Small presentation on selling premium plugins with WordPress + WooCommerce, and tips on getting started. Presented at WordCamp Norway After Hours, 2015.

1. Selling Premium Plugins
w/ WordPress
@mikejolley

2. Things to consider

3. Business Models
1. Membership/Club - PostStatus
2. Freemium - WooCommerce/EDD/Ninja Forms
3. Premium only - Gravity Forms
4. Premium version of free plugin - WordPress SEO
Premium

4. Must be sustainable!

5. Distributing your product
4 Plugin Updates - Automatic updates? Manual?
4 Protecting the plugin - Licence Keys?

6. Support + Documentation
4 Forum? bbpress?
4 Helpdesk?
4 For support I chose: Ninja Forms + Helpscout

7. Supplimenting Docs with Snippets
Around 10% of my plugin support is answerable with snippets

8. Writing a Clear Refund & Support
Policy to Deal with Difficult Customers
Because without this, customers will have unrealistic expectations!

9. Choosing a Selling
Platform!
Change can be difficult

10. Hosted Platforms
Gumroad, Fastspring, PulleyApp, Shopify

11. Dedicated Self-hosted Platforms
Magento, Opencart

12. WordPress Plugins
EDD, Exchange, WP Ecommerce, WooCommerce

13. Chris' Flow Chart
http://chrislema.com/choosing-the-right-
ecommerce-platform/
BUT..
The answer isn’t about features
[...] The answer is really about
you. Your needs. Your desires. The
stuff you’ll be selling.
— Chris Lema

14. Choose A Platform You're Comfortable
With!
For me, thats WooCommerce

15. Who else uses WooCommerce to sell digital
goods?
4 WooThemes
4 Related Posts for WordPress
4 Crowdfavorite
4 WPSessions.com and Post Status (memberships)

16. WooCommerce Out of the
Box...

17. Downloadable & Virtual Products
Timed access, multiple file support, download limits, download links for customers...

18. Access Restriction & File Protection

19. Add-ons!

20. 4 Stripe Payment Gateway (Beta in Norway)
4 WC PDF Invoices & Packing Slips (free) -
wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-
packing-slips/
4 EU VAT Number
4 EU VAT Rates Sync - wordpress.org/plugins/
woocommerce-eu-vat-rates-sync/

21. WooCommerce API
Manager
Sell License Keys for Software and
Automated Updates for Plugins
and Themes
http://www.woothemes.com/
products/woocommerce-api-
manager/

22. Or build your own!
My Custom Licencing Add-on

23. API Product (Plugin) Data

24. Link API Products to WC Products

25. Variation Support

26. Licence Management

27. Account Pages

28. Delivering Updates

29. API Endpoints
?wc-api=wppluginlicencingactivationapi to "activate" or "deactivate" an instance (site
URL)
?wc-api=wppluginlicencingupdateapi to do a "pluginupdatecheck" or get
"plugininformation"

30. In licenced plugins: Key Input Form
1. Validate key
2. Activate instance (site URL)
3. Updates allowed :)

31. The Updater Code
4 http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/a-guide-to-the-
wordpress-http-api-automatic-plugin-updates--
wp-25181
4 https://github.com/jeremyclark13/automatic-theme-
plugin-update

32. https://github.com/
mikejolley/wp-plugin-
licencing
(yes it's free)

33. Thats's about it!

34. @mikejolley