Bari, Jewel, and Jones: The Faces Behind Monster Award’s Plugin Triumph

A few people stand out as creators of innovative WordPress plugins, creating solutions that go beyond the ordinary. Today, we're getting to know Shahjahan Jewel, Dean Jones, and Syed Sazzadul Bari, winners of the Monster's Award.

CEO & Head of Ideas at WPManageNinja, Shahjahan Jewel is behind "Paymattic - WordPress Payment and Donation" and "WP Social Ninja," a compact social media plugin for entrepreneurs, business agencies, marketers, bloggers, and influencers. Jewel's commitment to user-centric development and serial entrepreneurship shines through in award-winning plugins like Fluent Forms, FluentCRM, and Fluent Support. Jewel's passion for WordPress shines through both in his coding and his active participation in tech forums.

➡️ Go to Paymattic and WP Social Ninja

The Partnerships Marketing Manager at onTheGoSystems, Dean Jones, is one of those creative minds behind WPML, a plugin that makes over a million WordPress sites multilingual. As part of his role, he helps onTheGoSystems reach the right audiences with its software products through strategic partner relations. WPML combines corporate power and simplicity for blogs, demonstrating Dean's commitment to bridging language gaps and increasing WordPress' global reach.

➡️ Go to WPML

Syed Sazzadul Bari, the creator of "Legal Pages" and "Directorist – WordPress Business Directory Plugin with Classified Ads Listings," joins them in the winner's circle. A marketing geek, Sazzadul Bari crafts compelling brand narratives and leads innovative marketing campaigns. With his deep understanding of consumer behavior and eye for emerging trends, he can orchestrate impactful marketing initiatives that drive results and make businesses better.

➡️ Go to Legal Pages and Directorist

We will explore the minds of these WordPress plugin pioneers in the upcoming interview, unearthing their strategies, challenges, and visions that have left their mark on the industry. Join us for an enlightening conversation about Monster's award-winning plugins.

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WPManageNinja Presented by Shahjahan Jewel

Shahjahan Jewel, the CEO & Head of Ideas at WPManageNinja, isn't just a developer; he's a user-centric visionary. As a WordPress enthusiast since 2009, Jewel has launched beloved plugins like Paymattic and WP Social Ninja, embodying a commitment to scalable solutions and user-focused development.

Paymattic

TemplateMonster: Can you share some innovative features that set Paymattic apart and make it an ideal choice for handling payments and donations? Maybe you can also share some standout use cases?

Shahjahan Jewel: What sets Paymattic apart from other plugins is its ability to give users the choice to make payments and donations through multiple payment gateways from a single payment form. And it’s easy to do so.

And the best thing about Paymattic is that you can conduct all of your payments and donations with only one plugin. It’s an all-in-one payment solution for any website.

TemplateMonster: How does Paymattic address the evolving needs and challenges of businesses and organizations regarding online transactions?

Shahjahan Jewel: While dealing with online transactions, the biggest challenge that a business faces is security issues. You can be confident that your payment is safe with Paymattic since it has multilayer security and spam protection features.

And a unique feature of a payment plugin that I should mention is the currency switcher. With this, users can select the currency they want to pay with right from the payment form. And it’s automated.

TemplateMonster: What did you do to make Paymattic seamless and user-friendly for businesses and donors?

Shahjahan Jewel: We have improved the UI of Paymattic and introduced a drag-and-drop style editor to make Paymattic easy and user-friendly.

Users can easily input form fields using a forward slash (/) just like in the WordPress editor. The forms are auto-saved in the plugin as you work on them. Paymattic shows instant previews of a form while giving you the ease of adding the form with shortcodes. And the final output is mobile responsive without any extra effort.

TemplateMonster: Integrating payment plugins can be tricky. Is there anything you can tell me about the technical aspects of Paymattic? Have you had any particular challenges or breakthroughs?

Shahjahan Jewel: Firstly, it was extremely difficult to combine all the payment gateways into a single channel while providing a way for third-party developers to develop and integrate their payment plugins with Paymattic.

After solving that, came the API complexity. Each payment gateway has different API standards and protocols. Integrating each of them was a huge challenge.

Then, there was the Subscription Feature dilemma. Being able to sync real-time transactions was no easy feat. We had to code the way out. While syncing the payments on the client's site, we were able to track real-time data from payment gateways.

Maintaining payment security is the biggest task for us. And our team members are doing their best in this arena. There's not even been a single data breach from Paymattic.

TemplateMonster: How does Paymattic ensure security and compliance in handling sensitive payment information?

Shahjahan Jewel: Paymattic doesn’t compromise anything when the question is about security. It doesn’t even collect the payment credentials of the users. It’s end-to-end encrypted.

For security, we do different levels of validation before updating transaction data so that no payment-related data gets compromised by any third party.

It complies with all the top-notch security measures of a global payment solution, such as PCI DSS compliance, data encryption, Security Socket Layer (SSL), Secure Electronic Transaction (SET), Tokenization, 3D Secure 2.0, and more.

TemplateMonster: What exciting updates can users expect from Paymattic? Are there upcoming features that you believe will set Paymattic apart in the dynamic plugin landscape?

Shahjahan Jewel: Paymattic has a very proactive team, introducing surprising features in almost every update.

We are planning some exciting features, such as Donor Leaderboard, PDF Invoice, and User Dashboard. I hope the new features will add more value for our users.

WP Social Ninja

TemplateMonster: Why is WP Social Ninja a go-to marketing solution for WordPress users? And what makes it stand out among similar products?

Shahjahan Jewel: Firstly, WP Social Ninja is an all-in-one social media marketing solution for WordPress. One plugin can integrate social feeds, and business reviews, and connect chat widgets under a single subscription.

WP Social Ninja lets its users collaborate with 30+ popular social media platforms including Testimonial and Notification Popup. A user can have zero technical knowledge and still use this plugin to its full potential.

TemplateMonster: How does WP Social Ninja ensure compatibility with various social media platforms and different website architectures?

Shahjahan Jewel: Our plugin was constructed using an advanced and well-structured architectural process. It allows each widget to operate independently. Only that platform and its assets will run when a specific platform is enabled. Users can run the plugin without conflicting with any theme because we maintain the WordPress plugin guidelines, such as unique Prefixes to ensure theme compatibility issues.

To avoid rendering on multiple pages, we ensure a smooth Script enqueue. We defend and solve third-party caching plugin issues. However, we have provided the widgets integration with other popular page builders.

TemplateMonster: Did you face any challenges during development or come up with any unique solutions?

Shahjahan Jewel: Certainly! At first, we started as a review plugin with a relatively simpler architecture. Soon, we started to get more feature requests from our customers. But it was not aligned with our primary structure, and we got face-to-face with one of our biggest challenges.

To address this challenge, we built a stronger architecture that provides access to multiple features from a single dashboard. We have thus eliminated the need for multiple plugins.

TemplateMonster: Can you share any success stories or user feedback highlighting WP Social Ninja's positive impact on social media marketing strategies?

Shahjahan Jewel: Before we say anything, let us share a review: “I have tested other social plugins; most were bloated. WP Social Ninja is feature-rich, well-thought-out, and lightweight. It just works! Templates are easy to set up, and you can do almost anything with a bit of CSS. The process allowed me to replace 3 other plugins. Quick and thorough support is a bonus."

This review sums up our philosophy and motto so well. We have aimed to build a plugin that matches any business's brand voice, and users can implement their marketing strategies without any technical difficulties.

TemplateMonster: Are there any specific shortcomings or gaps in existing solutions that WP Social Ninja aims to address?

Shahjahan Jewel: Marketing is an ever-changing landscape, and WP Social Ninja is committed to coping with the changes to come. However, we are currently working on improving our user onboarding process and smoothening the UI/UX to the next level.

TemplateMonster: From a business perspective, how do you make sure WP Social Ninja provides a compelling and competitive marketing solution?

Shahjahan Jewel: Besides making our product feature-rich, we have thoroughly considered the audience's perception. WP Social Ninja is so lightweight, and it won’t slow down your site. Its deep styling/customization options let business owners build pages that match their brand voice.

Moreover, this plugin can easily integrate with popular page builders, support shortcodes, be responsive to all devices, and provide premium customer support. We ensure that our customers never fall behind the competition.

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WPML Presented by Dean Jones

Dean Jones - as the Partnerships Marketing Manager at onTheGoSystems, Dean is responsible for ensuring that the company's software products reach the right eyes and ears through strategic partner relations in the WordPress ecosystem and beyond.

TemplateMonster: Are there any key features that make WPML a powerful tool for building multilingual websites, both for corporate websites and blogs?

WPML is versatile and suitable for both simple blogs and complex corporate sites. It offers manual translation, automatic translation, and professional translation modes. Its major advantage is compatibility with popular themes and plugins, including ACF Multilingual and WooCommerce Multilingual, plus add-ons for advanced users like WP GraphQL and ElasticPress support.

TemplateMonster: What tools and features does WPML offer to ensure accurate and efficient translation workflows?

WPML includes a Translation Dashboard for an overview and easy management of translations. It supports automatic background translation with its Translate Everything mode. For accuracy, WPML offers a choice among DeepL, Google, and Azure translation services, supports glossaries and formality settings, and has a Translation Memory for efficiency.

TemplateMonster: As a multilingual plugin, what do you believe sets WPML apart from its competitors in terms of functionality, adaptability, and user experience?

WPML is feature-rich and affordable, covering a wide range of use cases. With over 1.5 million commercial WordPress sites using WPML, we focus on stability, security, compatibility, and performance. WPML is the de facto technology for multilingual WordPress, so almost all major theme and plugin authors ensure compatibility with us, and we actively work on compatibility and integration with many authors.

TemplateMonster: In terms of SEO, how does WPML ensure that websites maintain visibility and ranking across different language versions?

With WPML, clients need to pay very little attention to multilingual SEO. If you do the SEO in the original language and use WPML’s glossary for major SEO terms, you’re all set. WPML will take care of all the technicalities. WPML automatically adds hreflang tags and allows URL formatting for SEO strategies. It's compatible with major SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math. 

TemplateMonster: WPML serves a diverse global user base. In what ways does the plugin cater to the cultural and linguistic nuances of different regions, and what localization efforts are underway?

Clients can set up custom languages, to have localized versions of their site per language. For example, you can have a website with different Spanish content for Spain and Chile. Our integration with WooCommerce allows for a truly localized shop experience. WPML clients set up online shops with different languages, multiple currencies, pricing, and payment gateways per country. Many expensive enterprise e-commerce solutions don’t offer this flexibility. We offer support in 9 languages so that our clients can get quick and friendly technical assistance, in their language and timezone. And, of course, WPML’s interface is fully translated into 15 languages.

TemplateMonster: In upcoming releases, what exciting developments or features can WPML users look forward to? Do you have any hints about the direction WPML is heading in to meet the evolving needs of its users?

We’re in constant contact with our clients, to know what they like, are missing, and don’t like. In January alone we’ve interviewed more than 140 clients. Upcoming releases include UI/UX improvements, enhanced translation workflow, and performance improvements. We’re also always working on better integrations. Very soon we’re releasing a new addon that will improve multilingual exporting/importing and translation workflows for slider plugins.

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Legal Pages & Directorist Presented by Syed Sazzadul Bari

Syed Sazzadul Bari, a passionate marketing geek who loves to craft compelling brand narratives and spearheading innovative marketing campaigns. His profound understanding of consumer behaviour, combined with a keen eye for emerging trends, enables him to orchestrate impactful marketing initiatives that drive tangible results and propel organizations to new heights.

Legal Pages

TemplateMonster: For users who may not be familiar with programming or legal terms, how does Legal Pages simplify the process of creating essential legal documents? 

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Legal Pages simplifies the creation of essential legal documents for WordPress users, removing the requirement for programming or legal expertise. With user-friendly interfaces and pre-designed templates, it guides users through each stage to generate legally compliant content, such as Privacy Policies and Terms of Service. This enables website owners to effortlessly meet legal obligations and effectively communicate critical information to users.

TemplateMonster: How do Legal Pages allow users to customize the templates to suit their specific business models and services?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Legal Pages offers a diverse range of meticulously crafted templates, meticulously designed to seamlessly integrate with your unique business requirements. Whether you opt to tailor them before or after integration, our platform empowers you with the flexibility to customize and refine legal documents, ensuring precise alignment with your business operations while upholding regulatory compliance standards.

TemplateMonster: Based on general settings, the plugin automatically applies personal and site information to legal page templates. In what ways does this automation feature help create legally compliant pages more efficiently and accurately? 

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Consistency: Ensures consistent application of personal and site information across all legal pages, reducing the risk of discrepancies.

1. Saves time by eliminating the need to manually enter repetitive information, resulting in a quicker and more efficient creation process.
2. Simple updates: This makes it easier to update information on the site or your profile. Users can make changes in the general settings, and the automation feature will reflect those changes across all relevant legal pages.
3. Reduced Errors: Minimizes the possibility of errors that may occur during manual data entry, contributing to the accuracy and reliability of the legal documents. 

TemplateMonster: The Pro version boasts additional features, including 29 legal page templates and the ability to display a customizable EU cookie agreement notice. For those who choose to upgrade, how do these premium features improve their user experience and legal compliance?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: The 29 additional legal page templates provide users with a broader range of options to choose from, catering to various business models and needs. This diversity ensures that users can select templates that best suit their specific legal requirements

• Ability to show a very beautiful and customized EU-cookie agreement notice button. You can decide how to show the cookie agreement to the user.
• You can show a cookie agreement bar anywhere on the page.
• You can also show cookie notices as popups.
• Ability to show any type of popups with legal messages to the user.
• Ability to lock down any content, page, or post using this plugin and allow users to view a certain content page or post after they accept any terms and conditions you made

TemplateMonster: What types of websites or businesses would benefit most from the advanced capabilities offered in the Pro version of Legal Pages?

• E-commerce Websites
• Affiliate Marketing Websites
• Blogs and Content Platforms
• Membership and Subscription Websites
• Multinational or EU-Focused Websites
• Startups and Growing Businesses
• Many more…

TemplateMonster: According to the plugin's description, its codes follow the best coding practices for WordPress. Would you be able to elaborate on the security measures implemented by Legal Pages to ensure the protection of user data and compliance with WordPress standards?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: We followed all the recommendations by WordPress such as: 

• Nonce validation 
• Sanitization 
• Validation 
• Escaping 
• User capability check before performing any administrative tasks 
• Manage compatibility with the last PHP and WP

Directorist

TemplateMonster: How does the plugin cater to a wide range of directory websites, such as local business directories, car directories, booking directories, job portals, and more?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: We do have every essential feature for making almost any kind of directory. These features are: 

• User listing submission
• Search and filtering
• Author profile
• Map integration
• Earning money by transferring/selling ownership
• Business hours, messaging and chat, notification system, and many more

TemplateMonster: Can you provide examples of unique and successful directory websites built using Directorist?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: You can find them from the link https://directorist.com/customers/

TemplateMonster: There is a strong emphasis on creating directories without writing code in the plugin. How user-friendly is Directorist for individuals with limited technical expertise, and are there intuitive features that simplify the process of setting up and managing a directory?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: The Directorist plugin prioritizes user-friendly directory creation, offering a seamless drag-and-drop interface. This intuitive tool streamlines directory setup, catering to users without technical skills. With its user-centric design, it simplifies the process of customizing directories to align with diverse business needs.

TemplateMonster: Directorist claims to be able to handle millions of listings. What optimization strategies or features does the plugin employ to ensure a dynamic user experience, especially as the number of listings grows?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Honestly speaking, Directorist is optimized for handling extensive listings by utilizing efficient data storage in a structured table format. Its codebase incorporates standard caching and lazy loading techniques, ensuring swift performance. Assets are automatically minimized, enhancing speed. Additionally, we leverage the REST API for specific functionalities. Currently, we're focused on scaling up to accommodate multi-millions of data by segregating directory types into dedicated data tables.

TemplateMonster: It is claimed that Directorist is compatible with all popular WordPress themes. How does this compatibility contribute to the seamless integration of the plugin with existing websites?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Directorist boasts seamless compatibility with all popular WordPress themes, ensuring effortless integration with existing websites. Our meticulous adherence to plugin development standards, particularly in HTML and CSS, enables our codebase to seamlessly adapt to any theme. Extensive testing since 2018 validates this compatibility, guaranteeing a smooth and hassle-free experience for users across various WordPress themes.

TemplateMonster: Integration with external tools or APIs can enhance directory website functionality. How does the Directorist support integration with third-party tools, services, or APIs, and what benefits does this integration bring to users?

Syed Sazzadul Bari: Integration with external tools or APIs can significantly enhance the functionality of a directory website. Directorist supports seamless integration with third-party tools, services, and APIs, bolstering its capabilities for users. Through its native Android and iOS apps built on a Rest API foundation, Directorist provides a plethora of read-write APIs. These APIs empower users to effortlessly integrate various third-party applications, enhancing the overall experience and functionality of the platform.

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Final Words

We've barely scratched the surface of the innovative journeys of Shahjahan Jewel, Dean Jones, and Syed Sazzadul Bari, behind Monster's award-winning plugins. Whether it's making websites multilingual or creating business directories, these creators have left an indelible mark on WordPress.

This series will continue with a deep dive into the strategies, challenges, and future visions of other WordPress product makers.