Comments on: WordPress Plugin Business Model

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:32:06 +0000

I just posted a follow-up to the original article Kevin. It would be great to hear your comments about the issues it discusses. http://tomuse.com/matt-mullenweg-automattic-wordp...

By: ronald.sprint

ronald.sprint — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:49:38 +0000

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By: What’s Up Wednesdays: Working from Home and Working Online « Beyond the Rhetoric

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:02:21 +0000

[...] a living wage) online that you may not have considered. In his post, he discusses the business of coding and releasing WordPress plug-ins. WordPress is already a very popular (and free) blogging platform, but money can be made in [...]

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:45:57 +0000

I believe that the plugin modules available the the WP e-Commerce site are proprietary while the basic plugin hosted at WP uses the GPL as it must. I don't think the rules for inclusion at WordPress.org are quite as strict as they are for themes. Probably because there's more money in making themes than there is for developing plugins. But if you consider how many downloads a popular plugin gets, it's staggering. Most plugins have links in the settings page that point to the developer's support site and I know of at least one plugin (Google XML Sitemaps) that has an Amazon Wishlist link as well. I think that it's fine to do this but it's just not sustainable for the developer or the plugin in the long-term. If Matt Mullenweg is going to support premium themes like he did with Brian Gardner's Rev2 themes, he should do the same for plugin devs.

By: Kevin Muldoon

Kevin Muldoon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:39:22 +0000

I have spoke with some fellow bloggers and some theme designers about the current situation. Basically, you can put one link in a released theme however that site cannot sell themes directly or advertise anywhere which does.

So if I had to released a bloggingtips theme through there I couldn’t advertise any site which sold wordpress designs.

Not sure about the situation with WP e-commerce. Is the situation different for plugins?

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:32:37 +0000

I also remember Brian Gardner's premium theme set Revolution2 being advertised on the WordPress theme repository but it is no longer. Does anyone know what happened with that? To my knowledge the GPL doesn't say you can't charge for a plugin or theme at all. It's just that WordPress won't host your theme/plugin if you do.

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:28:35 +0000

So how does a plugin like WP e-Commerce have its plugin listed in the official WP repository and also charge for upgrades to the same plugin on the developer's own website?

By: Kevin Muldoon

Kevin Muldoon — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:25:03 +0000

I do think the apple app store is a good example/ Nokia have recently followed suit and released a similar type of store for nokia phones.

Though if there was some sort of centralised store, I'm sure it would cause a lot of contreversy. Consider this : someone releases a mod for free, someone else then takes that code and develops it a bit more. They thank the original developer on their site but they also sell the new plugin for $5 a time via the wordpress tore. Would the original developer be eligible for earnings?

Considering the way that WordPress has implented themes etc, I don't think this will happen though (people who release GPL themes are not allowed to sell premium themes on their own site, they're not even allowed to advertise them!!).

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:52:53 +0000

It would definitely provide the income to help developers deliver better support/maintenance. The risk is that someone would develop a similar plugin and host it for free download at WordPress.org. It's also possible that WordPress may cry foul at some point if the store ever got traction.

By: Ben Yoskovitz

Ben Yoskovitz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:37:25 +0000

I would be happy to pay for plugins that I use, where the support is good and they're improved over time.

I think the iPhone App Store is a decent model for seeing success with "small applications". Certainly adding any cost (even $0.99) will stop some people from using a plugin, but I also suspect peer pressure + quality reviews + obvious support + consistent upgrades from the plugin developers will push many people over the edge to take the plunge.

I'm not sure what the right average price point is, but the App Store model is a good one to follow. Alex King has plugins that have been downloaded over 200,000 times. If he received even $0.50/download and let's assume adding a price cut the # of downloads by 50%, it would still be $50,000 for 1 very popular plugin.

By: Kevin Eklund

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:01:46 +0000

Thanks Kevin. You did a terrific job at explaining this dilemma. I think most people would agree that if it weren't for the free plugins/themes and the many developers that create and support them, WordPress would fail to be anywhere near as popular as it is right now. The fact that WordPress is not embracing those developers with something akin to a premium plugin store (i.e. like the iPhone App Store or Android Marketplace) where costs are kept low (e.g. $1/download), is quite disheartening. The creation of a premium plugin store would have the following effects:

1. Better maintenance and support for plugins

2. Better quality plugins

3. Financial support for developers could allow for greater innovation

4. WordPress would benefit from all the above