The Benefits of the Plugin Extension Model, with Barry Kooij – WPCAST045

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.

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