Optimizing revenue for my CMS add-on

Discussions
#1

Hi everyone, so I have a small commercial add-on for the ExpressionEngine CMS called PDF Press.

It’s doing pretty well, roughly $100 a month since I launched it in Feb. PDF Press is my first foray into products so I’m using it to learn. I’ve set a goal for myself to increase it to $400 a month by the end of the year. Most of my sale come from Devot-ee, which is an app store for EE add-ons.

What are some good ways to help to hit my target? Should I focus on conversions or driving up traffic to my add-on page?

I’m going to take @patio11’s advice and raise the price from $15-$30 timed with a new feature release.

#2

This is slightly off of what you asked for, but it seems like I should be able to PDF your landing page. Like next to buy, it’d be really cool to say “go ahead and PDF this page” and have the button there and render a PDF of the page I’m looking at. Make it interactive and show them what it does in real time.

You could of course A/B test it to see if it helps, etc.

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#3

Wow! That’s excellent advice Ian, thanks! It makes a lot of sense. I’m going to get that up and running this weekend.

On a broader sense I know my sales page for PDF Press on my site is a mess and I’ll need to rework it if I want to increase my non-Devot-ee sales.

#4

Seems to me that repurposing the same technology for WordPress could also be a substantial win. Also, start trying to rank for [expression engine PDF generation] since that’s what Google auto-completes when I type in [expression engine PDF]. You’ll note that your title tag is currently

[PDF Press - Save ExpressionEngine® templates to PDF: Anecka, LLC]

Don’t put ANYTHING in the Title tag which is not either there for SEO purposes or for grabbing clicks on the search engine result page. Here’s what I suggest for your new title tag:

[PDF Press | PDF Generation for ExpressionEngine]

I’d also

  • Sell two licenses: Single Site ($30) and Developer License (unlimited sites, $250)
  • Make it clear that it is a one-time fee, right by the purchase button.
  • Make sure that the save-this-page button (which is a brilliant idea, by the way) captures the images/whatnot on the page. You want that output to absolutely sing.
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#5

Wow thanks Patrick! Spot on advice. I’ll start implementing them ASAP.

Branching out to other platforms is something I’ve been mulling over.

To all: Anybody on the forum have experience selling a commercial Wordpress plugin?

#6

This guys just launched one Hi I'm Ivan Lopez from AB Press Optimizer

#7

Devot-ee appears to be the go-to EE marketplace, but you could try selling your add-on at other marketplaces as well, such as CodeCanyon. Establishing a presence there could also prove beneficial if you decide to develop a WordPress version of the add-on, since you couldn’t sell the WP version on Devot-ee.

#8

Thanks for the tip Sean. I’m not sure how I feel about CodeCanyon. Devot-ee charges a flat 20% off my sales, while CodeCanyon takes nearly 67% if I decide to sell my product elsewhere. If I agree to only sell it on their site, then the starting take is 50% and does down per volume.

That might be fine for video, photo or theme assets and it seems like the WP plugin devs don’t mind it, I might be spoiled by Devot-ee so it feels like robbery to me. Is there a fairer marketplace for WP commercial plugins? Or are WP devs just stuck trying to sell it on their own sites?

#9

I’d highly suggest optimising the overall layout and design of your landing page.

If you need inspiration for product landing pages, Land Book has a great gallery.

#10

Yeah, I hear ya. Those commissions are hard to swallow. I see it as just another customer acquisition channel. As long as the lifetime value of your customers is greater than the cost to acquire them (which in this case is 67% of your asking price) then it should be profitable for your business right?