Author: Byron

Up until recently, product placement in free WordPress plugins has always been a challenging task. We have seen numerous methods utilized by developers. Some included banner ads on the plugin options page, others released “lite” versions of the plugins, some used lightbox popups in the backend to promote, but none of those methods were as appealing as the one we see emerging. It was first done by Automattic in their Jetpack plugin, and now WooThemes is following the lead with their newest creation called WooDojo. Since there is no name for this product placement model, we will take the liberty of calling it “The Teaser Model”. You are probably wondering what is this Teaser Model? Basically the teaser model allows you to list a bunch of features into one big dashboard where you can simply activate the ones you want. However, some features in the list will be commercial. So you see what the options does, but you have to pay to get it.

The most interesting aspect of “The Teaser Model” is that it is a really creative way for commercial plugins to enter the WordPress plugins repository. Note: Commercial plugins are NOT allowed in the plugin repository (and unlike commercial themes, there is no commercial plugins listing on WordPress.org).

So let’s take a look at exactly what this “Teaser Model” entails and how this can be abused.

We will use Jetpack as an example case-study. So when you first activate Jetpack (a FREE plugin), it does NOT work right off the bat. You MUST have a WordPress.com account for it to work. So when you access the Jetpack screen, you will see a list of all available features. In between a bunch of FREE options, there is VaultPress (a paid plugin promo).

It is important to note, that we have nothing against VaultPress. As a matter of fact, we use it on our sites. So basically, once you connect to WordPress.com all other features will become available except for VaultPress (Because you have to buy it).

We noticed this a while ago and thought this was creative. But recently with the launch of WooDojo, we think this idea has potential of becoming the next trend. Here is a look at how Woo is doing their product placement:

Now while they are only promoting their other FREE plugins, this idea has potential. We wouldn’t be surprised if WooCommerce (that has a good number of paid extensions) actually adapt the widget style look for their backend (up-selling the PAID extensions).

So you are wondering how this model could be abused creatively? Basically any PAID plugin can use this model to work their way into the repository, get new user-registration (emails etc), and up-sell their paid products.

Anyone can simply require users to “Connect” with their site. Connecting would mean the user MUST create an account (free account, but you can upsell the paid options on the membership page). Even if it is a FREE account, you can STILL collect their emails. The user has no choice but to connect otherwise the plugin will not work. Once they have connected to your service, you can implement one-click buy/install features. Since you have their email address (because they are your user), you can use it to up-sell your new products.

Do you think this is the future of product placement in Free WordPress plugins? Would love to hear the community’s thoughts on this. It would also be interesting to see if more developers shift their development model this way. Rather than creating numerous small plugins, should they bundle all of their products into one place? This would also influx the count of downloads because often people might download the plugin just for one feature out of the many that it may offer. But the total download count will be significantly higher.

If you have been playing around with WordPress 3.3 (Live Demo included) like us, then you have probably adapted to the new admin bar. Quite honestly, we love the new admin bar design. It is very clean looking (until plugin authors break it). As a plugin author, you have a lot of freedom, but you also have a huge responsibility. There are hooks available for plugin authors to add dashboard widgets, admin bar menus etc. But what happens when a lot of plugin authors start adding their items into the admin bar? We end up with utter chaos for users with smaller resolution (not mobile). Majority of us developers are using screen sizes over 1600px. But there are still users that are on 1200px or 1024px resolutions. Heck even with 1600 resolutions, all it takes is 10 plugins to break the admin bar. Take a look at the screenshot below:

O and if you have 10 plugins adding to the admin bar on a resolution like 1200px or so. You will have the menus drop to the second line as well along with the Howdy area.

So what do we propose?

We need to have an admin bar menu called “More” as a drop down. Similar to how Google has it.

In this more drop down, all plugins will be dropped there. This would allow plugin authors to stick to a specific user-interface (UI) which will deliver a better user experience. This will also prevents any inconsistency. If you notice in the first screenshot above W3 Total Cache plugin is shown after the search. That is just inconsistent. Frederick probably had his permission level to be 1000 or something to ensure that his plugin ends up on the last spot (which will guarantee it more exposure). Up until WordPress 3.2, it was great. But with WordPress 3.3, the search is no longer floated right, which makes it look weird for beginners.

All we are saying is that we need a more consistent user-interface.

Next issue is how do we prevent abuse with the more dropdown? Plugin authors are just adding their items to the admin bar thinking it is important. But it doesn’t matter what they think. Users should have a choice in this matter. Just because we are using the plugin WP-Bitly doesn’t mean that all of our editors have to see “Shortlink” menu in the admin bar. There should be a way to remove a menu item from the admin bar if the user doesn’t want it there.

What do you think? Do we need a more dropdown for the WordPress admin bar? Would love to hear your thoughts.