Can a fast-lane business be started on WordPress?

[DeletedUser2]

wordpress.


we did 200 sites, and lots of automated stuff with it in 2008-2010.

we now do custome stuff for what we do.
but yet. you can run

blogs,
affiliate sites,
seo sites
local stuff
membershipsites
customer sites
ecommerce sites

the list is huge, and lots of plugins allow for most any kind of customization

Start someplace
Z

 

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[DennisD]

OP should start to learn coding. HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Ajax, stuff like that. If nothing else, he would learn what these languages can do for him even if someone else does the coding. And it helps him a lot with SEO.

nononono.

"start to learn coding."
I hate this advice.

It's too much complication for somebody who's new online business to learn enough about HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Ajax, etc. If as a business owner, you don't ALREADY possess some decent working knowlege of the code, it's a LOT more efficient to just get somebody else to do it for you, rather than learning a handful of techs from scratch when you COULD be doing other things (customer feedback, lead gen, marketing, direct sales, strategy, etc)

For every hour you spend learning to do subpar coding, you could have spent that hour doing something that will benefit your company several times over. You can't afford to stick your head in programming books when you're still trying to feel out the market, network, attain some early adopters.

If you're running a biz where these things are important, you need a specialist somebody who BREATHES this stuff. Somebody who can adapt, fix things when they break, keep up with changing rules, and understand how to integrate the techs.

If you're already good at tech, go for it. Just like the people already good with numbers should keep the books, and he people already good with the law should spearhead legal. There's just not enough USE in learning to do something POORLY when you COULD spend that time doing something you're already GREAT at. It's just about appropriate leverage.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Can a fast-lane business be started on WordPress?

Yes.

But it has NOTHING to do with Wordpress. It has to do with your consistency, your content, and your value proposition.

I'm sure there are hundreds, perhaps 1000's of "Fastlane" sites that are driven on Wordpress. A lot of the gossip blogs are WP driven (TheDirty.com, for example, which made the owner pretty infamous, and probably pretty affluent as well).

This question is like asking ... can I pedal my bike from Los Angeles to Las Vegas?

Sure you can.

But you will need endurance, drive, and determination. Those without those qualities hop on the bike (downloading WP) bike 2 miles (make 2 posts) then turn around and go home, blaming the bike, when the bike wasn't the problem, it was the biker.

 

[Atown512]

It's too much complication for somebody who's new online business to learn enough about HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Ajax, etc. If as a business owner, you don't ALREADY possess some decent working knowlege of the code, it's a LOT more efficient to just get somebody else to do it for you, rather than learning a handful of techs from scratch when you COULD be doing other things (customer feedback, lead gen, marketing, direct sales, strategy, etc)

I agree with this to an extent, but what if you are just starting out, and don't have the funds to keep paying people to build your sites for you? I think amschel was trying to say that a little knowledge about coding is necessary to cheaply test your concept. A lot of people have never made money online, and I think a little of the basics would certainly help.

I have several ideas for websites that I would love to give a try, but they are over my head in terms of coding, and would be too expensive to hire out. The only way to succeed would be to prove the concept, then find the money to hire it out.

 

[tincho1492]

I agree with this to an extent, but what if you are just starting out, and don't have the funds to keep paying people to build your sites for you? I think amschel was trying to say that a little knowledge about coding is necessary to cheaply test your concept. A lot of people have never made money online, and I think a little of the basics would certainly help.

I have several ideas for websites that I would love to give a try, but they are over my head in terms of coding, and would be too expensive to hire out. The only way to succeed would be to prove the concept, then find the money to hire it out.

Maybe this can help you to see things differently:

The results of the 24-Hour Business Challenge

 

[Hong King Kong]

Wordpress can definitely get the job done.

I got a friend making $xx,xxx / month on a wordpress site, and its almost completely automated. But he worked his a$$ off for a year before hitting those numbers.

 

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[Genester]

I completely disagree with the people that are saying a Fastlane business can't be built with Wordpress. There are a ton of Wordpress blogs that are making A LOT of money, some of them are the top blogs in their niche and they are getting a huge amount of traffic. I guess you would have to describe what your definition of fastlane is. A blog that earns over $20k/month and is run by 1-2 people is definitely Fastlane in my opinion, and I know for a fact there are plenty of them out there.

So yes, you can start a Fastlane business using Wordpress, but again, remember that Wordpress is just a tool, it alone will not make your business successful.

 

[H. Palmer]

I completely disagree with the people that are saying a Fastlane business can't be built with Wordpress. There are a ton of Wordpress blogs that are making A LOT of money, some of them are the top blogs in their niche and they are getting a huge amount of traffic. I guess you would have to describe what your definition of fastlane is. A blog that earns over $20k/month and is run by 1-2 people is definitely Fastlane in my opinion, and I know for a fact there are plenty of them out there.

So yes, you can start a Fastlane business using Wordpress, but again, remember that Wordpress is just a tool, it alone will not make your business successful.

Many people seem to think that a business that makes money is the same as a fastlane business. It is not.

A blog is by definition a website that depends to a large extent on the content input of the owner or owners.
It is their input that makes a blog successful.

But remove the owners, gone successful blog. That is not fastlane.

The definition of fastlane can be found in MJ's book. The T element of CENTS is Time.
It means that activity in the business can be separated from the owner(s) which is a requirement for a x million dollar liquidity event.

As to WordPress, you can start a fastlane business on anything, but you cannot build a fastlane business on standard software alone.

You need custom made proprietary technology to build E, C and to a certain extent S into your business model.

 

[Genester]

Many people seem to think that a business that makes money is the same as a fastlane business. It is not.

A blog is by definition a website that depends to a large extent on the content input of the owner or owners.
It is their input that makes a blog successful.

But remove the owners, gone successful blog. That is not fastlane.

The definition of fastlane can be found in MJ's book. The T element of CENTS is Time.
It means that activity in the business can be separated from the owner(s) which is a requirement for a x million dollar liquidity event.

As to WordPress, you can start a fastlane business on anything, but you cannot build a fastlane business on standard software alone.

You need custom made proprietary technology to build E, C and to a certain extent S into your business model.

Ok, explain when a Wordpress site or blog is bought out for millions of dollars and the owner of that site is now a Millionaire? Would that not be Fastlane then? Because this has happened lots of times.

 

[Soulipsyz]

Yes. My boss runs a $6mm/yr -very low overhead content based business all on Wordpress.

Also many people don't know but Mashable started with Wordpress and still uses it as their backend CMS, and a custom Ruby on Rails frontend I believe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[mayana]

So can you build a fastlane business on WordPress? I wouldn't consider it.

Well, then I guess that all of these guys are foolish for using it.

And this guy, too.

A lot of those companies are news-oriented, etc, which some will use as an excuse to counter my argument that Wordpress is great. What about this website?

http://cpanel.net/

There is no way that anyone could say that cpanel is not a Fastlane business, and they are in the website business AND they run their site on Wordpress.

Look, don't get caught up in not knowing how to code your own website. Wordpress is an AWESOME way to get a website up and running. Eventually, you can pay someone to help you customize it. You can almost make it into anything, if you are willing to put the time and effort into it. Don't let worrying about whether Wordpress is good or not be an excuse to not get your Fastlane business started!

Obviously, once you are making thousands of dollars a month with your business, you could explore some other options - or not. It's up to YOU!

Good luck in your venture - get started

 

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[splok]

A blog is by definition a website that depends to a large extent on the content input of the owner or owners.
It is their input that makes a blog successful.

But remove the owners, gone successful blog. That is not fastlane.

Oh, I guess Michael Arrington didn't get paid tens of millions for TechCrunch then?

 

[H. Palmer]

People keep missing the point. What I said is you can't base a fastlane business on WordPress alone.

Or any other kind of standard software.

Probably people think that you can run large organizations like CNN, New York Times or eBay on a blog platform.

Keep dreaming. That's only the outside shell that you see. An organization is somewhat more than a front end website.

But you'll never see that, unless you start understanding software.

 

[Tom.V]

But you'll never see that, unless you start understanding software.

:bgh:

You can't base ANYTHING on one lone variable. Everything great is a conglomeration of many modifications and customizations. Wordpress is great because of this. Think of it as a blank canvas, you just have to paint the picture.

 

[H. Palmer]

Oh, I guess Michael Arrington didn't get paid tens of millions for TechCrunch then?

Michael Arrington told reporters during the takeover of Techcrunch by AOL specifically that one of the reasons for the takeover was he couldn't find enough talented engineers to write custom made software for his company.

Custom made software for instance to build and develop crunchbase.com, one of the spearheads of Techcrunch. Crunchbase even contained application program interfaces (API's, look it up) custom made and developed by Techcrunch engineers that enabled other websites to automatically fetch data from the crunchbase database. This was one of the technologies that Techcrunch had developed to strengthen its position in the marketplace of information products.

Of course if you want to keep believing that a industry giant like Techcrunch is just a simple blog running on a WordPress theme, be my guest. Dream on. Let's just hope someday you'll wake up.

 

[rkmalo1]

I have to respectively disagree. A Fastlane business can absolutely be built on basic wordpress site. I don't think it matters at all if it's built on Wordpress or not, though.

Here's an example of a what I believe is Fastlane business built entirely on Wordpress. Zero Hedge.

I'm sure most people here know, but Zero Hedge is very popular financial blog.

When ZH was first born, I think it even began by being hosted as a .wordpress site. It was horrible. It's still not the best website. Does it have customization now? I'm sure but it doesn't matter ...people love it - it can be on any platform. It makes millions for the owner (now owners). I'll run through a CENTS for ZH:

Need - Yep - I'd say it fills one. People like the INSIDERS knowledge and analysis Zero Hedge provides. It's the #536 most trafficked website in the U.S.

Entry - I don't think most people can start off their website by attacking the investment banks (including Goldman Sachs where he worked) with their INSIDERS knowledge to the point where your website is brought up by Congress.

Control - He controls everything about it - including his platform/content.

Time - He grew so fast he hired up to 40 writers who constantly pump out content. He can never write any article again and the website would run itself. I think that's controlling his time.

Scale - Went from nothing to one of the top blogs in world in less than 4 years.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

You guys are discussing the medium of content delivery. The value of "Fastlane" is driven by need, or the value of the content. The method of delivery isn't the big issue. Any FL can get its start on WP, just as much as a hand written HTML site.

Entry - I don't think most people can start off your website by attacking the investment banks (including Goldman Sachs where he worked) with your INSIDERS knowledge to the point where your website is brought up by congressman.

Absolutely. "Entry" has nothing do with the medium-- it has to do with the value of the content.

To give you an example...

If I had a crystal ball and had a 99% win rate (accuracy) in beating the line on NFL Football games, and used this "inside information" to create a membership website based upon the WP platform, how hard do you think it would be for me to make a killing?? Wordpress is not the key to the success-- its the product within the platform that people want to pay for.

The issue with WP is you have people downloading it, installing it, and putting up 3 or 4 posts. They *think* that this is Fastlane when it their content is nothing new or compelling. If I give you a piece of gold bullion, that fact that it's transported in a Honda or a Ferrari is secondary to the gold itself.

 

[DennisD]

I agree with this to an extent, but what if you are just starting out, and don't have the funds to keep paying people to build your sites for you?

No, you don't. Which is why Wordpress was put forth as the solution where:
1) You don't have to waste your valuable time learning skills you'll only be mediocre at.
2) You don't have to hire somebody to hire your sites.
3) Your time/energy can be used doing something you'll kick a$$ at that will bring in money.

 

[H. Palmer]

I have to respectively disagree. A Fastlane business can absolutely be built on basic wordpress site. I don't think it matters at all if it's built on Wordpress or not, though.

Here's an example of a what I believe is Fastlane business built entirely on Wordpress. Zero Hedge.

I'm sure most people here know, but Zero Hedge is very popular financial blog.

When ZH was first born, I think it even began by being hosted as a .wordpress site. It was horrible. It's still not the best website. Does it have customization now?

ZH started on blogspot. Indeed it was horrible. The blogspot incarnation was good enough as long as there were a few people posting. Once they grew they migrated to a website that used scalable software. They NEEDED a scalable solution.

I'm sure but it doesn't matter ...people love it - it can be on any platform.

Absolutely not. I’m sorry. Successful news sites don’t run on standard software. Even CNN and The New York Times and media like that don’t run standard WordPress installations. They have teams of developers constantly adding custom made software, even in collaboration with Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

It makes millions for the owner (now owners). I'll run through a CENTS for ZH:
Need - Yep - I'd say it fills one. People like the INSIDERS knowledge and analysis Zero Hedge provides. It's the #536 most trafficked website in the U.S.

Entry - I don't think most people can start off their website by attacking the investment banks (including Goldman Sachs where he worked) with their INSIDERS knowledge to the point where your website is brought up by Congress.

That is entirely correct and it illustrates the point that you are missing. Because indeed nobody can do this. You need a team of people with each of them years of experience in the inner workings of the financial world and an intense desire to inform the public about how they are being swindled no matter what the consequences.

In other words, no business motivation here. The financial success of this blog was neither planned nor desired. Fastlane logic implies the intent of entrepreneurial success. There was no such intent here. 2008 was the right time and the right moment to bring out Wall Street’s secrets. It was the fall of Lehman Brothers that triggered this. The financial success of ZH was a side effect. In other words, this is not a replicable model.

Another point you’re missing, the fast growth of this blog wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t financial analysts behind it that already had many years of experience behind the scenes. How many? We don’t know because we don’t know who they are. But this is the proverbial overnight success that took 10 years of preparation. It takes that long to build up the knowledge and INSIDERS network necessary to manifest as an industry thought leader. Kudos to them, but this has not been a fastlane process, even though to some it may look like fastlane on the outside.

Time - He grew so fast he hired up to 40 writers who constantly pump out content. He can never write any article again and the website would run itself. I think that's controlling his time.

The fact is that very little is known about who makes Zero Hedge. We don’t know who the founders are, we don’t know how many founders there were. Let’s hope the founders have made a killing out of it. But don’t try to replicate it, unless you are willing to build up your industry knowledge and network for more than ten years, eagerly await a Lehman type event and then suddenly stab your colleagues a knife in the back and go public, taking industry secrets and a following with you. Then still, you probably need custom made software to scale it up.

 

[dknise]

People keep missing the point. What I said is you can't base a fastlane business on WordPress alone.

I agree that people are missing your point and I think your contributions in the thread are extremely valuable and valid. There are a lot of people here thinking "oh my god softwares I can juz downlowedz teh wordprezzes and build Amazon or Google without touching a line of code!" And for that reason, I'm glad you slapped them back to reality.

While I do believe you can build a big business on a wordpress platform, there's nearly a 100% chance you're going to need custom solutions to fulfill the NEED of your website. While cpanel is a great example of a site built on it, (thedirty.com is too), they are heavily modified as though their only purpose was a UI/backend bootstrapper like any other framework.

RussiaToday, RT.com might be built ontop of wordpress as well.




My final verdict: USE IT if you can. By the time you need all the custom stuff, you'll be well into a revenue stream that can afford it.

 

[rkmalo1]

ZH started on blogspot. Indeed it was horrible. The blogspot incarnation was good enough as long as there were a few people posting. Once they grew they migrated to a website that used scalable software. They NEEDED a scalable solution. Absolutely not. I’m sorry. Successful news sites don’t run on standard software. Even CNN and The New York Times and media like that don’t run standard WordPress installations. They have teams of developers constantly adding custom made software, even in collaboration with Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

Ok. Thanks for the clarification. But again, it doesn't matter what platform (wordpress.com, wordpress.org, blogspot) is being used if the product you have if the product you have is serving an overwhelming need/want in the marketplace. I know of newsletters ( this one being an example: Grant's Interest Rate Observer - sorry I keep using financial products as examples!) that could literally be written down on a piece of notebook paper, copied using a copier and mailed out using the USPS and hedge fund managers, analysts, brokers ect etc would still pay the $1,200/yr or whatever it is to read it. The product is that useful/needed/wanted to them.

My point being is that it doesn't matter how the product is presented to the marketplace if there is an overwhelming need/want for it. I agree with you, proprietary software (which I'm sure most news websites have) makes the process of scaling much easier but it is certainty not necessary.

That is entirely correct and it illustrates the point that you are missing. Because indeed nobody can do this. You need a team of people with each of them years of experience in the inner workings of the financial world and an intense desire to inform the public about how they are being swindled no matter what the consequences.

I agree with you here. Businesses (including ZH) need to do their proper due diligence to be sustainable business. Not anybody can start something like ZH, you do need that 'INSIDERS knowledge'. Sorry if I wasn't clear there. Not sure you really need a team if you have what the market needs/wants, but it certainty helps.

In other words, no business motivation here. The financial success of this blog was neither planned nor desired. Fastlane logic implies the intent of entrepreneurial success. There was no such intent here. 2008 was the right time and the right moment to bring out Wall Street’s secrets. It was the fall of Lehman Brothers that triggered this. The financial success of ZH was a side effect. In other words, this is not a replicable model. But this is the proverbial overnight success that took 10 years of preparation.

Another point you’re missing, the fast growth of this blog wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t financial analysts behind it that already had many years of experience behind the scenes. How many? We don’t know because we don’t know who they are.
It takes that long to build up the knowledge and INSIDERS network necessary to manifest as an industry thought leader. Kudos to them, but this has not been a fastlane process, even though to some it may look like fastlane on the outside.

Completely agree, ZH was a success by accident. I still believe it became a fastlane business even if was unintentional, though. Now by strict definition, "Fastlane logic implies the intent of entrepreneurial success.", you're absolutely correct.

Did the owner (s) use & leverage his/their prior knowledge? Yep. Will I use knowledge I have built up over the years to build a Fastlane business? Absolutely.

The fact is that very little is known about who makes Zero Hedge. We don’t know who the founders are, we don’t know how many founders there were. Let’s hope the founders have made a killing out of it. But don’t try to replicate it, unless you are willing to build up your industry knowledge and network for more than ten years, eagerly await a Lehman type event and then suddenly stab your colleagues a knife in the back and go public, taking industry secrets and a following with you. Then still, you probably need custom made software to scale it up.

I would never start a blog or business similar to ZH, it does serve it's purpose in the financial community, though. We are in contact with a few ZH writers (we swap data/charts from time-to-time), but you're right no one really knows who the founder (s) are. I can take an educated guess that it was one guy, though.

I agree that people are missing your point and I think your contributions in the thread are extremely valuable and valid.

I agree. Thanks for the insight. It's been interesting.

There are a lot of people here thinking "oh my god softwares I can juz downlowedz teh wordprezzes and build Amazon or Google without touching a line of code!" And for that reason, I'm glad you slapped them back to reality.

Hopefully this wasn't directed at me, I would never think that!

 

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[dknise]

Hopefully this wasn't directed at me, I would never think that!

Nope not you! I actually didn't mean anyone in this thread... haha just in general when people from the web browse the forum in hopes of starting the next Facebook.

 

[elliot]

I think it was obvious and MJ answered it.
I used to write sites from the age of about 13 using Dreamweaver, HTML and Javascript so am not that bad but Wordpress is great because of its speed to setup and everything built in and available. Will admit though its nice to be able to modify the code in Wordpress which I am learning as its so easy!

Just wish it was so easy to program phone apps!

 

[Thriftypreneur]

But as I read OP's post, he wants to build a fastlane online business on a WordPress format. He doesn't even mention other types of software.

O yes, you could start with WordPress. And yes, if the business gets off the ground, you can add other types of standard software.

But I maintain that if you want E, C and S built into your business model, you NEED custom made software.

How can you say any of this without knowing what the OP's business model even is?

Saying that just using Wordpress violates E, C and S is just absurd.

If you think every web-based business needs custom software to be successful (in a rediculous attempt at artificially inflating the barrier to entry - which is what you're suggesting), you're sorely mistaken and probably wasting a LOT of money on custom software.

Speed-- for repeatedly spouting absurd, unfounded advice in this thread.

 

[H. Palmer]

How can you say any of this without knowing what the OP's business model even is?

Because ANY business model can be disrupted by a competitor that uses custom made software.
Especially content models are very vulnerable to this.

But, as I said earlier, you can only see that when you understand software.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

Because ANY business model can be disrupted by a competitor that uses custom made software.
Especially content models are very vulnerable to this.

Let's say I have a warehouse full of custom equipment were I make a very unique, patented product. Then, using Wordpress, I setup a store-front to sell my product to the world. Everything else aside, using wordpress has little to no bearing on my businesses' barrier to entry, the product creation, patent and process does.

If you want to dispute blogs' fastlane viability, then that's completely different than what you started out saying, but saying wordpress, by itself, causes your business to immediately violate E, C and S, just doesn't work, as the crude example above easily shows.

Edit: hate posting something and then seeing that MJ already posted a relating example, deeper into the thread..

The issue with WP is you have people downloading it, installing it, and putting up 3 or 4 posts. They *think* that this is Fastlane when it their content is nothing new or compelling. If I give you a piece of gold bullion, that fact that it's transported in a Honda or a Ferrari is secondary to the gold itself.

This.

 

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[H. Palmer]

Thrifty, I understand totally what you mean. At the same time I really don't understand what your problem is with someone saying he wouldn't use WordPress.

What I originally said is that the platform should give you E, C and a bit of S.

To clarify, maybe I should have worded that like:

"The platform should give you additional E, C and a bit of S".

That is more precise.
It really doesn't change much because the question was about the software platform.

In your example, the main contribution to E, C and perhaps T would come from the world class patented specialized gee-whiz product.

However, once competitors smell that there is a very successful product with a high margin on the market, they will reverse engineer it and you will discover that your patent protection means nothing. What happens next? Once the uniqueness of the product is gone, your competitive edge is gone. And you will find yourself in a market in which you only sell your products against prices lower than your competitors. Which ultimately means no margins at all.

In any business model, I would go for as many protective layers as possible. If you really have a world class product and you have market validation, you will do yourself a disservice by using standard plug in modules for marketing, billing, delivery and all kinds of business operations.

Business models can be attacked from any corner. Technology, price, market positioning, distribution, retail, legal, joint venture, quality, segmentation, and so on. I would use every differentiator I could find.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

At the same time I really don't understand what your problem is with someone saying he wouldn't use WordPress.

I don't. You started out saying this...

Can a fast lane business start on Wordpress? Yes. Because anything can start anywhere.

Can it be built on Wordpress? No.

Wordpress is in my opinion overhyped. It is a great tool for people who want to start a blog in 2 hours. That is for lazy people.

If you want to build a fastlane business, the software platform should give you Entry Barriers, Control and Scale. E C and S out of the CENTS requirements of a fastlane business. See MJ's book.

E. It's hard to build entry barriers into your business model based on a tool that can everyone can download.

C. It's impossible to have complete control over your business if you base it on somebody else's infrastructure. Whether that be the Wordpress platform itself, the themes or the plug-ins.

S. In theory you can build scale on WordPress, but only if the blog functionality is all you need. Like a news website would do that has 100 000 visitors per day and lives from advertisements. But if your company gets off the ground by selling a product, you need databases, custom made software that accesses them and custom made delivery software and more stuff like that.

So can you build a fastlane business on WordPress? I wouldn't consider it.

Then, as people began to point out the holes in your logic, you started changing up what you were saying to focus on content based sites to try and bolster what you had already said.

Thrifty, I understand totally what you mean. At the same time I really don't understand what your problem is with someone saying he wouldn't use WordPress.

What I originally said is that the platform should give you E, C and a bit of S.

To clarify, maybe I should have worded that like:

"The platform should give you additional E, C and a bit of S".

That is more precise.
It really doesn't change much because the question was about the software platform.

Is it nice to further raise barrier to entry in every way you possibly can? Sure. Is it mandatory? Lol, no. In many business models, it doesn't matter if the site's platform is Wordpress, Drupal, Custom coded e-commerce platform or whatever else. As MJ eluded to with his bullion example, how the content is delivered is secondary to many, many business models, including the example I made up.

In your example, the main contribution to E, C and perhaps T would come from the world class patented specialized gee-whiz product.

However, once competitors smell that there is a very successful product with a high margin on the market, they will reverse engineer it and you will discover that your patent protection means nothing.

That's true of any business in any field. It's not exclusive to businesses that don't use custom software.

In any business model, I would go for as many protective layers as possible. If you really have a world class product and you have market validation, you will do yourself a disservice by using standard plug in modules for marketing, billing, delivery and all kinds of business operations.

Business models can be attacked from any corner. Technology, price, market positioning, distribution, retail, legal, joint venture, quality, segmentation, and so on. You will need every differentiator you can find.

Saying it's wise to add as many barriers to entry as you can is different than what you had been saying, which was basically, "You can't build a fastlane business without custom software." Which, by the many examples people have already listed, simply isn't true.

 

[H. Palmer]

I'm sorry Thrifty. A business that is vulnerable to attack from a competitor that uses custom software is to me not a fastlane business. I have tried to explain the reasons to the OP.

From your perspective a fastlane business can run on WordPress, from my perspective it can't.

Agree to disagree?

 

[Thriftypreneur]

Agree to disagree?

Sure, we're going to have to. As I'm re-reading this thread, I'm seeing numerous great points and examples being made that I missed the first time through, which you completely reject by just saying "Nope, not fastlane." Or, even points made by the man who wrote the book, that you just completely bypass and ignore.

Everyone's entitled to their own beliefs, definition of "fastlane," and way of doing business, but people on this forum are pretty quick to speak up when someone is spreading poor advice or misinformation. So, don't take it personal. To each their own.