Vladimir Prelovac, an esteemed plugin author has shared his story on how he made $80,000 through one plugin. It took a few years but once he rewrote the free plugin and decided to charge for it, the money started to roll in. While I would have thought that the most purchasers would have opted for the cheapest version, instead, he made the most amount of money from the expensive version which had the least amount of costumers.
His story is inspiring. I just wish I had the skills necessary to create a plugin and then charge for it. I think I’ll hire Vladimir to create me a plugin, then I’ll handle the charging for it along with the support. Sure would be nice to have 80 grand to kick around.
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Value is perceived. If you give it away, it is perceived to be worth exactly what you charged and no more. That’s basic marketing, and the glut of premium theme/plug sites coming to market proves it is still tried and true.
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This doesn’t surprise me at all. I haven’t experienced it on this sort of scale, but I’ve certainly found that cranking up prices has had the effect of actually increasing sales in some situations.
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Good thinking Jeff – “A thousand mile journey starts with a first step.” :)
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He’s made some good points about giving away a free version on wp.org, we do the same with WP Auctions and it’s helped us grow…quite a bit. I’ve learned a few tips from him as well which I’ll implement soon enough.
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This is a good news for developers. However, I wonder what impact the free plugins have on his product. Buy yes, the story is inspiring for sure.
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