Halp! I think my free version is too good!

Discussions
#21

Yeah… I was considering to give your service a try when I first read about it. But I did not, because you did not educate me :slight_smile:

See, I have a single WP blog. There is always a nagging idea in the back of my head “what if the hoster messes things up and loses all my posts and comments and uploads and whatnot?”. Of course, I suppose to download a backup from time to time, but really, who does that?

So I was thinking “Hmm, keeping the whole site in Github? And being able to restore it in one keystroke? Sounds good!”… but then I realized I do not understand how that works. For instance:

  • Is WPPusher only for code, or for content too?
  • Is it one-way, i.e. repo to WP, or two-way? I.e. will my comments be saved?
  • Is there an editor for WP posts that I can use locally?
  • What happens if I modify something via the WP Admin page?
  • What about plugins? Are they installed via Admin or, too, stored in repo?

Some question may sound stupid, but – as most of WP users – I do not have a clue what is possible with WPPusher and what not. In fact, I’m not even clear about its target audience… may be the target audience is not clear about that, too?

#22

All those things are not something you could do with WP Pusher. It’s only “deployment of WordPress themes and plugins”, so it’s not the whole site or your content. It’s only code. I don’t think you are my target audience. It’s made primarily for freelancers and agencies who manage plugins and themes for their clients with Git. I think, or at least I hope, that it will be more obvious to them what the product is and does! :smile:

#23

Fair enough!

However, please consider to implement a transparent backup plugin in future. I’d likely buy a Bitbucket or Dropbox backup plugin.

1 Like
#24

Why even offer a free version? I have an add-on for ExpressionEngine that I developed about three years ago. For a brief period of time it was free/open on github but I decided to make it paid and took the free version down. I had a few people yell at me about it but since then I have made an average of $500/month and it is consistently highly rated and people really see the value in it.

Unless your service has a proven track record of high conversions from free to paid, free is obviously not a good marketing strategy. I’m not sure why everyone in the WordPress world is convinced that free is the path to salvation. A 30 day money back guarantee is a much better policy than free IMHO.

quick edit - if your goal/business model is to offer free software, disregard my comment. I am assuming your goal is to make money from your software.

2 Likes
#25

They removed your plugin? That’s got to hurt. Why?

#26

Hey! Thank you and good points! I think I’ll keep the free version, though, but I’ve been working on a lot of chasing regarding my licenses based on all this feedback :smile:

#27

First they said this:

We do not permit plugins to phone home to other servers for updates, as we are providing that service for you with WordPress.org hosting. One of our guidelines is that you actually use our hosting, and we don’t allow plugins in the repo that actively let people run updates like that.

Then after I explained that I wasn’t phoning home and that I thought there had been a mistake, they said this:

Yes, the plugin is terrible useful and totally awesome. But it’s not something we currently allow.
"One of our guidelines is that you actually use our hosting, and we don’t allow plugins in the repo that actively let people run updates like that."
That’s literally why we can’t allow it in the repo right now. It that changes, we’ll post about it on make.wordpress.org/plugins but we never should have approved it, and I apologize for that.

So, updating from GitHub etc. is not allowed…

#28

Like what that?

That explanation explains nothing to me.

Oh, wait… your plugin allows to update plugins’ code right from Github, i.e. the Wordpress.org hosting becomes unnecessary, right? Then it makes sense.

#29

Re: free tier vs no free tier.

I’m not sure how other Wordpress users behave, but I prefer to try-then-buy rather than buy-then-get-money-back.

Trying just feels like much less trouble. Asking for money back is awkward.

That though doesn’t mean you have to have a free tier. I would equally easy try a plugin with 30 days evaluation period.

2 Likes
#30

Hi @petersuhm I only got a chance to quickly install it on one site (my personal blog which I change quite frequently as a test site), but I’ll have to change my workflow a bit since I usually gitignore compiled CSS and JS. I’ll poke at it some more and send you an email, but it probably wont be for a week or so. At a glance though, it does what I expect and was easy to setup.

A note on the WordPress ecosystem. There are developers doing things the “normal” paid software route, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. However, WP is kind of it’s own beast. Free plugin with paid upgrades or add-ons is pretty much what everyone is used to. Users are used to paying for things that way and devs are used to charging them that way.

The WordPress official plugin site requires you to use their updater. If memory serves, I think they use SVN which is why a lot of devs using git have to jump through some hoops. If @petersuhm can put the free version on the main WP repo, making the paid version on github (which would not need the main WP repo) shouldnt cause any problems.

As I mentioned above, there is really no compelling reason to buy an upgrade right now. It works everywhere I need it and works well (so no need for support). I really think it needs more restrictions :smile:

#31

Hey!

The plugin is not allowed in the .org repo, so I have to do my own thing!

Thanks for giving it a go! Actually, there’s an experimental feature that’ll allow you to compile stuff after installation and updates: http://blog.wppusher.com/introducing-the-wp-pusher-file/

And an update: I’m working hard on my new licensing system and launching it one of these days, based on you guys suggestions! :smile: