Lawrence Ip is an Australian web developer. He owns a website-building agency named no-code.au, built with Dorik. It’s marked as a membership site platform for the Australian market. Dorik helped him create and manage websites for his agency more easily and quickly. He has been using Dorik for the last 3 years and has 5 active business websites. 

It All Started As a Hobby Business

Lawrence Ip has been in the hospitality industry for most of his life. But in 2009, he decided to shift his career. He found passion in the world of website development and started playing around with WordPress and Google AdWords. He had a bit of success with that.

Around 2015, he started creating a few sites for people using WordPress. Gradually, he realized that WordPress wasn’t the perfect platform for him. The complexity of WordPress was killing his peace of mind and destroying his productivity. He also tried Bootstrap, but it could not satisfy him. 

I got a little bit sick and tired of that as well, too.

Lawrence

So, a couple of years ago, he was looking at some alternatives to WordPress, and he got interested in Tailwind. 

During his Google search for Tailwind Builders, he found Dorik, luckily. Dorik seems to be the sea of opportunity to him. So, he analyzed the platform and decided to partner with Dorik to grow his business. 

I was looking for a solution that could offer a different stack of services or different flexibility beyond the WordPress stack, and not looking for e-commerce, are looking for really for something that is more content-driven, more creator-driven because that’s where the space is going. So yeah, I found Dorik, and I haven’t looked back.

Lawrence

Why Did He Leave WordPress?

Lawrence left WordPress because it is very complex to use and manage. Websites built with WordPress load slowly. Even the plugins may conflict with one another if updated.

WordPress is heavily database-driven; it’s slow, it’s clunky, it has a tendency to break, and too many dependencies for the platform itself.

Lawrence

As a developer, Lawrence sometimes builds sites for his clients who have a little or no technical knowledge. It becomes a challenging job for those people to handle their websites after the delivery. It creates customer dissatisfaction. As a result, the customer retention rate may also be decreased. So, Lawrence moved from WordPress to Dorik for a better and smoother business expansion as he always prioritizes his customers. 

It’s about not just myself, but if I’m going to sell the product, or I’m going to build a site for someone and hand it over to them, I want them to be able to work on it with the minimal amount of support.  

Lawrence

Pricing was another prime factor for Lawrence to leave WordPress. 

Dorik’s unbelievable pricing plans grabbed his attention. It inspired him to try the product.

I was actually a bit suspicious at first. The pricing seemed too good to be true. But I tried the product. I’m like, this is amazing. And, of course, Dorik has grown and developed over the last three years. It’s a very, very mature offering.

Lawrence

For WordPress, he had to spend thousands of bucks to purchase different premium plugins and themes. Consequently, the cost per site becomes high, which is sometimes not affordable for startups and solo entrepreneurs. 

I have spent over $20,000 on WordPress plugins, themes, developer licenses etc. But I haven’t touched them for a couple of years.

Lawrence

Why Did He Choose Dorik, and How Did Dorik Help Him to Achieve His Goal?

Lawrence chose Dorik because of its low learning curve. He tried many other website builders like WordPress, Wix, Duda, Dora, etc., but got frustrated for multiple reasons. There was no one-fit-to-all solution. But Dorik offered him what he was looking for. 

I am talking about WordPress with the Guttenberg editor; it had a long way to go when it came to reducing complications, even with Wix. WordPress is nothing against Wix. A lot of people love it. But I find it an absolute disaster. I find Webflow just way too complicated. I’ve tried the likes of Duda.

Lawrence

Lawrence started using Dorik to avoid too many technical issues. 

For me, that’s what it’s about. And not having the roadblocks of awkward technical issues or an awkward tech stack that people can’t use or they can use but frustrates them. It’s about being able to have a platform for me as well that I can offer to people that I use myself, that they can bring their ideas to life. 

Lawrence

As a web developer, Lawrence primarily focused on gaining more customers. But how? Here, Dorik comes with its unique features. He convinced his customers by saying that they didn’t have to purchase or install a single plugin. 

You don’t have any of those headaches of plugins, which was the number one selling point for me. 

Lawrence

What is His Favorite Feature in Dorik?

Lawrence loves Dorik’s user-friendly Block Editor. It’s super easy to learn and use. 

Dorik comes out on top for me every time. It’s pretty easy to learn. I say to people if you can use Word, and if you can use PowerPoint, you can use Dorik. 

Lawrence

Dorik’s Membership feature is his most favorite. He is using this feature to establish his own business and community. 

And I’m focusing on the membership side of it. So I’m looking – my offer is exactly what – it’s a tweak on what Dorik offers. So, instead of marking it as an all-in-one solution, I’m marking it as a membership site model, which Dorik is perfectly set up for, for digital products, their gated content, that type of thing. And the majority of users who are looking at changing careers or want a side business, something that’s affordable, something that’s easy to learn, something they can do. It could be knitting patterns. It could be recipes. It could be – there are so many different niches it can work for. 

Lawrence

Plus, the JSON file import option is another point of attraction. 

I really like the fact that Dorik is able to import from Substack and WordPress and a couple of other platforms as well. So the whole JSON thing, the import, is a real boon for not just DoriK but for someone like myself who is at this stage a solopreneur who is really keen on building community.

Lawrence

What is His Ultimate Goal?

Lawrence aspires to create the best membership website builder in Australia. 

Well, my intention is to be the number one membership site builder in Australia.  

Lawrence

Considering this ambition, Lawrence is working hard establishing his own brand. He has recently rejected an excellent job to make his dream come true. 

I was offered a job or position with the company about four weeks ago. It was a great offer, and I decided to go against that because I look at what I’ve built, what I want to do with what I’ve built, the community I want to build, and how I want to help people achieve their objectives using DoriK as my platform of choice. So, yeah, that’s it there. 

Lawrence

Lawrence is hopeful that he can reach his ultimate goal with Dorik. 

You guys are wonderful, and the product’s wonderful, and thank you so much for bringing Dorik to life and continuing to develop it with the dedication that you have. It’s been amazing.

Lawrence.