I just read a recent post on Vladimir Prelovac’s blog titled “The Future of Free“, and I totally agree with this. My question is, without putting a price on my WordPress plugins, how do I make people appreciate all the work I’ve put into them? I think the WordPress community is too used to getting things for free. You can download and install tons of plugins/themes completely free of charge. Here are some questions for you on this topic (along with my own personal answers):
1. How often do you thank those authors for their hard work?
Not very often (guilty as charged). I do appreciate them on a whole different level though. Whenever I find a bug in their plugin, I help submit fixes.
2. How do you put back into the WordPress community?
I write plugins and provide them for free.
3. How are you other developers making money from your free plugins/themes?
I am making money from advertisement revenue from traffic generated by my plugins.
4. Do people appreciate you for what you do or just expect you to do it?
Generally people appreciate me, but I’ve come across a few people people who flat out expected me to troubleshoot their site and when I didn’t have time for it, they got mad and said that I am a terrible person.
It would be interesting to hear some perspectives from fellow plugin/theme developers. Please share in the comments section!