[wp-hackers] 500 euros for WP + plugins

[David Chait]

Good for him!

I've been thinking about this for well over a year now, and I'm really torn 
by it.  If more people donated (thanks to those that have!!), it wouldn't be 
a question -- if everyone who downloads and puts my plugins to good use 
would just donate $1-10 apiece, I'd have NO problem covering my 'costs' 
maintaining and enhancing things.  But as it is, I'm seeing similar plugins 
for certain other blog programs selling for decent money (and apparently 
they are selling...), and at $100 a pop with a few dozen 'subscribers' I 
wouldn't have to consider giving up the hobby I love (in order to focus on 
paying contract development work..).  As it is, I might >have< to revamp a 
few of my plugins and make them available only to paid customers.

I agree it seems like he might be 'over-charging', including the 
update/hosting stuff, but if he can sell it, well, capitalism is all about 
charging what the market can bear, supply and demand, etc., etc.  If there's 
enough demand, and he does well, I can promise you that others will follow 
suit, and a market will develop around WP.  Of course, given that many of 
his plugins were already released, and that some of his 'add-ons' for the 
Pro package aren't as 'rocket science' as a few of his earlier things, folks 
can go with what's already out there and build what they need.  The people 
who just want it up and running will pay something to have it done for them. 
How much is to be seen.

It shows that WP is evolving beyond its origins into something much bigger. 
This was the next natural step.  It follows the stages of the N*ke sites and 
BBs, where paid hosting, paid sites, paid themes, etc. are a natural part of 
trying to merge open source with people needing to earn money. ;)

-d

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Mullenweg" <m at mullenweg.com>
To: <wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com>
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:36 PM
Subject: [wp-hackers] 500 euros for WP + plugins


> I'm curious how people feel about this:
>
> http://www.semiologic.com/projects/sem-theme-pro/
>
> -- 
> Matt Mullenweg
> http://photomatt.net  | http://wordpress.org
> http://pingomatic.com | http://cnet.com
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