Katie found the idea for her first plugin, WooCommerce Protected Categories, by browsing the WooCommerce ideas forum — a public voting board where users requested features. She picked one of the most-voted ideas that had no existing solution, built the plugin, and launched it as the only product in the market solving that problem. As a marketer, Katie immediately began publishing blog posts and tutorials targeting the exact search queries her potential customers were using — specifically "how to password protect categories in WooCommerce." Because the plugin was unique and the content was genuinely helpful with no competition, the site ranked at the top of Google quickly and she made her first sales within a few days of publishing. Organic search was the primary acquisition channel from the very start. Her second plugin, Post Table Pro, came from a client project she was already working on. She built features into it and released it as a premium plugin, demonstrating that her early user acquisition was tied directly to her existing expertise and client work rather than paid marketing or outreach.
Barn2 Plugins
Portfolio of 19 WordPress plugins and 1 Shopify app for WooCommerce stores
9 moves, in order
- Pre launch / Idea ValidationCommunity forums
Researched the WooCommerce Ideas Forum to find a highly-voted feature request with no existing plugin solution. Selected WooCommerce Protected Categories as the first product specifically because it was uncontested.
Identified a validated, gap-in-market idea before writing a single line of code - Launch / First SalesSEO — blog content
Published blog posts and tutorials targeting the exact search queries potential customers were using, e.g. 'how to password protect categories in WooCommerce.' Content was genuinely helpful and unique, matching the uniqueness of the plugin itself.
Ranked #1 on Google immediately; first sales within a few days of publishing - Early Growth – Product 2Client work to product
Took a feature built for a client project, expanded it, and released it as a standalone premium plugin (Post Table Pro). Listened to early users of Plugin 1 for feature requests that became new plugin ideas.
Launched second plugin organically; established pattern for all future product ideation - Scaling – Portfolio SEOSEO — blog content
Continued producing genuinely helpful, unique content covering a wide range of use cases related to each plugin across the growing portfolio. Made this the core and consistent acquisition strategy across all 20 products.
Organic search became and remained the #1 source of customers across all plugins - Monetization – Cross sell InfrastructureEmail marketing
Built cross-promotion into the post-purchase flow: 3 days after purchase, sent an email offering 50% off a closely related plugin. Segmented email list so existing customers received targeted recommendations relevant to what they already owned.
Multiple sales per customer; lifetime value increase across 17,000+ active subscribers - Seasonality – Black Friday CampaignsEmail marketing
Ran separate Black Friday email campaigns for new prospects vs. existing customers. For existing customers, used messaging like 'discount off your next plugin' to drive upsells. Timed higher-revenue months (November) strategically.
November identified as peak revenue month; Black Friday campaigns drove meaningful upsell conversions - Ongoing – In Product Cross PromotionIn product upsell
Added banners on plugin settings pages inside WordPress dashboards pointing to complementary plugins. Also added cross-linking between products in documentation pages and on the website.
Passive, always-on upsell channel requiring no ongoing effort after setup - Scaling – BundlesProduct bundling
Created one standalone plugin and two plugin bundles that package complementary plugins together. Each individual product page features a selected closely-related plugin as a recommended upsell.
Bundling and upsell pairings increased average order value and cross-product adoption - Lifetime – Portfolio ScaleCompounding portfolio
Continued repeating the cycle: listen to existing users for new plugin ideas, build the new plugin as a standalone product, market it independently, then integrate it into cross-promotion flows for the existing customer base. Beta-tested new products with existing customers.
$9.8M lifetime revenue; 90,000+ sites using premium plugins; $1.8M ARR across 20 productsMRR $150k Users 17k users
Katie had a background as a marketer and was already building WordPress/WooCommerce websites for clients, giving her deep insider knowledge of user pain points and gaps in the plugin ecosystem. This let her identify underserved ideas and write authoritative SEO content that ranked quickly.
organic_seo
Katie implicitly noted that building random apps for different, unrelated customer segments was the wrong approach — when she did this, she didn't benefit from cross-promotion or compounding audience effects. She contrasted this with her successful strategy of building multiple apps for the same customer base.
I Make $150K/Month From 20 Tiny Apps
Data Fetcher
Airtable extension that connects and auto-syncs external APIs into your database
Sync2Sheets
Google Sheets add-on that syncs Notion databases into spreadsheets
Neuro
Functional energy gum and mints for focus and performance