A "Support-Based" Business Model

[Michelle L]

Hi, I'm currently working on a newspaper theme framework that I plan to release for free. However, I plan to charge a yearly fee for support (inspired by what Justin Tadlock does with Hybrid). I also plan to develop child themes for my framework and sell those. Even though they will all be 100% GPL, I won't offer support to those who acquire a theme without purchasing it.

How well does this type of model work? Anyone who's experienced have any insights on things I should know?

[Ipstenu]

As a USER of Justin's model, I would say it works great for ME.

[Michelle L]

Well that's great to know. :) What do you like about Justin's model, from a user's standpoint?

[BrianK]

Well I would say the success of a support based business would depend on the "quality of support / price for support" ratio. Justin provides extremely high quality support (answers questions quickly, even dumb ones..., has extensive knowledge of his platform and wordpress, etc.) for an extremely high quality framework. He happens to provide all this great support at a very reasonable price ($25, especially when you compare it to $50 - $100 or more for premium themes - and his is a flexible framework). I'm not sure what I'd consider a good score for this ratio, but the point is to just know your potential to provide great support and price accordingly.

I do like your idea about charging for child themes. I would pay $5 - $30 for a child theme based on complexity if I knew it was on the framework I like and someone else can execute the look I'm going for better than me.

[Michelle L]

That's some good info, BrianK, thanks.

[andrea_r]

Charging for support is awesome. :) I do know of a few commercial themes that just charge for code and do not offer much in the way of support. :-/

Excellent support means happy customers. Happy customers send more business.

Support tip: if you get the same questions over and over, that means the docs (which some people DO read, just not near as many as you'd think) need to be improved. ;)