CaboPress is a hard event to explain. A WordPress event in Cabo? Vacationing with a group of people I haven't met, including our competitors? How can hanging out all day in the pool change anything? Unexpected friendships were made, and the course of our business has been altered, both in the short- and long-term. The advice received there will help us reach our goal of changing the lives of those around us.
Chris Lema opened my eyes to the potential of Formidable. Formidable is the most flexible and (nearly) limitless plugin I know of, but most people don't know that until they start using it. It's been a challenge for us to try and show even a small smattering of the potential under the hood. But Chris gave us the perfect solution in a matter of minutes. That alone was well worth the $1500 we paid for the whole week. More detail to come on that, but he showed us a way to expand the WordPress user base instead of being limited by it, and reach into new markets and new audiences.
But we want everyone to benefit. Formidable and our team are here to help others build awesome applications. I love what I do, and I want more people to have what I have. I get to spend extra time with my family, work at home with my husband as my business partner, not stress about making the mortgage payment, and help people do the impossible on the web. When I started building Formidable, I didn't plan on selling it or even sharing it. I didn't expect it to change my life, but now that it has I see that there are many more lives it can affect.
We see a handful of developers making a living from Formidable, and I want many more to have that chance. Steve's new site design unveiled a couple weeks ago includes the makings of a full-featured marketplace. Our add-ons page now uses a form to create products in Easy Digital Downloads and a view to display them. We'll be opening this marketplace up sometime in October to allow more developers to easily release and sell their work. You can help us unleash the power in Formidable, allow more people to build bigger sites in less time, and change your own life while you're at it.
Don't undervalue your work, and don't let your insecurities show in your pricing. CaboPress helped me see that WordPress plugins everywhere are underpriced and undervalued. Every plugin saves you time while building a site, and plugins like Formidable allow you to add features to your site you wouldn't think possible. But the price tags on these vital plugins don't reflect that they are indeed vital to your site.
I ripped off Chris Lema. He didn't charge us nearly enough for an inclusive resort, Ruth's Chris, taxi rides, a pirate ship sunset cruise, life-long friendships, hours of unrestrained coaching from the best in the community, and tools to change lives everywhere.
Great post, it was fantastic meeting you and Steve, keep up the good work!
The best is yet to come...
You too! Thanks to you and Erika for all the laughs! Let's do it again sometime.
Thanks for sharing Steph. Congratulations on identifying a compelling future for your business.
The WordPress industry is an unregulated free market with low barriers to entry. People can charge what they like, and customers can chose whether to purchase or not. Profits are crucial to enable investment - too low and development stagnates, too high and new entrants appear.
I view Formidable Pro as the 'swiss army knife' of forms plugins - which I can see both helps and hinders your options. Your planned strategy to focus on a branded core platform and let others enhance through applications sounds like a very smart move. But of course ultimately the market will decide.
Dollars will speak louder than words!
Good luck
Ben
Hey Steph,
It was a pleasure meeting you and Steve at CaboPress! I enjoyed our breakfasts as well. You're totally right, we did rip Chris off. I thought I would learn a lot, I didn't realize that my entire perspective would be changed (while having a great time to boot). Good luck on your future endeavors and be sure to keep in touch!
Justin
Well said Steph. I feel the same way in that the CaboPress experience was worth every penny, and it was great to get to know you all.
Best wishes as you and Steve move forward with Formidable.
Hi Steve & Steph,
It was so great to meet you both! Entering the WordPress space was a life-changing moment for me too, and CaboPress was simply fantastic.
After just spending a bit of time on your blog here, I can genuinely see that you guys bend over backwards for your users/customers. I like your style! I can't wait to see Formidable (and any other projects you guys are working on) progress.
I've been a Formidable Pro user since about 2010. 5 years in I can easily say that this plugin has opened me to a new world of possibilities. While I haven't quite figured out where and how I can use all of my resources to develop a constant revenue, I see the potential and have to come up with a plan for taking something I enjoy and making it either my life or a hobby that I can turn into doing a little extra for my family.
I think that Formidable Pro is a steal at the price it is now. I can certainly see that there is a need to increase revenue to be able to grow and support the plugin.
I'm certain that I would not have been exposed to this plugin if it hadn't been for the low pricing. You are simply not going to have the community you do without low pricing. People will not look twice at a product that is overpriced. Anyone who has dealt with Formidable Pro knows that you almost cannot stick a price on the value of Formidable, but people on the outside looking in will not have that comfort. I would look at developing additional revenue in "extending" the plugin. The base plugin itself needs to have a value over the cost to create a product in which the consumer needs no conscious mind set to say this is something they need to have. It should be a no-brainer that purchasing the base plugin will get done without much rational thought.
I see 15 add-ons that were developed for Formidable pro that cost absolutely nothing. I don't know what sort of analytics your looking at when determining the use and need of these add-ons, but I know you've used the user voice service and now the Formidable support system. My opinion is that you should be targeting a different source of revenue in the form of "above and beyond" work. Maybe these add-ons don't get nearly the support to increase revenue where you need it to be, but another source of evaluating a sustainable revenue should be what is entertained in your decision making process.
It is clear to me that the movement of proprietary software to SAAS is the trend as it presents a regular revenue in places where you might have customers sitting on a product for years without grabbing the latest release and then complaining about the lack of features or support. I work in engineering and most of the products we work with have transitioned to SAAS. Adobe was the first product to do it and then Office 365 came about and now many others. My studies have been focused on web design/development. Working with Formidable and following trends has helped me confirm my feelings that my work needs to be geared to mesh everything together as a sustainable recurring revenue. I've raised this question in the help desk in regards to me being able to pass along Formidable as SAAS from a developer aspect.
While this was a friendly event, I believe a not so straightforward scare has been placed upon the team in terms of someone with experience pointing to the possibility of failure at some point in the future with the outlook as is. Is it about lining your pockets? It is a little bit. What's the point of it all if you can't turn a profit? It's going to be a challenge to make these decisions to place yourselves into the place where you need to be. I just hope you are able to make the right decision.
I hold a Masters degree in Psychology and learnt all my coding through tutorials, stackoverflow and our friend Google. I am planning of foraying into the online world and start my own online business. The reason I am mentioning this is because my view points are not from a developer's perspective but from someone for whom Formidable is a means to an end.
It took me more than a year to become comfortable with and learn basic coding. A year and a half back when I had just started, I was looking for a basic form plugin and came across Gravity and Formidable. I tested the free version of formidable and a copy of Gravity I got from a friend. Even though Gravity has a huge fan base and a lot of add-ons I decided to go with formidable because somehow I was comfortable using it and my instinct was telling me to. I went for unlimited license since I wanted priority support. Also I searched through Gravity support and learnt it's shit. There were support topics that were weeks old without a response.
Today, I have 2 major sites waiting to go live and they are 100% dependent on formidable. I have used formidable for registration, commenting, posting, likes, directory, forum, social networking, user messaging, contests, surveys, polling and what not. The support I got from Steph and Jamie during my initial days was EXTRAORDINARY. I had never seen any developer who was so helpful, patient and kind with users. I asked stupid questions but NEVER got stupid answers. Even though custom code is not supported, I was provided with complete tested codes. At that time when I knew nothing of coding and had doubts about my ability, Steph and Jamie kind of became my mentors. Formidable made me believe that making a good site is not rocket science.
I reside in India and a dollar in India is sixty times our local currency. So $85 is 5,500 for me. Having said that this is my second year of support and I didn't blink before renewing. I totally support the price increase and I believe the team totally deserves it.
I also agree a bit with @robert clapp. I would not have bought formidable if it hadn't been for the low pricing. So people who are not yet exposed to formidable and its potential will think twice if the price is too high. Hence, the price needs be reasonable enough that it doesn't scare away potential customers.
I love Steph and Jamie because they are wonderful human beings. My life certainly changed because of Formidable and the beautiful team with beautiful souls.
Here's to changing lives!!
Hi Steph
Just wanted to add my opinion...
Firstly I wanted to let you know how much I value your plugin. It was the first plugin I've paid for and the support I have received has been fantastic! It being the first plugin I've paid for has opened my eyes to paying for that extra service that you might not get when downloading a free plugin.
The barriers to entry for your plugin are very low and this was my overriding concern when I made the decision to purchase a Pro licence! I tried the free version first, came to your site, saw the potential in paying extra and happily paid for the extra fields etc in the Pro version, which was my overriding reason to do so initially.
Over time, as you all replied to my support requests I have strengthened my opinion that buying a Business licence is worth it, and when my basic licence runs out I will do so.
As for price increases I would be happy to pay extra but perhaps if I could add a suggestion...further tier the support side of things to keep the low barrier to entry on initial purchase. I'd be happy to pay for more than 1 year at a time also if that helps you to plan ahead with reference to business planning etc.
Thank you so much for a great plugin, forgot to mention I love the blog bits about you guys! That also helps to see the fantastic team behind Formidable and that also helps to inspire!
Personally I don't like cheap products for many reasons ...
Products like Formidable forms worth double - triple price without doubt. I don't wanna see in future professional product like Formidable somehow maintained by one person during weekend once per month. Many products around died just bc. wrong/low pricing model.
I am sure, that with good marketing you can find enough paid customers from millions of wp users who are able to pay much more for your product.
Your product is unique, so flexible and powerful doubled with the best support I ever meet in wp world.
Wish you that you will find good path to price/product/service.
I think that it also depends on addons and premium addons. Some of the best plugins have great addons (some free if it is a paid plugin, but all paid if it is a freemium plugin) and also has premium addons whether from the developer or others. In my opinion that is the next big step that formidable pro should consider... yes, I had put together some premium addons, but the larger of a gateway and support that formidable pro provides for this the better the overall experience will be for everyone else as more developers will see the opportunity that formidable pro provides.
As someone that had developed formidable pro addons, I've had people coming to me saying they're considering buying formidable pro depending on what features my addons provide. So, it ends up being a symbiotic relationship in many ways. The better my premium addons are: the more sales that not only I get, but also the more sales that formidable pro itself gets. In my opinion the primary focus should be toward the addons. For example, not everyone will want geolocation services with formidable... some will want to use it as a sales gateway. Some will want to use it as a form on a user profile. Etc etc. These are all things best served via premium plugins (free ones generally are nowhere near as good as the paid version in my opinion).
I also think that future sales should be on a yearly licensing model... not just for support but for the plugin. Especially as the number of premium and free addons grow in number. Yes, it'd produce more competition for me. But it'll also produce more opportunity for both myself and formidable pro as well. 🙂 Not everyone is a developer after all and not everyone understands javascript and php. That is why I think premium addons are so vital and important for growth.
@Bento4Extend - Can you please explain what you mean by, "I also think that future sales should be on a yearly licensing model... not just for support but for the plugin."? Are you saying you think the plugin itself should be renewed, so that it is not usable in the future if you are not currently paying for that license? Hoping you are not saying that, but asking for clarification...
In my opinion it would be for updates and support, but the plugin should continue to work. This is a pretty standard model for many premium plugins, and it helps to continue fund the plugin for any future updates and enhancements that it will receive.
Gotcha. Thank you, btw, for clarifying. You're right...that is how most are set up. Steph, Jamie, and Steve put a lot of effort and dedication into the support for this plugin. As it grows in popularity, it will grow in support requests and needs.
Your product has matured. Your support is best in class and vastly superior to your better known competitor. (IMO) Raising your price and/or charging for some of the more extensive add-ons is reasonable. You have earned it. Not everyone who sells something in WordPress should be raising prices.
I do applaude you for including updates for life in your product. While I'm sure you are forgoing some revenue you are certainly making it clear to everyone up front that you are the kind of people everyone wants to deal with. And that makes me happy to pay for support when I need to use it - which I hope is soon.
Hi everyone.
It is difficult for me to read all the comments above, and follow the entire discussion. I hope my suggestion is not already given elsewhere before me but here it is anyway:
I see that Formidable support is consuming a great deal of resources. Why not keep the plugin price around its current range, sell add-ons to increase revenue and sell incident based support? I would pay the current 1 year support price for say 10 incidents. If I get more business and I need more incidents I just include the price of 10 more incidents in my fee to my customer. If not, I will not be forced to overpay for something I am not consuming. This way the support will become sustenable and independent and development will have its own revenue stream.
Formidable is an incredible product. The plugin and excellent support has proved itself and justified any price increases. Irrespective of what has influenced a price change, the decision is a commercial one and necessary if it is to continue to mature and evolve into an even greater product. The founders have always been fair and genuine and deserve to benefit from this