Handling paid add ons?

[wang]

Is Xenforo planning to change the way that paid add ons are handled? What I mean is, for xf to step in and organise a build in payment system. Where coders and stylers can sell their work and xf would handle all payment with paypal and pay out all coders and stylers once week on what they have earned from their work.

And it can take a commission for that. Another thing, that I think would be very nice to have, is that all paid add ons and styles be checked out before being approved in the Marketplace. Like Ipb does it. I am selling add ons there and I am very satisified with the way that they handle their Marketplace. I am curious to see what xf staff and coders and designers think about this. Do you see something in the idea or are you satisified with the way that it is now.

 

[Russ]

I did an uneducated break down of a plugin for IPB and its marketplace:

https://theadminzone.com/threads/ho...-handled-on-xf-com.137030/page-2#post-1018596

Spoiler: Copy Paste of my TAZ Post...

A few things to take into consideration...

XF Market isn't exactly the same as Apple's App Store in terms of the amount of audience it reaches.

XF isn't exactly the most feature heavy forum script out there as well. That's not a bad thing but if you keep an eye on the pre-sales forums there's a huge benefit to being able to say you can achieve that with an existing plugin as opposed to simply saying no it requires custom work. The third party market helps XenForo just like XenForo helps the third party market (if they charge for anything).

Also if XF were to vet third party items they would almost have to have all transactions done through the RM and handled by them. I don't know exactly how IPB works but I believe they take a cut of the sales so lets take this as an example and have a little fun with it:
https://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/5386-tutorials/

Goes for $40, not sure if the price has changed at all but we'll say it has been $40 from the start. It was submitted 6 years ago and has 416 sales according to that page. Let's do the math..

$40.00 x 416 = $16, 640.
Let's deduct the initial paypal fees (not even sure what payment options they have). 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction:
$482.56 for the 2.9% + 124.80 for 30 cent transaction fee = $607.36

$16,640 - $607.36 = $16,032.64 going to IPB paypal (again no clue what payment options they have just using paypal as an example for everything).

I ***think*** I read somewhere they take 30% of the sales, so we'll cut that down some more.
30% after paypal fees = around $4800

so... ~$16,032 minus their cut ~$4800 = $11,232.

After the paypal fees taken one more time to transfer from IPB to the author assuming he/she has a premier/business account he'd be charged again maybe 2.9% not entirely sure of the exact details...

$11,232 - $325(for the paypal fees) = $10,907 total end author payout for 416 sales on a $40 plugin over 6 years bringing him around $1800 a year. We'll stop there and not go into taxes on it

Essentially IPB is potentially making ~$800 per year on that single add-on and not even giving support on it? And some XF users want XF to follow the same path? No thank you. And yes I understand that having the ability to post about your paid add-ons on XenForo is essentially free marketing however you're limited to your RM thread now.

As an author myself I love the setup currently. I'm in charge of my customers, I can handle disputes, refunds, coupons, promotions and whatever else I need to because I'm not forced to go through XenForo to handle those kind of things.

 

[wang]

If xenforo will put in that kind of work that it takes to deal with the payment and the checking of the add ons and styles then I think it is normal that they will take a cut of all sales. Ipb deals also with the paypal claims. And if they see that someone files a false claim with paypal about an add on or style, then they block access to the Marketplace to that user. And that alone is worth it, as it spares one a lot of hassle with potential scammers. But I see also where you are coming from.

 

[Russ]

If xenforo will put in that kind of work that it takes to deal with the payment and the checking of the add ons and styles then I think it is normal that they will take a cut of all sales. Ipb deals also with the paypal claims. And if they see that someone files a false claim with paypal about an add on or style, then they block access to the Marketplace to that user. And that alone is worth it, as it spares one a lot of hassle with potential scammers. But I see also where you are coming from.

While that's nice and don't get me wrong, I don't think they should do it for free but I'd rather keep $800 a year to handle the handful of scammers. @Chris D has a Product Manager which makes my job a breeze in regards to selling things on my site. If you make the jump to XF you may want to look into that, you can setup your own XF forums with support areas and run his plugin. Because you're not restricted through a XF marketplace you'll be able to email your customers when you want too, provide coupon codes anytime and choose how you want to setup your own forums .

I appreciate the suggestion for XF, just figured I'd provide my insight on it.

 

[wang]

It looks like a very good mod to have. Thank you for the link. If my mods will sell well here, I will pick up a licence of it and set it up at my forum. And I appreciate your input too.

 

[Alpha1]

There is also a license validation addon that will allow you to only accept registrations from licensed XenForo owners. This reduces the risk of scammers.

 

[wang]

Yes, it looks like a great mod for reducing the risk of scammers. Thank you for posting the link.