So, I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post on why premium plugins are the future of WordPress, now let’s take a closer look at how WP Plugins helps make that happen!
As I said yesterday, WP Plugins has come from a sincere belief that to improve WordPress, there needs to be a way to commercially support the people that have made WordPress what it is, plugin developers.
It’s simply not fair that they should have to rely on donations, or client work, they need a way to be able to make a heap of well deserved cash, just like iphone developers!
And that’s basically all that the site is, a place for people to buy and sell plugins, with quality control.
But of course we’ve tried to make it ‘nice’ too – and we reckon you’ll enjoy some of the features:
For every plugin, authors can add in the regular description, info and other jazz – installation being linked to in two places.
But what’s extra is the ‘Get Support’ facility… now, while people can choose to offer a simple download price – which you can see above as being $2.95 – should the user want to have ongoing access to upgrades and Q&A support with the plugin developer, then they’ll need to pay the ‘Support and Upgrades’ price – listed below that at $4.95.
If they choose that (and it’s promoted well in the sales screen) then they will have ongoing access to all upgrades as well as access to a support forum specific to that plugin (by clicking on ‘Get Support’).
And of course it’ll tick over monthly, meaning ongoing happiness for both plugin author and user!
Then we’ve got the screenshots… which is just plain nice I reckon :)
And of course, click on one of them for full size lightbox powered goodness.
Then, as a plugin author there’s a really rather slick ‘Add New Plugin’ backend (you’ll especially like the way the screenshots upload and you get to move them around to select which one shows in your picture).
(click on image for a bigger view)
And then, of course, you can tracks your sales, purchases and all that jazz via the profile menu.
(click on image for a bigger view)
So there’s a quick overview, if you haven’t fancied registering yourself yet, we hope you like it and we’re even more keen to hear your ideas, comments, thoughts and feedback on the idea and execution… needless to say we’re looking forward to improving the site based on your feedback… so don’t hold back!
What will be the licensing of such applications ? Will one be able to freely share / resell downloaded apps ?
One big reason WP plugins and WP developped into what they are today in the first place was availability and sharing of such code. I’d like to know how both ideas will remain compatible.
You can’t compare an App Store of GPL’d uncompiled scripts like yours to the iPhone App Store which sells proprietary, compiled code. The commercial model for iPhone apps is completely different to the model for WordPress plugins.
As you know, all WordPress plugins must use a GPL compatible license which means that anyone could buy a plugin here and redistribute it to others for free (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLRequireAvailabilityToPublic) You can’t do that with paid-for iPhone apps.
And all WordPress plugins are scripts. The source code is the same code that is run and not compiled, so the buyer does not have the same dependency on the developer of the plugin code. They can buy it once and read the code and do what they like with it under the terms of the GPL. You can’t do that with paid-for iPhone apps.
These two things: readable code and the GPL license, make your App store a very different proposition to developers than the iPhone App store model does.
I don’t have a problem with what you’re trying to do. I just think you need to do it a bit differently. Why not allow free access to the plugins but charge developers a ‘tenancy’ fee for use of the support forums and advertising you provide. That way, the plugins get greater exposure, which should mean more people wanting premium support through your paid-for service.
I have to disagree with the concept of an app store for wordpress plugins. For the plugin developers who do want to make money, plugins give developers exposure. If they wrote a particularly good plugin, companies looking for wordpress developers will take notice and contact developers about contracting and employment opportunities. I for one have never heard of any plugin developer who got in it for the money. There’s simply no need to make plugin development “fair.” Everyone already accepts plugins for what they are, and the development associated with them. If you want it to be “fair,” you’re going about it the wrong way and should probably get a real job.