Plugin Marketplaces - worth it?

[bassc]

So there are various plugin marketplaces on the go such as:

ADSR Sounds
AudioDelux
Best Service - ~50% commission
JRR Shop
Plugin Alliance
Plugin Boutique - 40% commission
Time and Space

I wondered what developers opinions of using these services were?

I guess the promotion and taking care of the purchasing/invoicing aspect is great and convenient, but their commission rates seem very high. So is it worth it and do some fair better than others?

Edit: I will update commissions above.

[Markus Krause]

We are using ShareIt and Best Service as distributors.
Best Service takes around 50%. Which is a lot. After taxes only 20% remains for our families. Really frustrating.
ShareIt takes around 10%. But you need to setup your own shop.

[bassc]

Thanks Markus, yes I feel that is far too much, especially after all the effort developers are putting in plus it is driving up plugin prices. Would be interested to hear if the others are similar as it would be worth championing those who offer a fairer service.

[roman.i]

Thanks Markus, yes I feel that is far too much, especially after all the effort developers are putting in plus it is driving up plugin prices. Would be interested to hear if the others are similar as it would be worth championing those who offer a fairer service.

Hi, I'm not a plugin developer, but I've worked for few years in a marketing/advertising agency.
Of course 50% is very expensive just for setting your plugins in a shop and handling sales. It's purely technical and you can estimate and compare the cost of this service. Obviously it should be cheaper than 50%.
But the main, and the most expensive part of it is the advertising, and you cannot compare this by just looking at the commission rate. It depends on how many sales they can bring, comparing to their rivals.
So it really depends on your profit targets, choose the cheapest way to reach them. If the cheap marketplace cannot bring the amount of sales you need, add more expensive one etc.

[bassc]

I appreciate what you say Roman, but this is why I'm asking for experience of these services over conjecture to determine if there is real world benefit to effectively giving half your business away to these services.

[hugoderwolf]

I appreciate what you say Roman, but this is why I'm asking for experience of these services over conjecture to determine if there is real world benefit to effectively giving half your business away to these services.

That framing (giving half the business away), implies that sales through such a platform are sales you would have made anyway (e.g. through your own webshop).

On the other hand, if you frame it as sales that the platform brings in on top of what you'd usually sell, it is basically free money.

The truth is somewhere in between, but probably biased towards the latter.

[binaryoblivion]

It would be interesting to hear from developers who use this forum and distribute on those marketplaces. I assume those developers have weighed up the income they lose in commissions against the increased sales, and decided that it is financially worthwhile.

My impression is that the marketing machine of popular marketplaces such as Plugin Boutique will put your plugin in front of many more eyeballs than an indie developer can achieve on their own.

Plugin Boutique distributed a free plugin of mine for a couple of years, but that's not much use as a case study, since it didn't help or harm my non-existent income!

[bassc]

^Yep exactly ob. A lot of plugin developers are on the platform, but many are not and are choosing to do their own thing and also see success.

But it also seems most marketplaces if not all want you to already have a website with a sales channel anyway, i.e. they want established plugin manufactures who are already selling from indie to large companies, so the comparison should be straightforward if anyone wishes to divulge. I also can't believe some of the larger companies are giving that much away in revenue (unless their primary website is a much stronger sales channel), so I'd image there must be some sort of deal cut with them but who knows. Are indie developers getting the worst deal here?

Re marketing, I'm not sure how effective the likes of Plugin Boutique is. They're on social media, boost posts, the odd YouTube video, and of course bombard your inbox daily with offers (too much for me), so are certainly going through the basic motions but at the same time seem quite spammy to me. Much of this is easily achievable anyway and doesn't take any longer than passing the press release to them. It's whether the name prestige means that much more to people. To me it doesn't, and is just a means to an end.

[syntonica]

I don't think the ease of payment processing warrants the high commission rates. Especially when you can go with a, say, 5% charge for cc processing and handle your own spamming via social media and email. KVR already offers a free "in" for consumers who can give you some word-of-mouth to start building an empire.

I dunno. Maybe giving away half your money is worth it to some for those who just want to program, not deal with customers and watch the dollars roll in.

[Urs]

Hmmm, ShareIt takes less than 5% from us for anything that's more expensive than about 20€.

[hugoderwolf]

I dunno. Maybe giving away half your money is worth it to some for those who just want to program, not deal with customers and watch the dollars roll in.

That's exactly what it depends on. Payment processing isn't worth 50%. But a relationship to customers may be. If you don't have one, or don't want to have one, you can pay someone for the relationship.

Cutting out the middle man only works if you're able to replace him. It depends on a lot of factors to make this individual decision. And I guess businesses who are able to maintain a good customer relationship and fanbase are much much better off generally. But still you have to want it. It's a decision that can be made consciously, and it depends on the decision if it's about "giving away 50%" or "paying someone to make me more money".

[syntonica]

Hmmm, ShareIt takes less than 5% from us for anything that's more expensive than about 20€.

That's actually quite a deal for a cc processor that also handles a number of other tasks for you.

[Urs]

Some resellers do advertisement, go to trade shows and even produce tutorial videos. There's quite a variety of what you get for your percentage out there.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Do not count on Plugin Boutique in a general case - you are competing with 100 other plugin developers for exposure there. Admittedly, some "hit" plug-ins do fare well on their market place, but an average plugin won't perform well.

[Youlean]

Marketplaces are a great way to sell something if you are just starting out, but they ultimately control your future. If your stuff is not selling well, they will stop promoting and you are basically dead.

Also, there is one thing that bugs me out and that is their cut. If they have permission to do with the pricing whatever they want as long as you are getting your part, they can easily undercut you in price every time, also, they can basically devalue your product with frequent sales.