The wait is over for those that have wanted an affordable offering from VaultPress. The service announced on May 8th that a new service level called VaultPress Lite would be available for an astoundingly cheap $5.00 per month, per site. The plan covers the basics:
Daily backups that happen automatically, so you can focus on creating, not logistics.
Automated site restores, so you can restore your entire site with a single click.
Thirty days of saved backups, so you can go back in time to restore the last clean version of your site.
Customers also have access to their support staff as well. Since VaultPress launched, there have been a number of people who have exclaimed their jubilation of being able to easily restore their sites after a catastrophe. I bet it only takes one experience like that for VaultPress to seem like a bargain, regardless of the price.
VaultPress has announced that the latest edition of the plugin now supports WordPress Multisite. This has been a killer feature that owners of large multisite installs have been waiting for. VaultPress will automatically backup each site that is installed within the network. However, it must be noted that only the Network’s main site will have their users table, plugins, and themes backed up. For non-main sites, VaultPress will not backup users, plugins, or themes.
The money maker for VaultPress lies within the fact that each site within the network will require it’s own subscription as if they were individual sites. There is not a plan that specifically covers multisite installations. Unless the sites within your network are making you some decent cash, this could potentially wipe you out from month to month and you’ll need to decide as a site administrator how much that peace of mind is going to cost you. On the flip side, the way they have structured their plans allows you to only backup the most valuable sites within your network providing you with more flexibility.
With regards to plan pricing, Pete Davies responded to a comment by Donnacha regarding a sliding pricing scale. It looks like it’s an opportunity that could be tapped into in the future.
Akismet has started an experimental partner program. Based on the information presented, it looks like this is aimed more at consultants who deal with clients and instead of possibly using their own Akismet API key, they’ll now be able to refer them to Akismet via a special link which indicates the three plans that users can choose from. What caught my eye regarding the different account levels is how they have been structured.
Pro ($59/yr or $5/mo)
For individual sites, up to 80,000 comments/mo.
Enterprise ($550/yr or $50/mo)
For multiple medium size sites, up to 80,000 comments/mo (total).
Corporate ($3950/yr or $395/mo)
For corporate sites, up to 300,000 comments/mo with key monitoring, priority service and annual invoicing.
What constitutes a comment? Are we talking about all comments in general that need to be filtered or 80,000 legitimate comments? A little clarity on that part would be good. Those who are chosen to be part of this strictly invitational program only, will receive $24.00 for Pro subscriptions while Enterprise subscriptions will net them $240.00. I’m very hesitant on calling this a referral program because of the following text presented on the page:
This partner program is intended for use with your existing clients. Linking to your referrer code on the internet, or in any way promoting it to people that aren’t your customers is prohibited, and will result in your being removed from the program. The plan here is to have less spam, not more!
If you’re interested in being a guinea pig for this program, you can sign up here but keep in mind that just because you register doesn’t guarantee you will be accepted. By the way, WPCandy was able to receive 25 openings which may help boost your chances of being accepted.
By far, the most interesting aspect of this entire partner plan is the fact that the links people receive will contain ONLY the plans for which users must pay for. I wonder if this will translate into more paying customers for the service or if users will shy away and either use an alternative anti-spam solution or figure out how to get by using it for free. The only way we’ll know the answer to that is if Akismet shares the data they collected during the beta portion of the program.
Just a few days ago, Automattic launched a new plugin pack called Jetpack which takes some of the best features of WordPress.com and puts them into plugin form to be used on self hosted WordPress sites. Today, Automattic announced that they are now offering a Guided Transfer service which will enable WordPress.com users to easily migrate to a self hosted WordPress install on a WordPress.org recommend host.
When I first saw the news, I didn’t think any people would be buying such a service considering most of what needs to be transferred between the two is content and that is easily done via the WordPress XML file. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that the user base on WordPress.com is mostly made up of people who either don’t want the hassle of maintaining their site or do not have the technical skills to do so. So after spending some time on WordPress.com and feeling comfortable with the software, I can see how someone would pay $99.00 for the convenience and satisfaction of having their hand held for two weeks so they can keep on publishing content without worrying about all the technical fuss to get things situated.
I’m not quite sure why GoDaddy and Network Solutions are among the list of recommended webhosts considering I hear nothing but bad things about GoDaddys setup. Meanwhile, Network Solutions definitely didn’t have the best of years as it relates to WordPress. I know webhosting companies make mistakes but the mistakes that were made by some of the webhosts that are being recommend were rookie mistakes at best dealing with permission issues. One has to think if some of the webhosts being recommended are purely because of they payout based on affiliate or referrals. The reputation of WordPress is on the line so to speak if those webhosts don’t deliver. Then again, some of the hosts have been recommended by WordPress for years as they’ve gone through a series of problems.
It’s too bad HostGator was not added to the list. Ever since I switched to them early in 2010, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the company ranging from up time to their support. They are big fans of WordPress and do a good job of keeping their customers informed as to what’s going on within the company. So while HostGator doesn’t make their list, I can say that I fully recommend them for your hosting needs.
Thanks to some detective work from community member Gautam, it looks as though After The Deadline will be renamed to SpellPress. The open source version of After The Deadline has recently seen a slew of file name changes where sp is now the file prefix. SP standing for SpellPress. When specifically asked whether the change in names would occur, Raphael who represents the AtDev account on Twitter responded with the following:
@_GautamGupta_ Good detective work. Most likely the answer is yes.
I applaud the change in names as SpellPress is to the point and does not require as much explanation as to what the service does when compared to After The Deadline. Some folks have asked, why not sooner? After The Deadline was an ongoing project before Automattic acquired Raphael and his technology so therefor, the name, After The Deadline stuck around.
In this series wrap up, Jake and I talk about some of the sticking points from the previous three episodes. We discuss what we’ve learned and what we thought was useful information for those looking to start a business in anyone of the three areas that we covered. Among some of the topics of discussion were the low barriers to entry for theme and plugin authors, the costs of running a Software As A Service model, the majority of panelists not taking to the Freemimum model too well, and other tidbits of information. I hope you all enjoyed this series and if you could, please tell me anything you learned from this series in the comments.
Smashing Book Contest:
Week Three Winner - Carlos Frevert
Congratulations to all the winners.
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This episode did not have a sponsor. If you’re interested in advertising on WordPress Weekly, check out the Advertising information page to find out how.
This episode of WordPress Weekly featured two individuals who are in the midst of running a successful service around WordPress while the other individual didn’t quite make it that far. The round-table consisted of Joshua Strebel of Page.ly, Daniel Bachhuber formerly of CoPress, and Raanan Bar-Cohen of Automattic. During this episode, we talked about the difficulties involved with running a service around WordPress. I was especially interested in the topic of Automattic running a commercial service along side free, open-source software. Daniel was able to offer a unique perspective as CoPress didn’t end up being successful in the long run and he tells us why. Joshua gave us some insight into the business strategies he thought of before launching the service. One thing Joshua mentions during the show is that if you’re going to run a service around WordPress, make sure you’re profitable from the first customer. Another theme that developed during this episode is the lack of trust in the Freemium model. If you are thinking about starting a commercial service around WordPress, this is the episode for you.
Smashing Book Contest:
Week Two Winner - jb510
Want to win a copy of the Smashing Book and a chance to participate in our wrap up episode on April 24th? Help us publicize the special WordPress Weekly series on commercialization! Just follow @WPTavern and guest co-host @jakemgold on Twitter, and Tweet a message mentioning us both with a link to the most recent episode. We’ll randomly pick one of our favorite tweets right before the next show.
We’ll be giving a book away for each of the episodes (excluding wrap up). You can participate each week. Each contest starts at 2pm on Saturday with the show’s recording, and ends the following Friday evening. You may participate if you’re outside of the contiguous United States, but will be asked to cover shipping expenses.
If we get over 500 participants in the contest, before the wrap up show, we’ll also give away one copy of Smashing WordPress to one participant after the last episode!
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This episode is also sponsored by EnvironmentsForHumans.com This is an organization that brings together expert speakers on a given topic exploring that topic from different angles. While they recently had a WordPRess Workshop, the next event will be a UX Web Summit on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (CT). This event will teach people how to improve their websites so that they are more responsive to visitors as well as making this more usable. If you’re interested in this summit, visit UXWebSummit.com
The last part of the series will be held on Saturday, April 24th where we encourage everyone to send in their feedback or be part of the live show to discuss what you learned throughout this series.
I’m dedicating the entire month of April to the commercialization of WordPress through themes, plugins and services on WordPress Weekly. Each week will feature a round-table of guests in each field that is either currently in the market or has substantial experience in the market. Joining me to co-host these shows will be Jacob Goldman of C.MurrayConsulting also one of the organizers of WordCamp Boston 2010. During WordCamp Boston, I had the opportunity to host a panel devoted to having a business built in and around WordPress with one plugin author, one theme author, and two members to represent services. In that panel, I realized that I needed more time and each section needed to have it’s own dedicated time slot to really cover the finer details. WordPress Weekly is the perfect way to do this.
Here is what the outline looks like so far with only one guest pending.
April 3rd – Themes
Brian Gardner – StudioPress.com
Jason Schuller – Press75 and ThemeGarden
Cory Miller – iThemes.com
April 10th – Plugins
Carl Hancock – GravityForms
Ronald Huereca – Ajax Edit Comments
Jonathan Davis – Shopp E-Commerce (Pending)
April 17th – Services
Joshua Strebel – Page.ly
Daniel Bachhuber – CoPress
Raanan Bar-Cohen – Automattic
As of right now, April 24th will be a wrap-up show where we can talk about what we’ve learned during the course of the month.
Mallary Jean Tenore of Poynter Online has published an interview she conducted with Daniel Bachhuber, co-founder of CoPress which announced they were closing their doors a few weeks ago. It’s apparent from the interview that a lack of motivation on the part of student organizations as well as having CoPress be easily accessible created the conditions where the support system could not scale.
There’s so much you can learn on the Internet if a) you have the motivation and b) you know how to look and ask the right questions and participate responsibly,” Bachhuber said, noting that he’d like to see all student news organizations have developers on staff. “There’s a little bit of hand-holding that can be done, but what it requires most importantly is initiative
Definitely some interesting business lessons to be learned from Daniels experience at CoPress. Furthermore, Daniel will be one of the panelists featured in April when I produce an episode of WordPress Weekly with a round table of guests that are currently or have in the past, offered services around WordPress as their business model only in this case, Daniel will be providing insight from the other side of the business coin.
Twitter, Facebook, WordPress.org. What do all these sites have in common? They are all successful and have pretty decent designs to boot. It’s no wonder that they are used as inspiration but what happens when inspiration goes to far and you can’t tell the difference between the inspired theme, and the original design? Confusion, that’s what. Not only that, but a bunch of people ridiculing you for ripping something off. The line between something being inspirational and a total ripoff is subjective. In fact, a lengthy discussion about this very topic occurred in the WPTavern forum just before Christmas in 2009 regarding mimicking a copyrighted design. Just about all the members who participated in the conversation said it was bad form, not to mention the possible legalities involved.
Legal issues are also part of the equation. I think if you are using a cloned theme for your website design, you’re putting yourself at risk. There is no telling what might happen in the future which is why it’s best to not go down that road. Sadly, based on the conversation in the forum, enforcing the copyright is more than half the battle.
WPLover.com has also published an article on this topic with a great quote that brings up the GPL.
Please stop this. The freedom in GPL does not mean the freedom to steal copyrighted design. Stop making clones of popular websites and turning them into WordPress themes. It doesn’t matter if you release it only for personal use, or under GPL, if you code the CSS yourself, if you painstakingly recreate the graphic elements in Photoshop. It’s still, as Ryan Hellyer puts it, “illegal, immoral, and unethical.”
Since we are on the topic of cloned themes, I thought I’d share a little bit on how I do things. I’m not a graphic designer nor a CSS coder. I use extensions like Web Developer in FireFox to copy CSS from other websites and adapt it to my needs. I also view hundreds of designs in WordPress and showcase websites to look for things that I want to use on my site. This may include icons, graphical elements, color schemes, etc. I’m not going to create a wooden texture in Photoshop if one is already created to use as my Widget header. I will however play around with the image until it suits my needs. I’m not sure if that makes me a thief or not but I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. Typically, I’ll view websites with color schemes I’m aiming to achieve and either use those or shades of them. I’ve never turned a theme or site into a direct copy of anything anyone else had.
Am I a thief if I take a small part of a graphical element found within the header of a design and use it to create a new graphical element in my header? What are the boundaries I should adhere to when it comes to using images and CSS that are readily available thanks to Firefox extensions and right click save image as?
The wait is over for those that have wanted an affordable offering from VaultPress. The service announced on May 8th that a new service level called VaultPress Lite would be available for an astoundingly cheap $5.00 per month, per site. The plan covers the basics:
Thanks to some 
In this series wrap up, 
Twitter, Facebook, WordPress.org. What do all these sites have in common? They are all successful and have pretty decent designs to boot. It’s no wonder that they are used as inspiration but
Akismet Testing Out Partner Program
By Jeffro on November 4, 2011
Pro ($59/yr or $5/mo)
For individual sites, up to 80,000 comments/mo.
Enterprise ($550/yr or $50/mo)
For multiple medium size sites, up to 80,000 comments/mo (total).
Corporate ($3950/yr or $395/mo)
For corporate sites, up to 300,000 comments/mo with key monitoring, priority service and annual invoicing.
What constitutes a comment? Are we talking about all comments in general that need to be filtered or 80,000 legitimate comments? A little clarity on that part would be good. Those who are chosen to be part of this strictly invitational program only, will receive $24.00 for Pro subscriptions while Enterprise subscriptions will net them $240.00. I’m very hesitant on calling this a referral program because of the following text presented on the page:
If you’re interested in being a guinea pig for this program, you can sign up here but keep in mind that just because you register doesn’t guarantee you will be accepted. By the way, WPCandy was able to receive 25 openings which may help boost your chances of being accepted.
By far, the most interesting aspect of this entire partner plan is the fact that the links people receive will contain ONLY the plans for which users must pay for. I wonder if this will translate into more paying customers for the service or if users will shy away and either use an alternative anti-spam solution or figure out how to get by using it for free. The only way we’ll know the answer to that is if Akismet shares the data they collected during the beta portion of the program.
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Posted in News | Tagged akismet, comments, services, spam | 5 Responses