[wp-hackers] Making money from GPL plugin development (Was: Advertising on plugin pages)

[Rich Pedley]

2009/3/1 Mike Schinkel <mikeschinkel at newclarity.net>:
> I concur with Nathan and add a few comments.

> -- "Donations" based on users thinking its a good idea can buy beer, but little else.

I've just bought a netbook with my donations - and not the smallest or
cheapest either.

> 1.) Implement functionality in core that encourages donations and streamlines the process for users making donations.

already available for plugins, though I'd add my vote to it being made
available for theme developers as well.

> This could be accomplished by adding fields into the plugin description header for a payment account and a recommended donation amount, i.e.

yuck - suggested amounts will deter more people if they are pitched
too high, and if pitched to low would restrict your income. Much
better to allow people to specify what they want to give.

>
> Further, each time an admin page is visited for the plugin the same suggestion could be displayed with an option for the user to select "Don't show me this again for this plugin."
>
> If this became super easy I bet a lot of plugin developers would start getting more donations than they currently get.

another yuck. If plugins did this for me I'd probably delete them and
go find another. A simple donation link within a plugin page on the
other hand is fine.

I also don't like the idea of third party adverts in the admin side -
to me that has moved away from GPL, and towards 'ad supported'. I
don't install ad supported software locally, why should I use it in
the back end of WordPress?


> 2.) On the plugin screen add in core a "Suggest Feature"

set up your own forum, and use that - much much easier. Point people
at that instead. they also get to see the support you do give, when
given freely anyway.


Rich

-- 
my mind is on a permanent tangent
http://cms.elfden.co.uk/