🚪How Afique grew to 3000 users with his component library
The No-Code Story of Afique and Skelementor
Hello there,
Katt here. Welcome to 240 new subscribers.
I did something terrible.
The no-code product of this week is built with… Wordpress.
Wait wait, don’t leave yet. Hear me out.
I have a Wordpress trauma too.
But Abdullah was so passionate…
He shared some Wordpress tools I didn’t know yet.
And as Wordpress is still one of the most recommended tools for SEO
I thought it would be interesting to share…
Enjoy and happy building.
PS: missed the last interview? Read about the super fast exit story of Art and SaaSRefs.
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🔥 No-Code Founder Interview
Learn every week from a real world no-code success story
Hello! What's your background?
Hello, I am Afique. Based in the vibrant city of Dhaka, Bangladesh. I am currently in my 4th year of university and have a passion for tech & entrepreneurship that makes me navigate the tech world every day.
My journey started when I wanted to earn extra income. I began learning to code to create websites and do freelance work. Then, I came across WordPress. I was drawn to its powerful features and its extensive plugin marketplace. As I explored its features further, I found Elementor, a remarkable page builder for Wordpress.
Why Elementor?
Elementor is the most popular visual page builder for WordPress. It offers you a drag-and-drop possibility to build websites inside your WordPress pages, so you don’t need to know any code. Think of it as an alternative to Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow. You can create amazing-looking websites with Elementor without writing a single line of code.
Now, because it is a popular page builder, it has a huge community of users. It also has a rich ecosystem of plugins specifically made for Elementor to enhance your website creation journey. Users can mostly use these plugins for free from the Wordpress plugin marketplace.
How did you get your idea?
While working with Elementor and delivering websites to my clients I repeatedly found myself reusing the same layouts across multiple projects. It struck me that there had to be a more efficient way to leverage these layouts. This made me want to find a solution, so I looked for pre-made templates for WordPress.
The WordPress templates market is huge, with countless companies offering their templates online. But here's the twist: I couldn't find any templates that suited my needs for client projects. They were all too fancy, with loads of unnecessary styles and images. What I really wanted was something super minimal – just the barebones structure to kickstart my projects in minutes.
I envisioned that having layouts designed like wireframes would be incredibly beneficial for me. With such layouts, I wouldn't need to remove any excess styling or images whenever I utilize them to build websites. Additionally, I could easily apply my unique style based on each project's specific requirements on top of these clean foundations.
What happened next?
So I quickly created a few wireframe templates by taking inspiration from existing resources online and made a collection of templates that I could use myself. Next, I shared it with my friend Afnan (co-founder), who also used Elementor for website development, seeking feedback. He provided excellent feedback, mentioning that it improved his workflow. This encouraged me to think about how I could turn this idea into something others might also like.
Which no-code tools did you use?
One of the big challenge was figuring out how to share the templates with others on my website. Sending templates as files to my friend worked fine, but it didn't seem practical for end users. Plus, downloading and re-uploading files for use was a hassle and counterproductive to workflow. I needed to think of an efficient way to do it.
I discarded the idea of using templates as files, but I lacked the experience to build a web application capable of copying templates to their clipboard from Skelementor directly to users' websites within their browser tabs.
Thus, I began searching for no-code solutions to create my MVP. Fortunately, I came across Crocoblock, an additional no-code plugin compatible with WordPress and Elementor.
You can think of Crocoblock as a plugin that takes Elementor to the next level and allows you to build more logical features inside your Elementor website.
What went into building the initial version?
Crocoblock turned out to be the ideal plugin, providing me with all the necessary options to implement almost every feature I required. After hours of development, I managed to create a working MVP with just one feature: allowing users to copy templates to their clipboard with a single click and they could paste them into their Elementor editor in real-time.
I quickly purchased the domain Skelementor.com. The name came to mind as a play on words – my templates being the "Skeletons" and designed specifically for Elementor. I thought it sounded catchy and memorable, so I settled on the name quickly.
First, I showed the website to my friend and let him use it to check his response. He was very amazed and excited to see it working smoothly. The implementation was so good that it also helped me to convince him to team up as co-founder and we started working on the project together.
Afterward, I used Crocoblock to integrate more powerful features like filters, onboarding form and a visual feedback tool.
What is your business model?
Since we are focused on accumulating users by giving away our tool for free, we are not generating any revenue yet. We have been running on the freemium business model and have yet to launch a paid version of our tool. We are currently operating on our beta version and, behind the scenes working on improving our tool. It’s still in the pre-revenue phase and we are trying to catch as much feedback as possible.
How are you finding users?
We chose to share it with relevant communities to gather more feedback. We first shared it in the Crocoblock community, then in the broader Global Elementor community. The response was fantastic, with plenty of appreciation and valuable feedback. This quickly drove traffic to our website.
Our most thrilling moment occurred when content creators picked up our tool for a showcase and gave it a shoutout on their YouTube channel.
We are now at 3200 registered users. The traction involved little to no marketing so I am very excited to see how far we can go when we start doing marketing for real.
Some final words of advice?
1. Just building a valuable product isn't sufficient to attract visitors. We initially had no users for weeks until we began sharing our tool in relevant communities. You need a plan to generate traffic. While we were lucky to be featured in YouTube videos, we were very strategic with our approach. For instance, instead of posting on the Global Elementor Community ourselves, we had an Elementor employee post on our behalf, resulting in more traction and attention.
2. Get really good at using your no-code tools or stack. Skelementor only exists because I've spent years mastering the no-code tool like Wordpress & Elementor. Being good at it is key. Trying to build something complicated without the right skills would be tough. Plus, knowing your no-code tools well helps you think creatively, and you can come up with more complex business ideas and solutions.
3. Start working on SEO early. It's something I wish I'd done sooner. We've only recently started focusing on improving our SEO because we were so focused on perfecting our tool. But over time, I've realized how important SEO is for bringing in future visitors. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll attract potential users.
Thanks for sharing your story Afique, rooting for you!
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Being a reader of this newsletter and now becoming a featured story feels truly honorable. Thank you so much, Katt! 🙏