Post Status Excerpt (No. 71) — Building, Supporting, and Selling a Winning Product — With or Without WordPress.org

This week I sat down again with Eric Karkovack to talk about the three top WordPress stories on the top of our minds. Independently, we made nearly the same selections.

Are Active Install Counts Irrelevant to Your Plugin Business's Success? (Even if they were accurate?)

First up is Alex Denning's article at Ellipsis, "WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022." Alex argues the likely temporary loss of Active Install Growth data for plugin owners is not a bottom-line, business-relevant concern. Apart from the revelation that that data itself was not just obfuscated and inexact but "basically garbage," Alex draws on Ellipsis' marketing experience and extensive data (as well as Iain Poulson's insights at WP Trends) to show 1-2% conversion rates are the norm for plugins in the WP.org repository. Only a couple of big players can crack the 100k+ install tiers today.

There are always going to be developers who push the envelope when it comes to littering the dashboard and just making it a difficult user experience.

Eric Karkovac

The Plugin Repo's Glass Ceiling

Alex notes this "glass ceiling" has a lot to do with how the repo's search algorithm works. It's biased to favor plugins that have many active installs already, so if you're not there yet, it's not going to help you get there. As a result of these observations, Alex disrecommends the plugin repo for anyone thinking about launching a business there on the freemium model. He considers WP.org a poor distribution channel and assumes the freemium product model's fate is tied to it. On that point, we're doubtful and optimistic about exceptions and opportunities for plugin developers to make their own way, with or without the repo.

While Eric and I don't fully agree with Alex, his data-based analysis does establish that the plugin repository is "broken" if it's intended to be a place where a small entrepreneur with a good product can break in and take off.

Let's Fix What's Broken (The Plugin Repo) Not What Isn't (The Freemium Model)

Next up, Matt Cromwell from GiveWP politely disagrees with Alex in a long, thoughtful post of his own: The Case for the WordPress Plugin Freemium Model. In it, Matt describes ways plugin owners can make the wp.org plugin search engine work better for them, but he also notes a few of its deficiencies as well. His best point is that an average conversion rate is just that — an average. He's seen much better results due to marketing efforts he feels are accessible to many plugin vendors. Matt also points to examples of successful freemium plugin shops, like Paid Memberships Pro which recently did an A/B test with their pricing page, and the version with a freemium option converted better.

Where Alex and Matt agree is how much the plugin repo has changed due to market saturation. It isn't an easy place to win in anymore. And I'm pretty sure Alex would agree with Matt this is true across the web as a whole — you can expect to have to work hard with stiff competition and give high attention to Google as well — not to mention all the other things that go into making and supporting a good product.

Ideas for Improving the WordPress.org Plugin Repository

Eric and I also discussed the excellent suggestions for useful, actionable data that product owners — and even agencies — would like from a new, improved plugin directory. Vito Peleg's ideas are especially exciting and seemed to draw a nod from Matt Mullenweg on Twitter. (I can't remember a Trac ticket being "the news" before. Twitter threads and individual tweets sure can be.)

Plugin Developers Must Make Their Own Way

Eric asked (and answered) a big question at the WP Minute: What should plugin developers expect from WordPress? You've got to make your own way is a message I agree with, and I brought up my conversation with Till Krüss about Performance and the Plugin Business as an example of all the possibilities that open up if you think about meeting big needs nobody else is meeting or solving big problems others are creating!

Follow the Leaders, Adopt Standards, Build to Scale

Eric's article leads me to suggest that plugin developers (as well as agencies) targeting middle and low-end markets have tended to neglect standards around performance testing and security because their customers don't need to scale and because they can treat performance and security as a hosting problem. That's a barrier to accessing high-value enterprise clients, hosts, and agencies connected to both. It's a limit on growth and possible partnerships that open additional, high-value distribution channels. It's a mistake. 

Mentioned in the show:

• WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022 (Alex Denning, Ellipsis)
• The Case for the WordPress Plugin Freemium Model (Matt Cromwell, GiveWP)
• Five Takes on Helpful Plugin Stats and Insights (Dan Knauss, Post Status)
• What should plugin developers expect from WordPress? (Eric Karkovack, The WP Minute)
• Till Krüss on Performance and the Plugin Business (Post Status Podcast)
• 10up's Gutenberg Best Practices (The 10up Team)

Sponsor: WordPress VIP

Founded in 2006, WordPress VIP is the agile content platform that empowers marketers to build content both faster and smarter so they can drive more growth. WordPress VIP empowers content and development teams with the flexibility and ubiquity of WordPress — the agile CMS that powers more than 40% of the web — while ensuring the security and reliability organizations need to operate at scale.

Credits

• Eric Karkovack, Owner of Eric Karkovack Web Design Services (Twitter)
• Dan Knauss, Editor for Post Status (Twitter)
• Olivia Bisset, Web Producer intern for Post Status (Twitter)

Every week Post Status Excerpt will bring you a conversation about important news and issues in the WordPress community and business ecosystem. ️

You can listen to past episodes of The Excerpt, browse all our podcasts, and don’t forget to subscribe on Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, iTunes, Castro, YouTube, Stitcher, Player.fm, Pocket Casts, Simplecast, or by RSS.