In this episode, we talk to Barry Kooij about building your own products vs. working for a company, delivering quality customer support as a solo developer, and the benefits of the plugin extension model.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:43 — 22.2MB)
The Core
- Barry Kooij from the Netherlands, develops and sells his premium plugins on Never5
- Organizer of WordCamp Netherlands
- Used to work for WooThemes (on WooCommerce)
- Left to focus on his own projects when WooThemes was acquired by Automattic
- 4 premium products:
- Related Posts for WordPress – caches related posts, works with custom post types
- Download Manager – monitors file downloads, uses the extension model
- Post Connector – connects post types to each other
- WP Car Manager – for managing vehicles
- Handles everything himself, with remarkably fast support response times
- 70-80% of sales come via wordpress.org or the free plugins
- Benefits of extension model (Download Monitor)
- Can add features without cluttering the original product
- Easier to get repeat customers with cross-sells and upsells
- Lower barrier to entry – easier to sell multiple small extensions than a big one
- People may feel like they are paying for more features than they are using
- Website: http://www.never5.com
- Twitter: @CageNL
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:43 — 22.2MB)
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