Two years ago, I started WordPress plug-in company. I thought if we made something great, people would like it, so we could make a lot of money by buying it. I am a little naive. This is my first time selling online outside of development services. But the first month’s income was only about $350, which was not exactly what I expected. My plug-in doesn’t focus on solving problems that people can solve, so it won’t be impacted. I didn’t think caldera forms would be our main product, not our pod addon. The
This is because caldera forms is not the core of high-end business. This is a great plug-in with great potential. Now, this is a cool plug-in that many people like, but most people don’t need to pay for it or catalog it. It’s a great plug-in to contact forms, and it’s great for people to use it for free. However, it is not a possible plan for sustainable business to open the free plug-in \
Caldera forms is growing rapidly in a crowded niche market. Last year, the number of active installations increased from 10000 to 40000, and the current number of active installations is 50000. However, although we make a lot of money, we make much less than other plug-ins with similar business models. I want to share what I have learned from the analysis. If I want to achieve better success, I think I should think about the following plug-in functions and product design. These ideas help increase revenue and better define the roadmap for caldera forms and other products on the caldera platform. The
The rush of SaaS models or WordPress can better meet the company’s demand for repeated revenue than the needs of users. I support it, but it is necessary for business life to continuously create profits. In addition, SaaS products are not the only way to realize repeated revenue. You can use easy digital or freemius to sell the WordPress plug-in or theme every month. The plug-in has the additional functions of software license and duplicate payment. Do not set the business to solve problems, but to solve market problems. The
The free version has no value. Obviously, there may be no free version of the plug-in. It doesn’t matter. But this document is about the freemium plug-in. Using the free version of the plug-in, users can try it and have the opportunity to become paying customers in time. That is, you must ensure that the free version shows the value of the paid version. A successful high-end model should not only provide excellent free products, but also prove the great value of the paid version. Frankly, we didn’t take this into account when we built caldera forms into a product. People seem to really like it, but are you sure they need MailChimp or PayPal addon? No, unless you accept payment or fill out an email list. The
Of course, not everyone buys a paid version of the product. The important thing is to find the right balance. People who do not need your product can use the free version to gain excellent experience, while those who pay for it need to pay for it. If you work there, you are in good shape. However, you’d better consider this ratio and how to reach it from day one. You put it
I can’t force you. If it closes, people will move on. For example, if you create an email notification or save the charging function in the database, no one may use our plug-in. The
Some plug-ins do not charge. It doesn’t matter. But be honest with yourself and think about whether that is the plug-in you are making. Because if you do, you will need more users than you think. So instead of thinking about what features people will pay for, think about who will pay for them. If you want to start working in reverse from your goals, you have a few simple math tasks to do. First, ask how much it costs to operate the business in one year, how many people can buy your product, and how many of them will actually buy the product. Get the first number and divide it into the second number and the first number. That’s your annual price. The
For example, if the cost for the first year is 500000, including development, and 100000 people can purchase the product, then $100 must be paid per year. I will buy your product. Yes, it’s all speculation, but it can be reduced by conducting surveys, underestimating listeners and overestimating costs. But that’s not the point. Before you start, don’t go bankrupt, but know how much money you have to make to work in the opposite direction. If you don’t set this math before you start working, you are setting yourself up to fail. The
Don’t forget to consider selling expenses. Paying handling charges and taxes is a serious expense. Therefore, do not consider what products to sell, but consider how much money to sell in order to survive and the cost of selling products. If the selling expenses of the product are taken into account, it is time to consider support. The more users you have, the more time you will spend supporting the product rather than improving it. WordPress Deciding how to deal with users’ expectations of unrestricted free support that org is designed to generate is an important decision. If the up sell rate of free plug-ins is high (frankly, features), providing free support is a worthwhile investment. And that’s a real investment. The
After investment, if most free users feel happy, there is no need for additional sales. On the contrary, using support to make people trust your product and provide power for an important part of the business can promote your sales. Many large free plug-ins offer only fee based support. We strive to follow yoast SEO and other plug-ins. But it is not easy. For a while, we were WordPress that bored many people. Org ignores the support forum. We then try to reply to all support topics and redirect them to paid support. It upsets many people, but at least some people understand it. Now, we mainly use links to documents, answer simple questions once a week, and redirect the actual support questions to the paid support form. The
To tell you the truth, I don’t know if it’s balanced. But one thing to remember is WordPress. Org support pages rank really well. If you open a thread on how someone performs tasks, the thread may rank higher than the document page. Therefore, adding a link to the document and a quick explanation of the reason will be of great benefit to those who will participate in the topic in Google in the future. In addition, we believe that your document page helps us understand the correct answer to the question. Zendesk or helpscout can be used for practical support. We use plug-ins
