Selling Premium Pluginsw/ WordPress

@mikejolley

Things to consider

Business Models

1. Membership/Club - PostStatus

2. Freemium - WooCommerce/EDD/Ninja Forms

3. Premium only - Gravity Forms

4. Premium version of free plugin - WordPress SEO Premium

Must be sustainable!

Distributing your product

4 Plugin Updates - Automatic updates? Manual?

4 Protecting the plugin - Licence Keys?

Support + Documentation

4 Forum? bbpress?

4 Helpdesk?

4 For support I chose: Ninja Forms + Helpscout

Supplimenting Docs with Snippets

Around 10% of my plugin support is answerable with snippets

Writing a Clear Refund & Support Policy to Deal with Difficult Customers

Because without this, customers will have unrealistic expectations!

Choosing a Selling Platform!

Change can be difficult

Hosted PlatformsGumroad, Fastspring, PulleyApp, Shopify

Dedicated Self-hosted Platforms

Magento, Opencart

WordPress PluginsEDD, Exchange, WP Ecommerce, WooCommerce

Chris' Flow Charthttp://chrislema.com/choosing-the-right-ecommerce-platform/

BUT..

The answer isn’t about features [...] The answer is really about you. Your needs. Your desires. The stuff you’ll be selling.

— Chris Lema

Choose A Platform You're Comfortable With!

For me, thats WooCommerce

Who else uses WooCommerce to sell digital goods?

4 WooThemes

4 Related Posts for WordPress

4 Crowdfavorite

4 WPSessions.com and Post Status (memberships)

WooCommerce Out of the Box...

Downloadable & Virtual ProductsTimed access, multiple file support, download limits, download links for customers...

Access Restriction & File Protection

Add-ons!

4 Stripe Payment Gateway (Beta in Norway)

4 WC PDF Invoices & Packing Slips (free) - wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips/

4 EU VAT Number

4 EU VAT Rates Sync - wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-eu-vat-rates-sync/

WooCommerce API ManagerSell License Keys for Software and Automated Updates for Plugins and Themes

http://www.woothemes.com/products/woocommerce-api-manager/

Or build your own!My Custom Licencing Add-on

API Product (Plugin) Data

Link API Products to WC Products

Variation Support

Licence Management

Account Pages

Delivering Updates

API Endpoints

?wc-api=wppluginlicencingactivationapi to "activate" or "deactivate" an instance (site URL)

?wc-api=wppluginlicencingupdateapi to do a "pluginupdatecheck" or get "plugininformation"

In licenced plugins: Key Input Form

1. Validate key

2. Activate instance (site URL)

3. Updates allowed :)

The Updater Code

4 http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/a-guide-to-the-wordpress-http-api-automatic-plugin-updates--wp-25181

4 https://github.com/jeremyclark13/automatic-theme-plugin-update

https://github.com/mikejolley/wp-plugin-

licencing(yes it's free)

Thats's about it!

@mikejolley