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View Full Version : Pricing a digital purchase



rezzy
08-27-2009, 08:12 AM
Hello all,

I am working on developing a Wordpress theme, and cant not determine what a good price is.

I am caught between two pricing schemes, one where I charge $20- 25 or where I charge $60-70. I have considered offering a price incentive to people who sign up for hosting, maybe offer the theme for 20, if they create an account.

What are you thoughts on this?

vangogh
08-27-2009, 01:00 PM
I don't know that there's an automatic price point. In the end you probably need to test and see which works best. Some thoughts though.

The quality of your theme and what it is in comparison with others on the market will help determine where to price it.

At the lower price it might seem more desirable, but people do have a tendency to assume higher price means more quality even if that's not necessarily true.

You also want to consider your distribution system. If you're selling the theme somewhere where you think a lot of people will see it and consider buying then the lower price could make more sense as you would likely be able to sell more.

The more you sell the more support requests you'll be getting. At the higher price point you might sell less themes, but overall it might be the better option as you won't have to spend as much time supporting the theme.

The price incentive makes sense. In fact you could even offer the theme for free to anyone who signs up for hosting. The hosting is where you'd make your money and the theme is just something to help selling the hosting.

orion_joel
08-27-2009, 09:02 PM
In my opinion pricing a digital product is always a difficult task. The primary reason being, it is digital, often people have a harder time parting with their money over a digital purchase. That is unless you can find a way to communicate the value that they will be getting in paying the price you ask.

So really just in different words then Vangogh, it is dependent on the market and what the template will offer. Of course support will be an issue with whatever price point, so it may be worth testing it a little with a couple of people, to see how easy or difficult they find it, and how compatible it is with other adds on and such.

Finally it really comes down to what you are offering as the product. If it is a new style of theme, just really altering the look, you will probably be looking at closer to the low end of pricing. While if it is a new style, with the ability to tweak almost all the aspects of the theme without ever touching the code or stylesheet, that may be worth a higher price.

vangogh
08-28-2009, 01:37 AM
I think it depends on the digital product. I've bought ebooks I wanted to read and I buy software all the time online. Neither is an impulse buy though.

If I didn't build them myself I'd buy themes online too. One other thing to consider is all the free themes available. The average person isn't going to realize the extra work you've put into the code. They're most likely to buy based on the design since it's what they see. And you will have to expect support requests.

rezzy
08-28-2009, 03:03 PM
With that said, is it better start high? And lower? How do I judge if the price point is right?

Should this all be on a feeling? Lastly, how do i protect it from other people selling it?

billbenson
08-29-2009, 01:33 PM
Should this all be on a feeling? Lastly, how do i protect it from other people selling it?
Develop it locally or via htaccess, only allow access it the root from your IP. I'm assuming your are talking about seeing it during development.

Harold Mansfield
08-29-2009, 04:58 PM
Just to give you a buyers perspective,
I purchase themes all the time, even if I don't have an application for them yet. I have paid from $20 and up.
For me it all comes down to the design and configurable options. Support is also a key factor. If it's from a designer that I have never purchased from, I always check the support page ,or forum and see the feedback from previous buyers and how quick any questions are answered. If days or weeks go buy where people don't get a response, I don't buy the theme.

For me, $80 and under is about what I expect to pay, I haven't really seen too many themes worth more than that.
At the higher end of the price spectrum I expect a solid back end to customize it to my liking, and functions and options that are in tune with what I need and like, although I have paid $30 for some really fabulous themes that I would have paid more for, and $75 for themes that I don't use at all and probably won't.

After buying so many themes over the years, I really look for something truly original. Less of a "bloggy" feel and more like a static website. If it's good and I can customize it to my liking, I will pay the price.

So, IMO, if you are going to price it low you should list it with a reputable theme club that does a lot of traffic, if go for a higher price option, you should make sure your support is in order.

rezzy
08-30-2009, 08:41 AM
Develop it locally or via htaccess, only allow access it the root from your IP. I'm assuming your are talking about seeing it during development.

Are there any methods to stop other people from purchasing it and reselling. Since it is a digital copy, is there any type of protection I can build in to protect someone from undercutting my price with my own copy?

Harold Mansfield
08-30-2009, 12:44 PM
A lot of designers, besides including a license, send access to support that coincides with the purchase so that only the purchaser can access support, and make the download link only accessible for 2 or 3 downloads.

Others offer a free version with less features, and no support.

There is really no way to stop someone from passing along the files once they have downloaded them.

I have seen people on support forums attempting to get help with an unlicensed copy only to have the theme author tell them they are using an unauthorized copy.

Basically you can find just about any digital file on P2P networks. It's a problem everyone has. If you see an offender you just have to police it yourself.
Maybe Vangogh has a better insight into this.

billbenson
08-30-2009, 01:14 PM
You could bury in it a file a couple of lines of code that sends an email with the domain and user to you once a month? Most people stealing the template won't know enough php to find that.

rezzy
08-31-2009, 10:52 AM
You could bury in it a file a couple of lines of code that sends an email with the domain and user to you once a month? Most people stealing the template won't know enough php to find that.

I was actually thinking about something like that. Or some type of kill switch for unauthorized licenses.

vangogh
08-31-2009, 11:31 AM
Bryan you can build in some kind of protection, but I'd suggest you'd be be better off not doing that. Unless you're positive that your theme is so much better than all the hundreds of others that exist any kind of copy protection will only limit sales. Also if you release a theme in compliance with the GPL then you have the possibility of having it supported by WordPress. The distribution you would get with the WP support is going to count more than having some people redistribute your theme.

Most people may not find that line of code, but someone will.

rezzy
09-01-2009, 01:52 AM
The idea isnt really for this product. I have things I am working on, and I have considered offering them for sale. The only problem with building in a back door is what happens when it malfunctions.

Then youve got closed site, and an angry customer!

vangogh
09-01-2009, 03:12 AM
I can understand. I used to wonder about it myself. I know you can encrypt all or some of your files. It doesn't make it impossible for some to reverse engineer things, but it does make it too difficult for most.

One thing I'm noticing with myself lately is that I'm not happy when any application does that. I just finished working on a site that used a plugin with encrypted files. The plugin did most everything we wanted on the site, but there were a few things we would have liked to change in the way parts of it displayed and couldn't because the presentation was coded directly in the html which was encrypted. I'm now much less likely to recommend the plugin to others or use it myself for future projects. Maybe they prevented me from grabbing their code, but they also will lose some sales in the bargain.

And truthfully nothing the plugin does is anything I or someone else couldn't code on our own. If anything seeing that encrypted plugin only makes me want to offer a competing plugin that is open.