Business Model

[Benjamin]

Hello Tom,
I just buy the GP license that is for life because paying from my country is very complicated, I would love to support your projects logically. But many people I could recommend your products is what you can do to help right now.

[Tom]

Thanks for your purchase and your input, Benjamin! I appreciate it 🙂

[Tom]

Had an interesting thought over here: https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/multisite-single-registration/#post-214560

Would love some feedback 🙂

[Mike]

I like the idea in that other post.

I have a couple ideas on how you might be able to grow the GP business model. Like I mentioned I personally use Ninja Forms and I like how all of their add-ons are individual so you can pick and choose what you need. Each add-on also has 1, 5 or 20 user price tiers. Their individual add-ons are each about the price of your entire GP premium. This might be another thing to think about, possibly raising the single GP add-on costs and/or creating multi-user/annual licenses instead of unlimited like it is now.

Another thing I was thinking of is I see a lot of theme groups using the same plugins on all of their themes. The same slider, contact form, pagebuilder, etc. What if you were to form some kind of partnership with your preferred plugin developers for things like contact forms, pagebuilders, caching plugins, etc. and create premium bundles that come with GP. For example I pay for memberships with ninja forms, wp rocket, etc. The sales pitch could be that these are trusted plugins that work great with GP, why pay for each separately when you can bundle and save. Then you could include installs of these premium plugins with an install of GP and have an annual renewal cost.

[Ted]

Tom just pointed me to this discussion as I was looking into this same thing through a support thread. So I just wanted to add what I had provided to him earlier.

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These days, there are a lot of people starting to build WP based competitors to SquareSpace, Wix, etc… that would like to be able to add functionality to themes that they offer as GP Add-ons does, without the users needing to go out and get their own license.

I would be more than happy to upgrade to a Developer/Agency version. Most companies offering this range from $250/Lifetime to $199/year. I’m a one man development shop as well so I do understand making money.

I like your theme and what it offers with the add-ons. Simply put though, as a developer, I look for the way that I can do work for my clients with the least amount of resistance to their needs. I have several themes/plugins that allow me to re-use. One of the worst things I can do to a client is to say, I’ll build you a website, but first you need to go to vendor A, B, C and D to buy their plugins before I can get started.

Here’s some examples of other WP theme/plugin sites that are doing quite well using that sort of model.
http://cobaltapps.com/dynamik-website-builder-pricing/
https://www.elegantthemes.com/join.php
http://www.gravityforms.com/purchase-gravity-forms/
https://www.wpbeaverbuilder.com/pricing/
https://thrivethemes.com/membership-pricing/

Again, I like what you have to offer and I want to see you succeed and I’m willing to be your first agency client even. Those sites above are all doing really well, and your theme with the add-ons is a fantastic competitor with how customizable it is.

If you have a mailing list or Facebook group, I would encourage you to setup a poll to see how many would upgrade if you offered such a thing. If you get more than 10 results, you’ve got a golden opportunity.

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Now to add a little more about how I work. Basically, if a client hires me for maintenance, I setup and manage their complete install and use my developer/agency licenses. If a client doesn’t hire me for maintenance, then they are on their own for licenses as I may just decide to stop using something and paying for. This way, if the user stops paying and things break, they’re on their own, unless they want to hire me again.

I personally don’t care if something is white label or not. But as I mentioned to Tom, there are a lot of devs trying to compete with the page builder sites using WP. It’s starting to get real heated and a lot of it that I see seems to be headed by the way that Beaver Builder has setup their business model, with white labeling.

I pay Thrive Themes, StudioPress, Dynamik Website Builder, Beaver Builder, Beaver Tunnels, WPMU Dev, tools like PHP Storm and some others annually and I gladly do it. Why, I can knock out more work in less time. I don’t change what I charge clients because my value to them hasn’t changed. Instead I can get more. Since these tools help me make more, I have no problem paying annual fees.

That said, there are devs/designers that don’t have my annual sales and I understand that, I was once there. So again, I like to look at Beaver Builder, they basically have a standard license for unlimited sites (like GP Premium is now, except annual), a Pro license, which is more for unlimited sites, includes their theme and is multisite capable (to a point), then they have an Agency license which is even more that is multisite capable, down to changing settings on an individual basis from the network admin and includes white labeling.

I know that a lot of people that use builder plugins haven’t found a really good theme that they like. I found GP through many in those communities who recommend it and/or Genesis with Dynamik. There are a lot of people that are looking for that one theme that they turn to for everything. And GP Premium (or higher level) could easily be that theme.

I will add that I saw mention of child themes being in the possible future. This could do even more to get people to move to this setup. StudioPress has made a killing because of it (Their model is per child theme or upgrade to the developer package for all).

[Tom]

Really appreciate the input guys, thank you!

Here’s what I’m thinking right now:

1. Standard GP Premium – $39.95 one time fee, up to 5 sites license key activation limit, your own websites only.

2. Agency GP Premium – $xx yearly fee, renewed at 50% off. Unlimited license key activation limit, your own websites and client sites. White labeling option + ability to add license key and activate GP Premium add-ons via wp-config.php.

This way, small business owners/hobby site owners don’t have to worry about yearly fees – hardly anything changes.

Agencies/web developers who make money off of GP Premium do their part in supporting it annually, ensuring that it remains profitable and awesome.

As always, feedback is welcome. This is just something I came up with on my evening walk 🙂

[Benjamin]

What would happen to those who purchased the gp premium for the service provided today?

[Tom]

Nothing at all 🙂

[Mike]

Tom, that model sounds like it would appeal to both groups, as in not upset the casual user, and also allow people earning a living off of GP to continue to fund and improve the source (you). The way I see it is my income is based on a product you or any theme developer provide and support, there is a lot more value to it than you might think. I truly believe your sales will grow by adding a secondary premium level GP plan with an annual paid membership. I have used them all, had memberships with elegant themes, array, themify.me, and GP and the premium add-ons have them all beat.

I agree with everything Ted said, and I too have no concern over white labeling because I provide maintenance packages and maintain all the sites I build and host, kind of an all-in-one package. I have yet to have a client who wanted to manage their own site. If I ever did, I am very transparent about the themes and plugins I use, so I would just teach them how to use GP and beaver builder.

[Tom]

Thanks, Mike!

I definitely think it’s an interesting idea that serves both groups.

I really appreciate the insight you’ve given me in this topic, seriously. Thank you 🙂

[Ted]

I just thought of another idea to this discussion. Again, I’m looking at ways that I can use this as a developer who wants offer GP and add-ons through a multisite install. And of course, I still think that having a single place to enter a license key that works for all sub-sites is awesome, but I could see this idea work as well.

So what is the idea? The idea is to allow designers/devs, to set an affiliate ID that is then linked to have a person purchase. So essentially, I could network install GP Add-ons, add an affiliate ID (either through a wp-config DEFINE or a setting in the network admin) and then keep the plugin working as it does now where the user has to enter their key to get access to the plugin. But the link that takes them to buy the plugin, has an affiliate ID attached to it.

This is another way for Tom to make more as well as those of us that offer things to users. This really only applies to multisite, because otherwise, I developer can just send an email to the client with an affiliate link and say go buy this if that’s what they want to do.

[Tom]

That’s an interesting idea, Ted. Thanks!

Still trying to hash out some details – I might put the idea I had above through a week-long test run to see what happens 🙂

I’m also working on allowing the license key to be added through wp-config.php, as well as enabling/disabling individual add-ons in GP Premium.

[gk]

Previously, I was using another theme, and my paid license included lifetime updates. I guess the business model was not working, because the “Lifetime Updates” turned into either a yearly subscription or an additional $235 for a “Lifetime Pass”. I understand that the developer needs to make a living, but I wasn’t happy about the way the change was made – would the Lifetime Pass also expire after a few years?

Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing, because it lead me to look around for another theme, and I found GP. I am very impressed with GP, and I have purchased the premium option. I did have some concerns about whether the one time fee is enough to pay for continued development, so I was interested to see this discussion.

Tom, I think your model sounds good, but I have a couple of questions/comments:

– for the standard GP Premium, how do you define and limit the 5 sites to “your sites only”? I would fall into the hobby user class, but I have created a couple of sites for friends (no charge), so they are technically not mine.

– do you have a range for the agency initial fee (and subsequent yearly 50% off fee)?

Thanks again for a great theme and your support.

[Tom]

Thanks for your input, it’s appreciated!

I should say this – for anyone who has already purchased GP Premium, these changes won’t apply to you. There’s no way I would tell anyone that their license is lifetime, then switch it up on them. Happy users are super important to me.

1. Up to 5 sites would be up to you whether they were personal or not (not set on 5 specifically). Basically, it would be a “limited” license (activation-wise), but unlimited in every other aspect.

2. I don’t have a set figure for the agency price, but I’m thinking somewhere in the $69-$79 range.

While I’m pretty comfortable with the above model, I have to figure out what I’d do with the individual add-ons before moving on it.

[Rob]

Adding the license through WP-Config would be ideal Tom, also allowing the add-ons to be auto-activated from wp-config would be great too.

I would mean I then don’t have to go manually activating them on every site and clients don’t have the ability to activate something like the Hooks add-on which I don’t want them using on my multi-site setup

Some really great ideas being posted in this thread

[Author]

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