08.27.2014 - By David Hehenberger and Doug Yuen
In this episode, we talk about promoting, developing, and supporting premium plugins and themes, focused around David’s experience with Easy Pricing Tables.
The Changelog
* David migrated to Drip “lightweight marketing automation”
* Doug’s initial thoughts on Flywheel are positive
The Core
Thanks Dan Cameron (launching Sprout Invoices) for the email that inspired this episode!
Sales
* Easy Pricing Tables (free) was already on WordPress.org, so sales were immediate.
* Monthly revenue has been pretty stable and predictable.
* Expected renewal rate (for yearly licenses) is 15-20%, based on similar products.
* Using Easy Digital Downloads for software licenses, etc.
Promoting
* Easy Pricing Tables is an “aspirin” business – success with WordPress.org
* SEO
* Retargeting
* Content marketing, such as weekly blog posts or podcast episodes
* Affiliate program (built with AffiliateWP)
* Paid reviews
* Outreach to popular blogs
* Reference posts about promoting plugins on Listly, WPScoop, and FatCat Apps
Developing
* Private Bitbucket repository for tracking changes (commits)
* Especially useful for working with a team
* Separate repositories with Easy Pricing Tables
* Handle new features and improvements – Trello boards
Supporting
* David – initially by himself, then hired a full-time developer who’s also running support
* SupportBee for email-based support (Doug uses a similar product called HelpScout)
* WordPress.org tickets and SupportBee emails send push notifications to Slack
Tips & Tricks
* Sketch – Professional digital design for Mac
* Skype Call Recorder for Mac – Records Skype calls, can split sides of conversation