Processing add-on sales through here

[Parsnip]

I've developed a few add-ons for my own forum and have been thinking about putting them up here, maybe with the hope of even selling them.

But one thing that really bugs me when buying add-ons is that the purchasing process and licensing always seems to be handled by the developer's third party website. I really have no desire to sign up for accounts all over the place, and as a developer the time-suck of running another website and user forum would be something I could do without.

Seeing as though the resources area here seems to handle the support side of things pretty well, it's only natural that the add-on payment handling and licensing should run through here too.

Are there any plans to introduce that in the near future, or are we pretty much left to our own devices?

 

[Paul B]

The RM does not support payment processing so it's not something which can be changed.

All paid add-ons must be hosted externally, with payment taken by a third party site/process.

 

[Parsnip]

Thanks for the quick reply. I know that I'd be likely to try out more add-ons if everything was handled here, and that I'd prefer to spend my time working on my own forums and add-ons rather than dealing with taking payments etc. However, I see that one way to handle it is with a third party Xenforo install and add-ons.

 

[Paul B]

For add-on authors, typically it's much easier to manage and control using your own support site.

On this site it's a single thread per add-on, which is not ideal for complex add-ons which may require multiple forums related to support, configuration, sales, etc.

So even if payment processing support is added in the future, you may find that a lot of authors will continue to use their own sites to distribute and support their add-ons.

 

[Parsnip]

Fair point, I imagine a ticketing system would eventually come in handy too.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Thanks for the quick reply. I know that I'd be likely to try out more add-ons if everything was handled here, and that I'd prefer to spend my time working on my own forums and add-ons rather than dealing with taking payments etc. However, I see that one way to handle it is with a third party Xenforo install and add-ons.

Wouldn't that be a bit of a legal minefield? Even if xenForo disclaimed responsibilty, some people would still blame xenforo if something goes wrong.

 

[Parsnip]

There's plenty of large sites selling themes, plugins, etc for all sorts of blogging, forum and ecommerce software so it would probably be not much of a concern.

 

[Robust]

A lot of developers would still prefer to sell via their site. It's a lot better for a lot of reasons. Even if XF implemented such feature, I'd imagine it wouldn't be used.

It isn't too hard to register on some more sites. Usually developers that ask for registration have more than one add-on they sell and registration takes a minute or two tops. I'm sure it wouldn't cause you to deviate much from your day.

 

[Brad Padgett]

Still you can direct it to a private message can't you? At least that's what I recall. If you use paypal or some other form of payment you could deal with selling the mod off-site. Though it's not as professional, I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Robust]

It's not organised. We don't offer any support here at all. Our support is offered through a ticket system and nowhere else. VAT invoices are created via our website automatically and offered to customers.

A lot happens automatically on the website. Having to use private messages and do everything manually is not only inefficient and a waste of time for us, but it will result in poorer service to the customer.

It's really not hard to register, though. If you have any suggestions to speed up the process they'd perhaps be more feasible to implement. But trading completely on an external site isn't easy or convenient.

 

[Parsnip]

I understand your reasoning Robust, but as a buyer, I'd be more likely to try out add-ons if I didn't need to register on an external site that I may never end up needing to visit again. Taking time to sign up is not the concern here, it's the dozens of user accounts out there on sites with questionable security practices that I'd prefer to avoid.

An option to purchase/checkout without requiring a user account is one solution. Purchasers can always sign up later if they continue using the add-on and require support. After abandoning many add-ons over the years, I'm a bit more selective now.

As a casual developer primarily for my own needs, setting up my own external site is a barrier to sharing these with the community if I would like to receive any payment for them. So in that case I'd probably take the simplest option in the early days at least.