t want to pay for it, you don’t get the topping. Simple as that.

 

[01:14:22.020] – Jonathan Denwood

So you wasn’t tempted like every Tom Dickenari on the internet at the present moment to go to school and set up and Do you know what it is?

 

[01:14:31.900] – Imran Siddiq

Do you know something, John? Do you know something? It’s bad enough keeping on top of all the changes with AI on a daily basis. It’s bad enough keeping up with plugin updates. And I got to this point where… I’ve done it strategically. So if you’ve ever done a course, so my old courses, those videos are hosted somewhere like a CDN, then I have to pull them back into my website because they’re massive videos, right? They’re taking up a lot of gigabyte, terabyte space. If I do a new course and I release it on YouTube, YouTube is now hosting the video. It will do the audio in different languages. It will do the captions in different languages. It will maintain the 4K quality. I don’t now have to have those videos stuck on another server somewhere and pay for that.

 

[01:15:30.820] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, obviously because I’m- So financially it works out…

 

[01:15:34.260] – Imran Siddiq

No, so strategically, it works out quite well.

 

[01:15:37.180] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, no, I totally follow the logic. For the price point that you pointed out, that you’re going to charge, it is not worthwhile doing your own thing. And you pointed that you use the YouTube music, so you’re guarding yourself coherently about the Stripe thing. But at that price, I totally follow your logic at that price point.

 

[01:16:07.560] – Imran Siddiq

But also, I think it goes back in hand with why maybe a lot of people do follow me a lot or sometimes stick with me in that I’m not in it just for the money. I’m not in it to- What’s wrong with that?

 

[01:16:21.020] – Jonathan Denwood

But on the other hand, what’s wrong with that? You’re providing a survey.

 

[01:16:27.380] – Imran Siddiq

No, no. You’re absolutely right. There What is nothing wrong with it? There’s just something about my- Can I just interrupt slightly?

 

[01:16:35.920] – Jonathan Denwood

No, go on. Hopefully, I haven’t done it. I think I’ve done a good job of not interrupting. I do find this a bizarre attitude in WordPress, that there’s something wrong about doing something in WordPress and wanting to make a decent… Providing an honest service, education or whatever it is, and you’re providing something and you want to make a decent living from it. It’s almost like you’re doing something wrong. I’ve never understood it.

 

[01:17:09.100] – Imran Siddiq

No, I think there’s just something about me in where I like it. I think if I knew the bulk of my audience were United States, United Kingdom, Australia, whatever, then I would stick it. Because I know so many are not Well, a lot are coming from those countries, but a lot are coming from third world countries as well. And when I look back on my customers who have bought courses in the last three years, you can see a pattern. And I want to… I think it’s my way of going like… I mean, you got to think about it from a strategic point of view as well. Okay, let’s just pretend, right? Let’s just pretend I’ve got 150,000 subscribers. Let’s say 1 % of them all start paying 99 pence on a monthly basis. I can’t do the maths now, but when you work it out- It’s a considerable amount of money. Whereas if you charge $100, say, for your course, the amount of people that sign up for that, it’s a strange…

 

[01:18:22.990] – Jonathan Denwood

It’s a strange old world. This is why I’m asking you these questions. And thank you for being so honest.

 

[01:18:28.040] – Imran Siddiq

No, no. It’s I feel like it’s…

 

[01:18:32.040] – Jonathan Denwood

Can I tell you a little story? I was talking to a woman that’s been very hopeless photographer, and she’s in with all this crowd that sell courses about being successful online. She told me last year, she spent 15,000 on courses. She always got sucked in. I won’t name because I don’t want to be sued. I’ve enough letters last year sent to me, and I’ve calmed it down because I’m not interested in getting into WordPress news now, or it’s a time sucker and I’m bored with it now. She almost bought another course for my influencer that was $18,000. Her business coach, mentor that’s local, said, Don’t do it. She listened for once. It’s just mind-numming, isn’t it? I don’t know what you’re going to get for 18 grand, but it’s got to be something really good, isn’t it?

 

[01:19:41.360] – Imran Siddiq

It is. I think the big problem at the moment is there’s a lot of gurus that are a lot of influencers, and basically they’re just selling what they actually bought from someone else. So there’s this continued thing about build a course, do this, build a hype, do the FOMO, all of get people to sign up. And when you buy from them, all they’re going to do is teach you what they’re doing to you. Then you go and do it to someone else, and you’re going to teach them. You’re not going to teach them how… It’s like a pyramid scheme, isn’t it? I get really fed up of people who aren’t actually teaching you a skill of how to offer a service. What they’re teaching you is how to do the sales funnel and how to do the and the emails you send and what to say and what to offer. I do feel for people, but… I mean, yeah, I feel for people that get sucked into that?

 

[01:20:46.740] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, I think they’re digital cockroaches. I know that’s a strong statement.

 

[01:20:51.700] – Imran Siddiq

No, it is.

 

[01:20:53.020] – Jonathan Denwood

But that’s how I feel about it.

 

[01:20:55.640] – Imran Siddiq

I do as well. And I get really, really annoyed with it. At how many more are doing it continuously. And something that I’ve actually got in a video that’s coming out in a couple of weeks is that you’ll have an influencer talking, telling you about how they’re going to change your life and you pay a certain amount of money, but when you actually pay, it won’t be them delivering. It will be someone else who closes the sale. It will be someone else who leads the group webinar or whatever you do. It’s never a one to one service or whatever. It’s never really going to be about helping you. You’re just, you know, you’ve been sucked in and you are now just going to learn what they did to you. And then you’ll do it to someone else and you’ll set up your own course selling a course of a course of a course. And it’s rampant. It’s really, really rampant at the moment.

 

[01:21:50.600] – Jonathan Denwood

The other thing, you probably notice because you’re more… You’re sharper than me in this area. As soon as we win in this bonus content, and it got a little bit spicy. The comments just exploded, didn’t they? Just exploded, didn’t they? The comment section. This has been one of the most commented shows for a while. I’ve had more-I think I’m good at it. It just got… So there’s a constant pressure to be spicy, isn’t it? Online, really, isn’t it?

 

[01:22:23.620] – Imran Siddiq

Well, what I always say is that the truth hurts sometimes, and sometimes I shoot from the hip, and I’m one of those people who was very well known where I worked, that if I could see someone doing wrong, I don’t call it whistleblowing, but I would say it. And if I could see that someone was mean to someone or exploiting someone or anything like that, I don’t stand for it. I feel like that’s just who I am. I feel like- Well, I got to tell you, I’m going to be spicy, but I don’t hope the guy…

 

[01:23:02.040] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, and I admired him for a while, Chris Lema. When Chris Lema was really active in WordPress, wasn’t a friend, but I interviewed him a few times, got no personal beef with him, and he put in a ton of work in. He went to almost every… For a number of years, he would go to all these word camps, probably too many, really, but he did it. He did the donkey work, but there was a click around him. There was a real click around him when he was really active in WordPress. And it was a click, wasn’t it? It was, wasn’t it? You were in or you were out. And it was as simple as that. And it’s always been that way in WordPress, isn’t it? You’re either in or you’re out, aren’t you?

 

[01:23:56.160] – Imran Siddiq

Yeah, that’s the truth of it. I mean, I know anyone watching this is not going to completely agree to everything I say, but what I will say is I’m talking from my lens and what I’m seeing, and it is very subjective. And I would say that not everyone will see it that way. Not everyone will agree, and everyone can have their own view. But when I did my videos, and I did two, I did not name anyone. I respected the fact that I They don’t want to step on anyone’s shoes or anything. But the amount of people that were offended and had to throw their two pence in, quite frankly, if that’s what they want to do, they can do that. That’s what for them.

 

[01:24:44.140] – Jonathan Denwood

I’ve got to be honest with you. The criticism that you didn’t have anybody on your fin.

 

[01:24:50.990] – Imran Siddiq

I think that’s pathetic.

 

[01:24:54.140] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, I thought there was some logic to it, but you’ve explained. But if they’re pushing Gutenberg and you’re mostly about elevator, you’re not going to be interested in it, are you?

 

[01:25:03.860] – Imran Siddiq

Exactly. I can tell you now, if I went and had someone come on to talk about Breakdance, who have a very weird way of doing their marketing campaigns where they always talk about other page builders, especially Elementor, people would find that really ridiculous. Or if I have some people coming on talking about something that- He’s an amazing guy, isn’t he?

 

[01:25:26.240] – Jonathan Denwood

Can we just… You’ve got another couple of minutes. Can we just… Yeah, I have. He’s an amazing guy. I forgot his name, but I think he- Louis. Livy. He lives in Lake Tahoe, where I was living in Carson City, and I was about 40 minutes away from where he was living. It’s where the real rich people live. Lake Tahoe, very expensive. You got to be a million dollars plus to buy a place, right? But he’s done fantastic. He’s peeved off so many people and he’s- It’s worked. It’s worked for him. Got any idea how he did it?

 

[01:26:12.080] – Imran Siddiq

No, I think he knows… His way of… It’s basically creating noise. So, he wants to create noise by being controversial or whatever he does. And it has worked somewhat for him. However, I’m fairly certain that anything I’ve said will be picked up, turned into a podcast, and likely a reaction video. Someone’s going to make a meal of anything I’ve said. But quite frankly, it’s like, just get over it. If someone can’t be honest, what do you think of breaking?

[01:26:44.070] – Jonathan Denwood

I’ve never used it. Is it a pretty good tool?

[01:26:50.060] – Imran Siddiq

I did have a look at it and it did have legs, but if I’m honest, I didn’t go deeper than my first look at it when it first, first came came out because I didn’t like the way it was being marketed and the way the pricing structure and the business model were done. And when I reached out, a few of us reached out to Louis, and we just got offensive stuff thrown back at us. And I was like, right, I’m not…

[01:27:14.600] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, lovely. Charving.

[01:27:15.000] – Imran Siddiq

We’re not getting involved in this. But like I was saying, I’m pretty sure what we’ve talked about today is going to get talked about on other channels and other shows, and But I always say that if people can’t be honest about what they think about WordPress cliques or word camps or the way people do stuff, if people can’t be honest, then you know what? You’re basically saying no one’s allowed to whistle below. Well, fundamentally. No one’s allowed to, not you, but you’re a grown-up.

[01:27:51.680] – Jonathan Denwood

We’re both grown men. This is about money, isn’t it?

[01:27:56.700] – Imran Siddiq

Well, it is. I just feel like it. Many people have spoken to me about this over the last seven or eight years. But do you know something? They don’t want to say it because they’re always afraid that if I say something… It’s a bit like when I worked in the NHS, there were so many things going wrong and there were so many people that were being exploited or things going on, but they were afraid to speak to HR or their boss or anyone.

[01:28:25.460] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, but they had to be right. They would be wasting their breath, wouldn’t they? Yeah.

[01:28:29.360] – Imran Siddiq

Well, they’re afraid of the comeback, or the… Well, they would come back, wouldn’t they?

[01:28:35.360] – Jonathan Denwood

They’re not deluded. They would come back, wouldn’t they?

[01:28:39.640] – Imran Siddiq

And the same goes with WordPress. Unfortunately, with events and stuff like that, people are sometimes afraid because the minute you speak up, you’re called a troll, you’re called whatever. You’ll be saying, Well, you don’t invite guests, and you don’t come to WordCamp, and you don’t do this. You don’t have to attend WordCamp to understand the issue. You don’t have to invite guests to see the problem. You can pick up and see when things are done for ulterior motives or whatever. I feel like by speaking up and just putting it out there, the fact that it made some people quite uneasy, I’m glad because it’s about time that people start to maybe change the way we do things, because here’s an opportunity now, going forward, WordCamp Europe next year, WordCamp US. Why don’t you make the damn events about WordPress? Make the speakers talk about WordPress. Make people care and love WordPress. Get your fingers out of your bottom and make it work. That’s all they’re going to do. But some people just don’t want to do that.

 

[01:29:47.660] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, I think it’s a good place to stop. I know. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. I think it’s been a great discussion. We’ve had a lot of engagement, so that helps my channel, doesn’t it? To be frank about it. But I think we’ve covered some great stuff in the main interview and in this bonus content. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Hopefully, you’ll come back sometime in 2026. We’re going to end it now, folks. We will be back next week. We’ll see you soon. Bye.

 

[01:30:19.610] – Imran Siddiq

Cheers. Bye.

 

WP-Tonic & The Membership Machine Facebook Group

Why not sign up and join the Membership Machine Show & WP-Tonic Facebook group, where you can access the best advice and support for building your membership or community website on WordPress?

Facebook Group