Opinions wanted! Premium plugins

[Bruceper]

We have a few premium plugins created now, but before I figure out what we want to do with them, I want to ask users what you think we should do?

Should we sell them as addons when you buy IndexU?
Should we sell them as part of a membership site?

As for cost, I'm thinking in the $5-10 range each. Which makes them accessable to everyone.

My thoughts are to sell them as addons when you buy IndexU. This way you could buy them seperately and do not need to join another site. But the issue with that is the licensing. Since the purchase would only be for a single license, you would not be able to use the purchase on multiple sites. Sure we can go with the honour system, but we all know that doesn't always work.

So the membership idea solves that issue, and allows users to use the plugin on as many sites as they own licenses for.

What are your thoughts? What do you think we should do? If it's a membership type site, what would be the cost of the membership be?

[Dr. Jekyll]

It is hard to say.

Dipends for the type of plugin

[Bruceper]

The type of plugin is irrelevant in this case. Whether it's for banner ads or for adding a picture of someone's nose to the site, it's about premium plugins of any kind.

[FSGDAG]

Well... Given the fact that I have an unlimited license, having to purchase a plugin for each site I plan to use it on, isn't appealing to me at all!

My suggestion... Go with a membership site like IndexUTemplates.com and put it in the same price range as that... I'd be willing to do that on a yearly basis if NiceCoder was planning on making premium plugins on a regular basis

[Mitchell]

Yep, same here, I prefer to pay a yearly rather than a fee for each license. But you have to make the membership worthwhile so people join, more items in the membership.

[Dr. Jekyll]

The type of plug in is irrelevant in this case. .

I am not so sure about it! in my opinion depend from the type of plug in.

If this plug in are useful but not so necessary I think that is a good idea for you start to sell them (a subscription would be the best).

But if are almost necessary to have, the risk is that you lose a lithe bit of image, because somebody could think that you sell IndexU stripped down so customer are (almost) obligate to make also a subscription to have the (for example the possibility to have thumbnails, Advance editor etc. etc.).

One possible solution could be:


1) Sell IndexU Deluxe at it is;
2) Make a subscription service for extra plug in (starting now that are very few at 29,00 a year, and increase at $ 49, after 6 month and $ 69,00 after one year;
3) Sell a Index Deluxe PREMIUM at $ 168,00 (= $ 99 of the Standard Deluxe + $ 69,00 of the subscription ) in that way, every month your customer could download and update IndexU premium with all the plug in already in (no necessity to self re add every plug in the every time you make an update of IndexU Deluxe)

[echo@]

Yep, same here, I prefer to pay a yearly rather than a fee for each license. But you have to make the membership worthwhile so people join, more items in the membership.

Same as Micthell

Also , what about other developers, would there be a way for them to include their plugins?

Other wise its just going to be another membership to add to the list,

Just and idea

[Bruceper]

Nicecoder has sold developers mods before.

But if are almost necessary to have, the risk is that you lose a lithe bit of image

Personally I don't see any plugin being "necessary" to the operation of IndexU. IndexU runs and operates just as it should as soon as it's installed. The plugins extend this operation and add additional function(s).

I'm still thinking of a way to do this to make it fair for as many people as possible.

[Dr. Jekyll]

Nicecoder has sold developers mods before.



Personally I don't see any plugin being "necessary" .

I know that IndexU is ready to go, but there are some plug in, as for example a better editor or a thumbnails that, also if are not necessary are a must to have.

It is a little bit as to by a car and knowing that the power windows are not standard but optional at extra charge.

That's way i think could be a good idea to sell:

1) IndexU Deluxe 1.x at it is;
2) Make a subscription service for extra plug in
3) Sell a Index Deluxe PREMIUM at $ 1xx,00 (= $ 99 of the Standard Deluxe + $ xx,00 of the subscription ) in that way, every month your customer could download and update IndexU premium with all the plug in already in (no necessity to self re add every plug in the every time you make an update of IndexU Deluxe)

In that way everybody is happy, and all your customer could find what they better like to a fair price.

Anyway, right now not all the plug in are available anymore because, and actually I will prefer to find every things I need here, so go for it!

[Bruceper]

I suppose you could think of IndexU as the engine of a car, and when you buy a car you get a standard engine and can pay to upgrade it to a more powerful engine.

I'm thinking about this, I appreciate any other comments and I'll let you know when it's all been figured out.

[Bruceper]

At the moment we have two premium plugins, one for advertising and one for a forced PageRank check.

The banner ads plugin adds the ability to have an ad in the following locations
header
sidebar top
sidebar bottom
footer 1
footer 2

The PR Check plugin will rejct any sites that do not have a minimum page rank that you specify.

I have both of these plugins on one of my sites to play with them, they're pretty neat.

Now as a note, the price of IndexU will not increase. This is an absolute and I will not even consider it at this time.

Let me give you a little background here.

Some of you might remember a while back that I asked for plugin suggestions. Well I took those suggestions, then searched the forum for others and compiled a large list. I then sent them off to the programmers.

This way back in January or February of this year, so it's been some time. And a lot of these plugins were not possible simply due to the lack of hooks. Well with the recent addition of all the new hooks many of those plugins are now possible.

I'm not sure if we're done adding hooks or not. There may still need to be more added, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

So now that the possibility of adding a few dozen plugins is actually a reality, we need to figure out a way to promote these plugins. By promote I mean sell, advertise, give away or whatever.

So here's one more thought. What if we added a rewards system to the forum? when a user reaches a certain point they can "purchase" the plugin. This rewards system could be tied to number of posts which would also help with forum activity. Of course moderation would ensure that users don't abuse the forum with "me too" posts.

Now that's just ONE way to get the plugins out. Of course we would still look at selling them as some individuals just aren't interested in posting on the forum.

But what are your opinions of that process?

[FSGDAG]

So here's one more thought. What if we added a rewards system to the forum? when a user reaches a certain point they can "purchase" the plugin. This rewards system could be tied to number of posts which would also help with forum activity. Of course moderation would ensure that users don't abuse the forum with "me too" posts.

Now that's just ONE way to get the plugins out. Of course we would still look at selling them as some individuals just aren't interested in posting on the forum.

The way I see it ( and its just my opinion and not meant as a demeaning comment ), there are two types of users... One's that have a limited budget ( sometimes a very limited budget ) and one's that have extra money to put into things above and beyond the minimum amount needed.

The suggestion above would seem to accommodate both of these types.

It sounds like a plan to me

[Bruceper]

That was my point of the forum rewards, that not all users can/will be able to pay for plugins as well as the script itself.

[Dr. Jekyll]

The suggestion above would seem to accommodate both of these types.

I agree!