[Wayne]

First of all I would like to say that your ‘Connections’ plug-in is awesome, I like the concept of customisation with short-codes (it is taking a little time to wrap my head around some of it, however once I do it is rather cool).

In the near future will you be having an extension or as an added feature to allow monetization of your plug-in (if you don’t already have an alternate solution to this)?

There are two paths (concepts) I would like my users to choose between:

Path one – They pay for a year of access to posting/editing their listing with a user type of ‘Author’. When if they allow their year to expire, their listing become locked as ‘unlisted’ (not deleted) and their user access drops to ‘subscriber’. They would still have access their content however no one else will see it. Once they renew their paid access, their user type becomes ‘Author’ again and their listing unlocks and returns to its previous status.

Path two – Have it so that their listing remains up and their user access is ‘Contributor’ as long as they have a link back to my site from theirs. If they remove the link, their listing become locked as ‘unlisted’ (not deleted) and their user access drops to ‘subscriber’. Again they would still have access their content however no one else will see it.

Really the only thing needed from your plug-in for both paths is the ability to change and/or lock listing status (Public/Private/Unlisted) based on user type. Path two will also need a way to track link-backs as well, this may possibly be a feature or extension for your Connections to develop or to use someone else’s plug-in to do the task (if such exists).

I might also create a new user type ‘non-profit’ that would keep their listing status unchanged/unlocked (not expire), however they would get an email notice asking that they login and update their listing (email reminders perhaps a possible add-on feature/extension for your plug-in). Again this would likely be handled by another plug-in, however I thought I would mention it just in case you might have some thoughts on it.

[Steven Zahm]

@ NetWarden

Yes, I do plan on creating extensions so that there are monetization opportunities. When? I can not begin to say with any accuracy that you could plan on. I shooting for this year. My first stab will be a integration plugin, a “bridge” between Connections and Restrict Content Pro. If that goes well, I’ll move to integrate with other member plugins.

[Wayne]

Why build a bridge?

As mentioned earlier the only ability I really need from your plug-in to monetize it is the ability to change and/or lock listing status (Public/Private/Unlisted) based on user type just like how you can allow/disallow editing/publishing based on user type.

Then from there I can control the listings with a third party plug-in of my choosing or manually control it.

Toll bridge

I noticed that you have chosen a plug-in to integrate (be compatible with) ‘Restrict Content Pro’ which is a paid plug-in. Not that I don’t like supporting programmers, however I would like the freedom to choose what plug-in I use and pay for. My solution above would leave the option open to the users of your plug-in. Then after that if you wish to introduce better compatibility with third party plug-ins of your choosing then go for it.

[Steven Zahm]

@ NetWarden

Changing entry status based on user role is an interesting idea. Certainly one I hadn’t even considered. I’ve attached a code snippet which you can tweak to suit your needs.

Why bridge/connector extensions?

Thru supporting many users, I found it is very common to find that they are already using a membership plugin. By integrating with the popular membership plugins (the ones that have an API) I can provide them with a seamless experience using what they already have setup. Having their users have to do multiple purchases would likely be very bad for conversions.

I will be doing my own at some point, but this is very complex because you have to deal with new submissions, renewals, expiration, upgrades, downgrades, featured, feature within category, limiting number of category (packages), email notices, multiple payment gateways and so on…

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