Making Money Making Plugins

[Jeffro]

To coexist with the big article I wrote here http://www.wptavern.com/making-money...in-development I wanted to pose the same question Mike Schinkle asked on the mailing list to see what you guys and gals came up with.

How can a plugin author generate a revenue stream to support his efforts that doesn’t require him or her to constantly do client-focused consulting and instead better target the needs of the general plugin user? If we could come up with a community-acceptable way that can generate real income for plugin developers w/o retarding the open-source aspects that make the WP community so vibrant and valuable, this could benefit most on the hacker’s list, no?

[itsananderson]

I've always thought plugins with really big "donate here" buttons were a little corny. I don't have a problem with a donate button, but it shouldn't take up half the page. Of course, some of the developers of the most popular plugins said they don't make much from donations, so maybe that's why some people make them so big.

If people start putting ads into their themes, I'll probably just remove them. Not that I don't want to support the plugin authors, but I don't want their ads in my aministration area!

I always kinda thought the best way to make money from your plugins would be to provide "VIP support" or something. Installing and customizing is something most people probably couldn't do, but a plugin developer probably has the know how.

Having never tried to monetize a plugin though, I can only talk about my theories. Some interesting discussion has come out of the mailing list and I look forward to seeing where it goes.

[Jeffro]

Well, based on my interpretation of the discussion that took place on the list, the majority of people pretty much summed up that strictly trying to make a living developing WordPress plugins is an impossibility. If you don't plan on making money any other way, you're not going to get very far. It's like trying to have your cake and eat it to.

[Kit]

Generally speaking, when a big company creates a product, it is not the product itself that brings in the most money. It's the accessories or upgrades.

Examples:

• For drills it's the fancy/multi-use drill bits.
• For general power tools it's the extension cord.
• For cars it's the fancy rims, leather seats, "matching" keychain, etc.
• For the Ped Egg it's the replacement blades and the emery pads.
• For Corningware the money is in the Lids!
• For vacuum cleaners it's the replacement parts, the bags, and the smelly-good stuff to put in the bags.

So going by what the big guys do, I would think that the money for developers would be in the areas of

• "hands-on" services (like IT & individual coaching)
• consulting & training (tele-siminars and e-classes)
• information products

All of these would relate to the plugins or the principles behind the plugin i.e. seo, podcasting, etc. IMO, the key is to harness their knowledge on a particular subject and sell that in a variety of ways. The plugin itself would just be a visible sign of their expertise on the topic.

Is this making any sense?

[andrea_r]

And IME, it's the add-ons aside from the plugins themselves that people really don't mind paying for. They want support, they want to ask questions, and they ARE willing to pay.

[vsellis]

Interesting discussion. The same essential problem seems to exist for plugin developer as for theme developers. If you adhere to the GPL there is a good chance that revenue from sales of the theme or plugin may not last very long or ever amount to enough to make a living. Currently it does (in themes anyway) for a few but what people are really paying for is the support and upgrades which brings me to my point, and one I've been pondering for a long time.

How does one make money (at least a very good living) through WordPress without doing "services" work? Services is by default not scalable unless you are starting a larger services firm. Yet productization is inherently doomed because they are free to redistribute your source code at will, for a fee or not.

Potential Options:
1. Charge for upgrades (still not scalable since those upgrades may be redistributed)
2. Sell related products (infoproducts, graphics sets, ...)
???? ideas ????

This is the one aspect of WordPress that bothers me. While it's the GPL that made it all possible and keeps it free, it also binds us to "services" work to make that living. Further, it binds us to services work in a community where people are used to getting a lot for free. I just wish there was an alternative or happy medium.

[vsellis]

Sidebar, Last night I posted something I hope will get some momentum. I'm trying to encourage a small movement to get people to make a donation $5 to their favorite plugin/plugin developer on March 1st.

http://www.vsellis.com/4sg

I posted it on my site and hope we'll all spread the word. Plugin dev's make a lot of things possible for those that use WP and it would be nice if we could at least say thanks. It won't make any of them rich but I'll be they'll appreciate it.

BTW.. I am not a plugin developer so this is not intended to benefit me, I just felt like doing a good deed for a community that has provided me with a lot.

[andrea_r]

Turn the service into a product. :)

I'm trying to encourage a small movement to get people to make a donation $5 to their favorite plugin/plugin developer on March 1st.

I'm always up for that. :)

[chipbennett]

Turn the service into a product. :)

I'm trying to encourage a small movement to get people to make a donation $5 to their favorite plugin/plugin developer on March 1st.

I'm always up for that. :)

I had an idea a while back, about creating a plugin that:

1) Modified the Manage Plugins page, to drop in a DONATE link/button for each plugin for which the link was configured in readme.txt
2) Provided a DONATE ALL (or DONATE SELECTED) button
3) Configured an optional recurring donating for individual, selected, or all plugins

I suggested that one of the e-commerce plugin authors might have a vested interest in setting up this kind of plugin... but it never got any traction.

Maybe I could get the ball rolling, and try to write the plugin that at least pulls in the DONATE link into the plugins table on the Manage Plugins page...

[carlhancock]

Well, based on my interpretation of the discussion that took place on the list, the majority of people pretty much summed up that strictly trying to make a living developing WordPress plugins is an impossibility. If you don't plan on making money any other way, you're not going to get very far. It's like trying to have your cake and eat it to.

If it was impossible, we wouldn't be doing it.

If you rely on service work for income you are dooming yourself to a life of client work and a business model that doesn't scale.

WordPress themes AND plugins can be monetized and turned into products. There is a thriving commercial theme market and a growing commercial plugin market that has already proven that the business model works and is profitable.

Whoever says it doesn't work 1) Hasn't tried it OR 2) Didn't execute well and failed at marketing it.