Most of you accept heard by now of the departure of Lester Chan from WordPress plugin development. While he will abide to amend his plugins as needed, all abutment will be terminated.
As a plugin columnist myself, I’m not afraid by this news. With the apple abridgement still in the pits, added plugin authors are activity the crunch. While they would like to absolution chargeless plugins for all, at the end of the day, there are bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Within this commodity (rant?), I will go over the types of plugins I would pay for, an altercation for paying for plugins, and go over several business models I see bustling up.
Plugins I Would Pay For
Here are several categories that accomplish a plugin something I would pay for (yours will assuredly be different).
An Altercation for Paying for Plugins
In 2009, we saw the exceptional affair bazaar jump into the stratosphere.
Jeff predicts the same for plugins in 2010.
One affair that has consistently abashed me is that a lot of the “free plugins forever” advocates accept a altered assessment appear paying for themes. Why is that so?
Unless you acquirement the theme’s developer license, you alone get to use the affair on one site. And if you’re like me, you apparently go through three (sometimes four) capacity a year (I’m never satisfied!).
A plugin, however, is there before, during, and afterwards the affair switch. I can use it on added than one website (if the authorization permits), and advance it is abundant beneath of a altercation than themes.
On my claimed site, I’ve appealing abundant had the aforementioned plugins for 3-4 years running. If I were to pay for those plugins, that’s a acceptable acknowledgment on investment in agreement of mileage.
For those who would never accede purchasing a plugin, remember, as the abridgement gets worse, your admired plugin may be the next to get alone by its columnist for banking reasons. It’s not at all uncommon, and I would altercate that this is the rule, not the exception.
Plugin Business Models
Over the accomplished year, I’ve empiric several plugin business models crop up. I will go over these briefly and counterbalance in on each.
Donation Archetypal Only
Some plugin authors still accept to await on donations for plugins. For a boyhood of plugin authors, the bulk of donations is sufficient.
However, I haven’t accomplished success with the donation model, even afterwards blame it heavily. My a lot of accepted plugin accustomed 1-3 donations every six months.
Free Plugin – Allegation for Support
While some plugin authors accept been acknowledged in charging for support, for the a lot of part, users download the plugin and move on.
An archetype is accouterment a download hotlink for the plugin, and charging the user a cable fee for abutment forums.
One affair I don’t like about this archetypal is that it reinforces the actuality that the time to yield coding/updating the plugin is trivial. Sure, abutment takes up time, but advancement the plugin takes up a lot of time also.
Free Plugin – Allegation for Add-ons
Another archetypal I’ve apparent is a plugin getting provided for free, but add-ons for the plugin are an added fee.
If the plugin proves accepted enough, and the add-on is a must-have, you’ll acceptable acquisition abundant success with this model.
The time you spent coding the “base” plugin will be account by the assets you accept from the add-ons.
One-time Fee for Plugin – Added for Support
Another archetypal I’ve witnessed is the user getting answerable a set fee for the plugin. If the user wants support, the user accept to subscribe to a appointment of some sort.
I alone disagree with this archetypal as the user generally pays added for abutment than what the absolute plugin is worth.
It’s aswell my assessment that if you allegation for a plugin, abutment accept to be included.
One-time Fee for Plugin – Abutment Included
A archetypal I’m addicted of is just absolute charging a fee for the plugin with abutment included.
The downside of this archetypal is that the user should apprehend a college price. Back the user is paying alone one time, the college amount compensates for all the abutment the user is accepted to accept over the lifetime of the plugin.
Typically the amount goes college for added website licenses, as abutment is accepted to increase.
Subscription Based Model
A subscription-based archetypal allows you to advance costs beyond all of the subscribers. The ambition actuality is to accretion as abounding subscribers as accessible by charging a low price.
As a result, abutment and advancement costs will be advance amidst all subscribers, area anniversary subscriber gets the all-embracing benefit. And back some subscribers will stick about for the next announcement period, there is connected revenue.
One affair to cover is to accept a “Buy Out” option, which will acquiesce users a lifetime cable for a set fee. This is the One-time Fee option, so the amount will be badly college than a cable cost.
I alone chose this archetypal for my aboriginal exceptional plugin and it has been adequately acknowledged so far.
Conclusion
Within this post, I went over the types of plugins I would buy, my affidavit for purchasing a plugin, and the assorted models I’ve apparent crop up.
I would adulation to apprehend your thoughts on any of these topics.
