Kingpin interview by Ben Pines

Dec 28, 2023
Interview with Ben Pines from Elementor

Q1: What is your history, and when was the first time that you became involved in WordPress?

In 2006, was the year I started my journey into marketing by being employed at an SEO agency. It was the wild west of SEO at the time, the days when all you had to do to earn the wonderful Google traffic was to create an informative website, and then link back to the website of the client. This is the way I went about it. I was able to create the WordPress website that I had created in order to promote my client's business to be highly ranked. Then I discovered the power of WordPress. I can recall having a heated debate with my boss, who was among the most prominent SEO figures in Israel He argued that WordPress was designed solely for blogs. He believed that it wasn't suited to other types of sites. I'm glad that I stayed with the decision that I made to stick with WordPress.

I then went on to start my own business that was responsible for managing numerous affiliate websites based on WordPress. I managed them for 7 years until I started my new job as the CMO of Elementor Page Builder approximately two years ago.

Q2: What are the most important things that readers should be aware of regarding your activities within WordPress these days?

The purpose of Elementor is to drastically enhance the way people create websites using WordPress. One of the main drawbacks to WordPress is its inability to design. We've set out to introduce the most modern design features to WordPress, empowering designers to speed up and enhance their design workflow. Designers do not need to count on web developers to help them for any tiny modifications they need to make. With our interactive and live editor to build any web page they can think of, in only half the amount of time it took previously.

WordPress Elementor page builder plugin
WordPress Elementor plugin for page builders

What we're doing in WordPress today is directed towards achieving our objective. In the relatively brief time since we launched in the year 2000, we've managed to register hundreds of thousands WordPress users. The majority of them have chosen Elementor as their main tool for designing, and they appreciate their comments. We plan to continue to enhance and extend Elementor's capabilities to Elementor's free users and our paid customers. Apart from developing our page builders, we're working hard in delivering video of superior quality and also supporting the ever-growing group on Facebook (now in excess of 7,000 people) and communicating further through our blog, through the related blogs we have to WordPress as well as by participating in WordCamps.

Q3: What obstacles did you face in getting access up to the level you're at professionally?

One of the most difficult challenges I've faced in my career has always been to determine what action I need to take next to have the most influence in the direction of the concept I'm involved in. Marketers are constantly faced with making decisions in the face of uncertainty. It is a constant challenge that can be broken down into types of questions you need to tackle on a regular basis:

  • How do I develop a comprehensive marketing skill set, with the focus being on every one?
  • How do I better comprehend my target audience and prospective clients?
  • What should I do in order to utilize the present state of the project to serve as a basis to increase the leverage growth?
  • What can I do to overcome the primary objection consumers have to advertising and win the trust of the customer?

When I started working with Elementor there were a variety of issues and issues popped up. The market we entered was already home to a variety of popular page builders. The goal of our company was more than to welcome potential customers but also and convince customers to switch to a different page builder, the tools that they worked using. This is not an easy feat. It's been an ongoing problem, however this difficult element is precisely what I enjoy about marketing so much.

Q4: What surprised you while coming up in the WordPress world?

I had the impression that I understood WordPress to the max, after using it on my own websites for many years. When I began working on Elementor and Elementor I realised that I had no idea regarding how WordPress community operated and the best way to be influential within. If you're a manager of a WordPress business, being fully integrated as well as being part of the community won't be the easy task you believe. It's not just about going to WordCamps.

In contrast to the more homogeneous community such as the design or marketing community, WordPressers are an eclectic group. From beginners, to developers with a passion to users of blogger You must ensure that your products cater to many different users, and you need to understand what personality each of the people interacts with has a connection to and modify your communication and language skills according to. In the event that you take into account the fact that a lot of WordPress communities are closed circuited making launching your new product even harder. Being a part of the existing community or establishing your own requires an enormous amount of effort. However, like we've seen this, it's essential to grow your WordPress established business.

It's crucial to point out how great the benefits are of the WordPress community as well. The community was full of support coming from all sides of the equation From Podcasters like Lee Jackson and Kim Doyal to developers like Josh Pollock, and everybody who was one of the first users to embrace WordPress and helped us in the first few days of.

Q5: What do you think the future look like for you in the WordPress world?

At Elementor we're playing the long run, and our objectives are high. In the near future it will be likely to allow Elementor to expand beyond the level of an individual page to the complete WordPress designing and development phase of our website. It's already happening with our Nav Menu release It is anticipated to expand more in the coming years.

Question 6: What do you need to consider when selecting the most reliable WordPress hosting provider?

Together with Elementor I also handle my own website assets. I am a webmaster with over 10 years experience dealing with hosting service providers. It is this feature I believe to be to be the most important:

Regular backups, HTTPS and HTTP/2 support the fastest servers, secure FTP access, unlimited storage space, expert support servers that are close to my public CDN over a wide range of locations.

Q7: What activities do you enjoy when you're not at your laptop?

I've been involved in Improv theatre and would like that I can return when my children grow older (ages 1, 4, and 4; I am focusing on them right now). I am a huge fan of great films (Lost In Translation) and great television series (Fargo Season 3) along with stand-up comics (Bill Burr) and fantastic books (Artist and Margarite). My passion is writing and I'm currently trying to write not only to the Elementor blog, but also for other blogs.

Q8: Who do we planning to talk with next & why?

Brian Jackson

Brian is an avid user for WordPress and has been using the platform for more than a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian loves blogs, movies and hiking. You can follow Brian via Twitter.

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