Automate banner purchases

[KaitoX]

It took me a bit of self kicking to work up this post. Was rather tempted to run to Mark or Basti with it seeing as I want to keep this one to myself for a while before letting it go public. That being said if you wish to step up to take the commission contact me privately. Anyone wishing to help pay the bill for getting this made in exchange for getting an early bird copy please make that private as well.

There are a few specifics I need. First being cooperation between this plugin and the current ad slots. (A, B, C, and D) and would prefer it to be built with additional slots in mind should they exist.

The second major feature is the ability to accept payments via the same payment methods that premium membership already accepts.

The third major feature is the features available to the user. I wish to have a user simply visit a page and be able to choose to pay by banner impressions, or time period. For example buy 500,000 impressions or unlimited impressions for a week. I also wish for them to be able to choose to auto-renew or make it one time.

The back end for me I wish to be able to set up the various packages. Time lengths for the unlimited, and count for the impressions. I also wish to receive email notification so I can approve the new ads just like wish reviews and such. I also wish for it to refuse png files. jpg, jpeg and gif are fine.

Another feature I am thinking about but am not sure if it is problematic or not, is to have the plugin confirm exact dimensions of an image to make sure it perfectly fits the proper slot without throwing the layout off by being to small or to large.

Please feel free to contribute or discuss. Also please do not take my slow responses as me having bailed out of the project. My internet connection is going to be intermittent for the next 5-10 days (7 days if things go absolutely perfectly the way I plan) so I am primarily using a dated smart phone for communication.

Do you know how hard it was to type this all with one finger with an onscreen keyboard?

 

[Mark]

I will reply in greater detail tomorrow... but just wanted to give props now for typing all that with onscreen keyboard!

 

[KaitoX]

So nobody wants the job?

 

[Mark]

Part of the problem is its a planned feature (has been on the list since 0.2 or so) but its a very big job and has never been given the priority it deserves. Further, we have never figured out a way to handle sponsored development of core features. We have a catch here that we need to sort out that will be fair for everyone.

We know the cost of this plugin is around $400 worth of time
We know that cost should be equally split among the users
We dont really want to sell "premium plugins" separate, but realize that might be the only way

but that is a whole nother topic...

 

[KaitoX]

That is quite outside the range I was hoping to pay.

On a side note I would suggest selling copies. If it costs 400 to make it then figure sell copies at 10 dollars a piece. Roughly a week after the 40th copy is sold then throw it into the core download. Make it a premium plugin until your personal costs have been offset then include it in the core.

I've done this with other projects I've been a part of. It has always been a success but naturally the last couple people who buy it before it goes free tend to complain. Thus why I suggest waiting a week before putting it out that way their 10 dollars is still getting them premium access to it for a fair time before it is out.

This has a secondary bonus of having a handful of people doing some nice bug testing at a time before suddenly the whole community is scrambling to post bug reports in 5-6 different locations all at once.

As long as they realize they are not paying for the plugin but rather they are paying for 'early bird access' to the plugin.

Trying to open a micro purchase store for plugins will increase the revenue and the amount of work your team will be able to put in but I feel it would ruin the spirit of this place as well as reduce new customer turnover.

 

[Mark]

yup you outlined most of the problems and why we are still "stuck" trying to figure out a way to handle this that is fair. Selling early bird access is not a bad idea, but I am not sure I like the approach as its not fair to everyone... and we might only sell 10 copies, I suspect many would wait for the plugin to be made free.

Large plugins also require ongoing maintenance and support, when 40 people are using a plugin chances are high there is also a non stop list of feature requests, and since they paid for it... some people have very high expectations. Just another layer to consider.

For a $29 product with 2 developers finding the right balance is tricky.

I'll talk with basti and we'll come up with something

 

[top50servers]

I love the fact that you have thought about your post, this is quiet the effort. Full props to you my friend.

Here are some quick fixes I feel will help you out until a decision is made on the future of this post.

The back end for me I wish to be able to set up the various packages. Time lengths for the unlimited, and count for the impressions. I also wish to receive email notification so I can approve the new ads just like wish reviews and such. I also wish for it to refuse png files. jpg, jpeg and gif are fine.

Obviously the first thing I can say is that you could do all this manually. I know you want to automate it but you could set up a custom page with a form to select what package they want and then just process manually. Unless your toplist is HUGE you should spend no longer then an hour a day doing this. On the further issue, PNG files are the much larger of the 3 so simply putting a limit on the file size (won't stop but) reduce the chances of people using it. YouTube makes me use jpeg because PNG is to large.

Another feature I am thinking about but am not sure if it is problematic or not, is to have the plugin confirm exact dimensions of an image to make sure it perfectly fits the proper slot without throwing the layout off by being to small or to large.

If you go into CSS you can add an attribute that will limit the size of the file. If you apply this to the image that is {$title} or whatever then image for users is that should 'force' the image to fit within your theme. Of course you can once again choose the size of the maximum image on your admin panel.

I know this doesn't answer all your questions or provide any development help, but these are some quick fixes that could help you out. Any questions post below.