Lessons in Plugin Development
Successes and Failures of a Large Free Plugin
About me
- Senior Web Engineer - 10up
- HigherEd Developer
- Southern Illinois University
- St. Edward's University
- Teacher
- Educator
Better WP Security
(now iThemes Security)
The Numbers
- 
- Started in 2010
- < 50,000 downloads in March 2012
- 1,000,000 downloads in August 2013
- 2,000,000 downloads in April 2014
- 4,250,000 downloads when I left the project in February 2015
- Donation Income
- $400 in 2011
- $4,000 in 2012
- $26,000 in 2013
Why?
- I needed to "scratch an itch."
- Campus was under heavy attack
- I didn't want to join in
- Too many plugins and other tools to trust
- I wanted a side project
- I wanted to be a better developer
What I did right
Scratch someone else's itch
Go BIG or go home
Release often
A video is worth 10,000 words...
...but a personal appearance is even better
You know what you're doing
Don't be afraid to say it!
Go global... Ask for translations
Ir mundial ... Pregunte por traducciones
الى العا لمية ... اسأل عن الترجمات
Дэлхийн Go ... орчуулгыг асуу
ไปทั่วโลก ... ขอแปล
Jdi globální ... Zeptejte se na překlady
Don’t forget to ask for donations
and ratings
Listen
Be ready to say NO
Know when to ask for help
Areas where I could have improved
Keeping up with support requests
Underestimated the user base
Where's the data?
We don't need no stinkin beta
Unit tests are a waste of time
It's hard to ask for help
New features !== a better product
Why Leave???
- Time for a new challenge
- Time for new projects