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Show HN: My first try at a WordPress plugin

75 points by thisisdallas 14y ago

bjonathan 14y ago
The plugin seems nice. IMO, you should add all the names of the services compatible in your description (useful to the potential buyer, and for the SEO in Codecanyon) and you could add a screenshot of the plugin admin. Good luck !
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  Hey thanks for the advice! I will definitely get those things added.
bousquetcm 14y ago
Need more screen shots to get a better look. But good effort and show of ambition.
jhaaps 14y ago
There is no such thing as HN worthy. I for one am glad for all the links people post here and click the ones that interest me.
- robodale 14y ago
  I agree - sometimes the best ones are the hacky-ish looking ones that someone busted out in a weekend, posted here and gained many new ideas and insights on things they should do next. Oh, and this Wordpress plugin is not hacky-ish.
- loahou04 14y ago
  I'm with jhaaps on this! As a group i think our industry is very much into sharing anything and everything we have done, its like our bragging rights even if it is just clicking a button or checking a checkbox. I dont know how many times things that are that simple take me hours to find only to find a google search post that has the answer right there for me.
  - lifeisstillgood 14y ago
    I always tell (told) my juniors that Google telling you the answers is not as likely to be remembered in 6 weeks as the answer you found for yourself. And the debugging, test routines you had to write to figure it out will help next time
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  +1 - You made something. Welcome to the show.
- hnriot 14y ago
  But isn't this just thinly disguised advertising?
  - thisisdallas 14y ago
    I can understand how you see it as advertising but in my case it's not. I've needed a plugin like this for several projects and couldn't find anything like it so, as a learning exercise, I decided to build it. The plugin started out as a basic free version I submitted to wordpress.org and after I saw how many people downloaded it I realized it could potentionally be something useful for a few people. I decided to add more features and out of curiosity I threw it up on code canyon just to see what would happen. Making this post on hacker news was also for curiosity's sake. I've never released anything and was curious what the hacker news reaction would be. So far, zero people have bought my plugin but I've had a lot more encouragement and well wishes than I imagined I would get. In my opinion, the encouragement and support is worth a lot more than making a small amount of money :)
    - gknoy 14y ago
      Good job! It's nice to see new things posted, and also refreshing to see the encouragement and constructive criticism that you've been receiving so far. You built something useful, and presented it well. Thank you for sharing it with us!
splatzone 14y ago
I love the design and the icons, but I'm not confident I'd want to spend $7 on something I could probably whip up in a few minutes in HTML + CSS. I can see this being useful to a lot of non-tech-savvy bloggers, though. Good luck.
- tudorizer 14y ago
  A few minutes includes cross-browser testing? I have the feeling that this would take minimum 30-50 minutes. 7$ for that sounds decent, plus re-usable.
  - 67726e 14y ago
    Given the supported browsers (IE9, Firefox 4, Safari 4, Safari 5, Opera, Chrome) I wouldn't think that is a major challenge. Essentially get it working in one and you have it working in all of the rest.
    - dkroy 14y ago
      Yeah if you could get the supported browsers for IE back to IE7, I could see that improving the usefulness of your plugin.
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it. It's funny you mention the price because I thought that was a little high too. Code canyon decides on what price the items sell at, and as far as I know, the author has no control over that. Personally I was thinking maybe around four to five dollars but since commission is only 50% ill be ok with $7 :)
  - mst 14y ago
    Don't worry too much about the "I could make this" people - there's plenty out there who couldn't, and plenty of people who'd rather just spend the money and move on than find out if it's a few minutes' work or not.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
angry-hacker 14y ago
Ok, all this plugin does is uploads your custom description/picture & adds social buttons? Why did even CodeCanyon accepted it... and why people upvote it here on hackernews? It takes 20 minutes to write this plugin...
brianbreslin 14y ago
can you update us in a month on your experiences selling on codecanyon/envato ?
- gawker 14y ago
  I second that. I'd love to hear more about your progress in selling the plugin. Congrats on launching.
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  I will definitely give an update. I know it's possible to get strong sales numbers from themeforest but I honestly haven't heard anything code canyon.
- envex 14y ago
  I'm not 100% sure how the plugin ecosystem on codecanyon, but I was one of the first authors on envato's tutorial marketplace and I'm still getting the odd sale here and there. Not to say that you'll be rich, but the sheer number of users on the site (and lowish cost of each item) means you'll probably make a bit of money. Payments come out each month and there is a limit of $50 per "withdrawl", so because I don't hit that limit very fat anymore, I just use the money in the account to buy random themes and such.
rajupp 14y ago
no demo? not many would be interested to buy without seeing a demo
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  In that case, I'll have a demo up late this afternoon or tonight. Thanks for the suggestion!
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  Ok I got a demo page up.
atox 14y ago
Found a small typo "Each are is optional" Good luck with the sales.
zapt02 14y ago
Not worth $7, there are plenty of plugins that do this for free.
- dutchbrit 14y ago
  So with your logic, the free plugins, even though cost $0, are worth $0? And this includes support (sure, you can find support for free things too).
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
chinmoy 14y ago
You know, you can see all these great talks by all these founders/entrepreneurs, they are always telling that starting is the hardest part. You've already started. Be that a wordpress plug-in or an iOS app. Congratulations and I wish you success.
farms 14y ago
Oh look, we've made over 140, does that count as HN worthy :/

75 points by thisisdallas 14y ago

The plugin seems nice. IMO, you should add all the names of the services compatible in your description (useful to the potential buyer, and for the SEO in Codecanyon) and you could add a screenshot of the plugin admin. Good luck !

thisisdallas 14y ago
Hey thanks for the advice! I will definitely get those things added.

bousquetcm 14y ago

Need more screen shots to get a better look. But good effort and show of ambition.

jhaaps 14y ago

There is no such thing as HN worthy. I for one am glad for all the links people post here and click the ones that interest me.

robodale 14y ago
I agree - sometimes the best ones are the hacky-ish looking ones that someone busted out in a weekend, posted here and gained many new ideas and insights on things they should do next. Oh, and this Wordpress plugin is not hacky-ish.
loahou04 14y ago
I'm with jhaaps on this! As a group i think our industry is very much into sharing anything and everything we have done, its like our bragging rights even if it is just clicking a button or checking a checkbox. I dont know how many times things that are that simple take me hours to find only to find a google search post that has the answer right there for me.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  I always tell (told) my juniors that Google telling you the answers is not as likely to be remembered in 6 weeks as the answer you found for yourself. And the debugging, test routines you had to write to figure it out will help next time
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
+1 - You made something. Welcome to the show.
hnriot 14y ago
But isn't this just thinly disguised advertising?
- thisisdallas 14y ago
  I can understand how you see it as advertising but in my case it's not. I've needed a plugin like this for several projects and couldn't find anything like it so, as a learning exercise, I decided to build it. The plugin started out as a basic free version I submitted to wordpress.org and after I saw how many people downloaded it I realized it could potentionally be something useful for a few people. I decided to add more features and out of curiosity I threw it up on code canyon just to see what would happen. Making this post on hacker news was also for curiosity's sake. I've never released anything and was curious what the hacker news reaction would be. So far, zero people have bought my plugin but I've had a lot more encouragement and well wishes than I imagined I would get. In my opinion, the encouragement and support is worth a lot more than making a small amount of money :)
  - gknoy 14y ago
    Good job! It's nice to see new things posted, and also refreshing to see the encouragement and constructive criticism that you've been receiving so far. You built something useful, and presented it well. Thank you for sharing it with us!

splatzone 14y ago

I love the design and the icons, but I'm not confident I'd want to spend $7 on something I could probably whip up in a few minutes in HTML + CSS. I can see this being useful to a lot of non-tech-savvy bloggers, though. Good luck.

tudorizer 14y ago
A few minutes includes cross-browser testing? I have the feeling that this would take minimum 30-50 minutes. 7$ for that sounds decent, plus re-usable.
- 67726e 14y ago
  Given the supported browsers (IE9, Firefox 4, Safari 4, Safari 5, Opera, Chrome) I wouldn't think that is a major challenge. Essentially get it working in one and you have it working in all of the rest.
  - dkroy 14y ago
    Yeah if you could get the supported browsers for IE back to IE7, I could see that improving the usefulness of your plugin.
thisisdallas 14y ago
Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it. It's funny you mention the price because I thought that was a little high too. Code canyon decides on what price the items sell at, and as far as I know, the author has no control over that. Personally I was thinking maybe around four to five dollars but since commission is only 50% ill be ok with $7 :)
- mst 14y ago
  Don't worry too much about the "I could make this" people - there's plenty out there who couldn't, and plenty of people who'd rather just spend the money and move on than find out if it's a few minutes' work or not.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

angry-hacker 14y ago

Ok, all this plugin does is uploads your custom description/picture & adds social buttons? Why did even CodeCanyon accepted it... and why people upvote it here on hackernews? It takes 20 minutes to write this plugin...

brianbreslin 14y ago

can you update us in a month on your experiences selling on codecanyon/envato ?

gawker 14y ago
I second that. I'd love to hear more about your progress in selling the plugin. Congrats on launching.
thisisdallas 14y ago
I will definitely give an update. I know it's possible to get strong sales numbers from themeforest but I honestly haven't heard anything code canyon.
envex 14y ago
I'm not 100% sure how the plugin ecosystem on codecanyon, but I was one of the first authors on envato's tutorial marketplace and I'm still getting the odd sale here and there. Not to say that you'll be rich, but the sheer number of users on the site (and lowish cost of each item) means you'll probably make a bit of money. Payments come out each month and there is a limit of $50 per "withdrawl", so because I don't hit that limit very fat anymore, I just use the money in the account to buy random themes and such.

rajupp 14y ago

no demo? not many would be interested to buy without seeing a demo

thisisdallas 14y ago
In that case, I'll have a demo up late this afternoon or tonight. Thanks for the suggestion!
thisisdallas 14y ago
Ok I got a demo page up.

atox 14y ago

Found a small typo "Each are is optional" Good luck with the sales.

zapt02 14y ago

Not worth $7, there are plenty of plugins that do this for free.

dutchbrit 14y ago
So with your logic, the free plugins, even though cost $0, are worth $0? And this includes support (sure, you can find support for free things too).
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

chinmoy 14y ago

You know, you can see all these great talks by all these founders/entrepreneurs, they are always telling that starting is the hardest part. You've already started. Be that a wordpress plug-in or an iOS app. Congratulations and I wish you success.

farms 14y ago

Oh look, we've made over 140, does that count as HN worthy :/