Katie Keith on Plugins, Data, and Island Life

Send us Fan Mail An unexpected conversation with a British expat who's very plugged into the WordPress world. Katie Keith, co-founder of a web design and WordPress plugin business, shares her journey and experiences in an interview with Bud. The conversation starts with her recounting how she met her husband at Sheffield University, transitioning from friends to partners despite their geographical differences. Katie's academic background in English and philosophy did not directly correlate with her career. However, it helped her develop transferable skills in research, writing, and analysis, eventually landing her a role as a technical writer and various other positions before moving into the WordPress space.Throughout the interview, Katie highlights her and her husband's decision to start their own web design business in 2009, a move influenced by their discontent with their rigid corporate jobs. They began offering web design services to local businesses, eventually focusing on WordPress specialization. By 2016, they started transitioning from service-based work to developing their own WordPress plugins, optimizing their business by selling lower-performing plugins and concentrating on their best sellers.Katie's fascination with data is evident as she discusses how it influenced their business decisions, such as optimizing Black Friday marketing strategies and recognizing the need to divest less successful products. Her data-driven approach allowed for better resource allocation and profitability. Katie also shares her personal life in Mallorca, Spain, where she and her family have settled, taking advantage of the flexible lifestyle that their online business affords.Katie delves into her various roles and the difference she made in sectors like fostering and adoption, where she applied her marketing acumen to help find homes for children. She worked with her father, a former TV producer, on innovative projects to aid this cause, emphasizing the importance of emotional connections in adoption processes. Lastly, she talks about her enjoyment of paddleboarding, her preference for tropical islands like Seychelles and Mauritius, and her adjustments to living among a German expat community in Mallorca.Bud caps the interview by asking Keith for recommendations on future guests and touches on her plans for attending upcoming WordPress events. Katie suggests inviting Alex Standiford, who is making significant strides in the WordPress plugin world. The interview concludes with Katie reflecting on her affinity for Europe and her enjoyment of the flexibility her career affords her, allowing her to live and work from beautiful places like Mallorca.