WordPress Plugins – The strength and the weakness of WordPress
Before I start my rant let me say that I appreciate the effort put in by numerous developers creating plugins. They add a functionality that greatly enhances the usability and power of WordPress as a blogging platform. I will apologize in advance to those that continue to improve and support their work this is not aimed at those.
There is a problem though with the current structure of how people look at plugins especially in the non marketing world.
Often developers create a great plugin, get a lot of people using it and then just get plain bored with continuing the development of it.
Not sure why that happens but it does happen way too often. My guess is because it is done gratis and they don’t have a way to monetize it.
Yes, they may put up a donation button but that does not necessarily generate sufficient incentive to continue the development as WordPress evolves.
At the same time those that do create a plugin and add a monetization model are skewered for asking for an email or having an offer in their marketing process to give away a free plugin. Yes, they continue to market to those people but if they are ethical (and most are) you can unsubscribe easily. (Of course you then miss the updates.)
These developers despite being seen as the lowest in the world of plugin creators have a vested interest in keeping their plugin fully supported because it helps to fill their marketing funnel.
These plugins are changed and supported well unlike some of the ones that just depend on donations and get bored.
Truthfully I would rather deal with the marketer that has a vested interest in supporting and improving their plugin than with the person that creates a great plugin and has no reason other than kindness or ego to support it.
After seeing a new plugin with a marketing funnel be skewered for their marketing (not for the quality of the plugin) like Tweet My Blog has been at this post where it only focuses on the fact that it only works on WordPress (note it is WordPress plugin – duh), has a way to make money and does not look at the differences between what is on the market and what is not.
Plugins rarely do something that is unique but make doing it easier. If you can code and want to tweak your theme and the code you can (if you know how) or you can upload a plugin and click activate and add options if necessary. Something non tech heads can handle.
Yes I can add my Twitter feed to my sidebar with the proper code, I can use other services to post my RSS feed to Twitter (at a delayed time frame as they only check once an hour) and avoid the marketing.
Now my question to you is the fact that a developer adds a marketing funnel to their delivery of a free plugin enough to skewer them?
Or would you rather deal with someone that does it out of the goodness of their heart, ego or some other factor and then has no reason to support it in the future?
I know what my answer is but would love to hear yours.
Mike Paetzold
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9 comments
Charles Burleigh on July 24, 2008 at 10:59 am
Mike,
I don’t know how many times I’ve been frustrated when I upgrade my WP version and find out that one of my plugins is no longer supported. Worse, when I go to the developer’s site they say, “No Longer Supported”.
Then I have to take the time to go find another plugin with similar functionality and add it to all of my blogs.
I much rather like going to my plugins page and seeing that newer versions are available (usually developed by marketers that have monetized their free plugin) and all I have to do is upgrade the plugin.
If there’s no motivation to keep working on a plugin, why spend time doing it?
Just my 2 cents.
Charles
John Dilbeck on July 24, 2008 at 11:31 am
I have no problem with adding a marketing funnel as part of any development or marketing activities. I don’t mind giving my contact information when someone is providing a service that I want to use or a product that helps me do something better.
I don’t mind donating or even paying for something that I can depend upon, if it is an important part of my business.
Still, I have questions about Tweet My Blog.
I downloaded it and installed it on my blog and it works as advertised, but there are both pros and cons regarding using it.
At this time I’m still unsure if I’ll continue to use Tweet My Blog, and the main reason is that every post I make to my blog is building backlinks to TweetMyBlog.com and not to my blog directly.
I created a lens called Should You Tweet Your Blog? and I would love comments, both pro and con, about Tweet My Blog, and about the concept of automatically tweeting blog postings.
http://www.squidoo.com/should-you-tweet-your-blog
If you have a blog that is using Tweet My Blog, there is a Plexo module where you can link to your blog.
As soon as I can get to it today, I’ll be removing my affiliate links to Tweet My Blog from that lens so I won’t be competing with others who may want to promote it.
I think Tweet My Blog does what it says it will do and John and Soren will have an incentive to keep it updated. I was happy to see that it worked fine with WordPress 2.6.
Still, I have mixed feelings about plug-ins, in general, and Tweet My Blog, in particular.
Hopefully, I’ll make up my mind, soon.
Also, I think it’s important to note that some of the best tools I’ve used have been created by someone “out of the goodness of their hearts.”
As a programmer, I know the satisfaction of creating a solution to a problem and seeing others use it. When someone has the income they need from other sources, there is no need to monetize everything they do. Sometimes you do it just for the satisfaction of doing it.
At some point they may decide not to continue development or support. That’s just the way it works, sometimes.
I just don’t think there’s a clear answer to your question.
Act on your dream!
JD
Mike on July 24, 2008 at 12:01 pm
@John Dilbeck – A couple of points.
1. I agree some of the best plugins have been created out of the goodness of someone’s hearts and I do appreciate that and thought I made reference to that in the opening of the post.
2. Don’t quite understand your comment about the links being created. Yes if you show the widget it does create a link back to Tweet My Blog although it is your affiliate link not a direct link unless you failed to add it in the settings.
3. Using Twitter is not about generating links back to your blog as much as letting people know and unless you are manually posting and not using a tiny url you won’t get backlinks any other way.
Will check out the lens and don’t see a problem with you leaving your links there unless you decide to not promote it at all.
Finally, my tracking has shown that I get readers from posting at Twitter and have gotten quite a few more people following me since adding it. That is the key for me not generating income but does it help me build relations with more people and so far the answer is a resounding yes.
Bud McKenzie on July 24, 2008 at 2:52 pm
My newbie view is very positive but I’m still working on a couple of bugs.
1. My theme is not widget-aware and I’m not sure I follow the tech to make my blog as such, therefore my plugin is not fully functional.
2. I’ve noticed that with any new system with a marketing funnel at the front and back end sales you will have people wanting to skewer you. That is a positive sign that the development behind the plug-in is well earned, sincere and with ongoing support.
3. I just think that TweetMyBlog is a very clever plugin and don’t you just wish that you thought of it first. Good going and hats off to Soren & John.
WordPress Plugins - The strength and the weakness of WP « Denis Inskip’s Weblog on July 24, 2008 at 3:17 pm
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John Dilbeck on July 24, 2008 at 3:47 pm
@Mike –
1. I wasn’t disagreeing with you about developers doing things because they want to. I was just adding a different perspective to it, I think.
2. The TinyURL links that are created by Tweet My Blog create links to TweetMyBlog.com with your affiliate link and then show your blog post in a frame. So, this is creating backlinks to their domain rather than yours.
Now, if the main reason for using TweetMyBlog is to sign up new members and get commissions for purchases, that’s a fair trade.
If one is tweeting new blog posts in order to build backlinks to your blog, then it won’t do that.
Either way is fine, depending upon what someone wants to accomplish.
I’d rather build links directly to my blog.
3. You raise a good point about TinyURL that I hadn’t considered. Those are redirects and you’re probably right that they don’t build backlinks to my blog, either. I’ll have to research that.
And, yes, I agree that I’ve gotten many more readers to my Squidoo lenses and blogs since using Twitter. I’m meeting new people and reconnecting to old friends just about every day through Twitter. So, it’s been great for me, too.
I just don’t want to over-do the promotional parts of my tweeting. I don’t even know if that is a problem and that’s why I’ve added some new polls to my lens.
I think we’re agreeing here more than anything, and just trying to find a way to say it in writing.
I’m still going to promote TweetMyBlog because I think it’s a good tool, but it may not be the best tool for what I want to do with my blog.
I’m not going to promote it on that lens now that I’m changing the focus of what I’m asking. I want that lens to be as neutral as possible in order to get a wider range of opinions and comments.
All the best,
JD
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Tim Linden on July 28, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I agree, there is this whole mentality online that it’s expected to be free because XYZ over there is free.
Tom At The Home Business Archive on August 3, 2008 at 8:00 am
I recently upgraded to Wordpress 2.6 and so far it has been working without problems.I had to upgrade some of my plugins, but thats about it.I haven´t been using Tweet My Blog yet, it´s so easy to visit Twitter and do it manually.