Business Model

[Craig]

My suggestion here may sound crazy to other customers, but as a small-business owner looking to build some sites on this platform, I think it’d serve everyone well.

Your GP theme is free. Cool.

Your Add-ons (which are really good BTW) are a one-time cost. Great, but is that model sufficient to keep things going say 3-5 years into the future?

There are about 7 or 8 premium plugins that I pay for. Most of them charge for one-year of support/updates and then offer a 30-40% discount to renew each year thereafter.

Tom, I see you on the boards all the time AND kicking out updates. If it’s just you mate, I’d love to see you thrive – and I think everyone will benefit.

Just my $.02.

[Tom]

Hi Craig,

This is definitely a very interesting discussion.

Someone brought up the same thing about a week ago, stating they weren’t comfortable purchasing GP Premium as there is no yearly fees.

When GP first started, I wasn’t sure it was going to work, so I gave it a very generous license and a low price tag.

Now, GP is definitely working – it’s my full time job, and 100% of how I provide for my family (working on more separate projects to bring that percentage down).

The trouble is, I’m nervous that if I were to implement yearly fees (they wouldn’t affect people who have already purchased), I would scare away a good amount of people and sales would suffer.

However, the more I get people asking me about this, and actually telling me that it would make them more comfortable, the more I consider at least trying it for a short period of time to see if it works.

Definitely something for me to think about.

Currently, if anyone wants to take “yearly fees” into their own hands and support development of GP, we have an ongoing development page: https://generatepress.com/ongoing-development/

I appreciate your $.02! 🙂

[Jamal]

Great discussion and i’m glad someone brought it up so i won’t feel awkward talking about it. Yes, Tom deserves more support from his loyal customers so he can be able to continue the amazing work he does but i hope the price will be as reasonable as it is now.

One thing i always wanted to suggest is for you to sell some guides/lessons on how to customize the theme. I see lots of solutions that you come up with everyday and i just love reading them but as a novice, mostly i don’t have the imagination to implement them. I just wouldn’t know where to start.
It would have been nice if you can monetize them somehow by collecting all of them in one place like a child theme or something.

I would also urge anyone who uses this awesome theme on more than 3-4 sites,especially commercially to find the generosity in their hearts to donate towards securing it’s continued development.

[Craig]

Maybe you could grandfather people in that have bought it in the past six or twelve months? I’d be one of those customers, but I’m more than happy to make a donation to see you keep this going and would love to see new features developed. It’s a pretty cool package.

Going forward, the price point you’re at offers a great value (especially the unlimited site licensing). Asking for an annual renewal is absolutely fair and in line with what I’ve seen other developers do.

[Tom]

If I were to make a change like this, anyone who has already purchased would own lifetime licenses (as that’s what was promised when they purchased).

I really appreciate the input from both of you! If anyone else has an opinion on this I would love to hear it.

Thanks!

[Mizanur]

I Love GP. After spending money for other themes, I ended up using GP for several of my websites. GP’s solid-built framework and a world-class service forced me to do this.

I personally do not like yearly fees but it seems like many businesses are following that model! Some services do not provide any update and support just after 6-12 months unless pay yearly! I, however, recognize that company need money for support staffs and product updates. Yearly fee make sense for businesses but a customer who is making one or two websites for their own can be taxing.

I wouldn’t mind seeing GP Premium at a ‘premium’ price though. But hesitant about yearly subscription! How about both options? Elegant themes and many others have both options.

At the end, pricing is about business model as well as philosophy. Whatever the outcome, I will be forever happy loyal customer of GP as long as the product, service and Tom all are in good shape and flourish in future by making most of the customers happy. 🙂

[Tom]

Thanks for your input, Mizanur! I appreciate it 🙂

[mikei]

I hate to lose lifetime licenses, but in this case I would agree. Although, lifetime access to downloads seems more common practice, access to support should be probably paid as Craig said at 30-40% discount.

Tom, not to offend early adopters (like me:)), you may freeze the current price for current clients, then you may raise the price once in a while for new clients. Your product now is not the same as it was.

You may also think of converting some addons to commercial plugins that work with any themes. Despite, there are similar ones, such addons as sections, menu+, page header can be competitive. I heard you planned to release more advanced child themes, great idea! Maybe restrict access to the forums (as Hybridtheme), maybe divide the support into basic (usage and bug) and advanced (customization) …

I don’t know, somewhere somehow your price should be higher). Good luck with changing the model, tough decision ..

[Tom]

Thanks for your input! Nothing I do will affect current customers 🙂

I’ve thought about making support a yearly subscription, but I’d have to sell it as a separate product along with GP Premium.

Definitely lots of decisions to be made. My main concern is making sure my customers – current and future – are happy.

[Rob]

I would agree with Craig on this, medium to long term as with most businesses your sales will level off. If you don’t have some kind of recurring revenue stream you won’t have the cash flow to continue producing what is a great solid product.

Personally I like the unlimited license model, its easier for me to manage and gives me scope to grow my business but I would gladly pay an annual renewal fee for that luxury.

What about a White Label license for developers that hides things like the Support links and license box, with an annual subscription fee.

Selection of child themes would be cool too.

[Tom]

The one thing that gives me comfort is that 25% of the internet runs WordPress – so the market is quite massive.

StudioPress is an example of a theme company with no yearly fees, yet they make a lot of money (much more than me).

That being said, they also sell a lot of child themes (something I do have planned).

I appreciate the input, Rob! Thank you! 🙂

[Jim]

I wonder how it would work if you had a “fund drive” once a year for people who want to support the product? You may make more in that one week than you’d make on recurring subscription fees. That way, true fans of the product will give you more than you’d get with a basic discounted renewal fee… and they people who are really struggling financially can keep using the product. Something like that may be worth testing out.

[Tom]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your input!

That’s kind of what I was going for here: https://generatepress.com/ongoing-development/

Being able to accommodate people who are struggling financially is important to me for sure.

[Mike]

Tom, as you know I am finally working on my first site with GP, and plan to do a LOT more. I agree that what you are providing is almost too good to be true. I have used two themes made by Ben Ritner at Kadence Themes for a few sites I have done, and they were both one time purchase, unlimited use themes. What I started doing was sending him the original theme cost each time I got paid for a site I built as “coffee money”. So essentially I treat it as a one-time use theme. I do this simply because I am making money each time with a product he built, it just seems right. I plan to do the same thing with you each time I finish a site with GP.

I would also suggest maybe doing an annual membership with a discounted renewal rate. I currently use and pay annual memberships for Beaver Builder, Optin Monster, multiple Ninja Forms add-ons, PandaDoc and WP-Rocket… all of which are annual plans with reduced renewals. I would not be able to do what I need to without them, and the minimal annual renewal cost is a no brainer.

As was mentioned above, maybe breaking your model into two divisions is a smart way to keep connected with both audiences. One like it is now with the the free GP theme and $40 add-on’s, and then a higher level annual membership including additional features, child themes and a higher level of support.

The users who complain because they want everything for free, these are not the customers you want to bring along moving forward. GP is one of the best and highest rated themes online right now. People who you want to keep as long term customers will appreciate the fact that you want to take GP to the next level, and be glad to pay a small fee each year knowing you are in it 100%.

Two years ago a mentor of mine was looking at where I was as a freelancer, he told me I don’t charge enough and that is why I am not growing financially. It made no sense to me. He told me if you are charging less than half of what local agencies are, as a businessman I would not feel comfortable hiring you. He told me the clients I am attracting are people who are not serious about their businesses. I doubled my hourly rate, sent out an email, every client said “sure, no problem” accept for two who were the ones always complaining about costs. Business has never been better and no one questions any invoices anymore.

[Tom]

Hi Mike,

Great post, some really great ideas 🙂

Quite a few freelancers are contributing to the ongoing development page when they complete a new client site, which is awesome and super appreciated.

I do have some future plans for GP when it comes to premium child themes etc..

I also have a couple other projects like WP Show Posts where I’m testing the waters when it comes to yearly fees etc..

It’s all a process and I’m learning a lot!

This thread is really awesome everyone, tons of awesome ideas. I love it, thank you!

[Author]

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