peacemaker

I have a wordpress plugins business that earns maybe a couple hundred a month without touching it at all. I know it's not a lot but I sold a similar business a few years back that regularly made $1200-$1500 a month and the products were not as good. The only difference is I'm working so hard on other stuff this hasn't had the time it deserves. Someone with the time and motivation to add a couple of new features and actually advertize it a bit (I've never done any advertizing at all) would make a decent, passive income.

I also own another business that makes about $1500 a month (50/50 adsense & product sales) but does require a few hours a week of effort. I've only just started improving this and expect it to hit $3k a month within 6 months. I'm not seriously considering selling unless I get a really good offer but you never know!

$225k?? For 5 years experience? Not a chance.

You might get somewhere around $100k though which is still a very nice salary in most places. Up to $150k in major hubs.

Herzner do look good, thanks for the suggestion.

Any thoughts on distributing the renders across multiple smaller servers compared to one large one?

Delighted to see the unexpected Diego Forlan story here! Such a great talent and the thing was, EVERYONE wanted him to do well at United. I don't believe it was a case of management or team mates not liking him or not working well together, it was just some strange combination of factors that resulted in his performances never living up to expectations.

It really does draw parallels to other jobs as you say. I recall a company I joined that had a great mission, interesting work, friendly team and lovely atmosphere but something about it just didnt gel with me. I still have no idea what it was but I guess sometimes it just doesn't work.

Hey no worries, I didn't take it as judgemental. There are a wide range of skillsets in WP dev and I agree that traditionally it's been seen as a bit more low quality. However that is definitely changing as more people get into WordPress development. Good luck with your plugins!

It's misleading from the Codecanyon side unfortunately. You do get all updates forever on items bought through Codecanyon regardless of if your support has run out. The support part refers to answering questions and the like and it's defined by Codecanyon.

I used to have other plugins that were sold directly, plus a couple in development which I may sell directly as well. When selling directly I have full control over the updates but through Codecanyon I do not have that benefit.

My preferred option would be to add support forever (helping people with the product, questions and so on) but actually limiting updates for a certain period, perhaps 1 year. That way I am paid for continually developing and improving the plugin but customer support is included always, which I think is important as a small business.

That issue is fixed now. Thanks again.

Setting up payment and delivery is very simple and I've done it a bunch of times. I wouldn't underestimate the "average WP dev" either, they are getting a lot better than perhaps people on here may give them credit for. I can say the competition is certainly higher quality since when I started a few years ago but this has always been a side-business of mine alongside various startup jobs and other businesses.

The simple answer to why I use Codecanyon is access to a large, targeted customer base that is ready to spend money. That's not an easy thing to replicate. No matter the combination of PPC, content marketing, influencers and direct contact I try.

It's a good point... I've gone back and forth on this a lot and I guess it just comes down to the sheer number of customers I can get via Codecanyon compared to selling directly.

Believe me I've tried on many occassions over the last few years to setup direct sales of my various plugins and software. But I can't seem to drive enough targeted traffic to match the income via marketplaces like Codecanyon.

Hey thanks for pointing that out. That other site is a side project for a friend and I used letsencrypt certbot to auto-configure it. Assumed it was fine but obviously not! Will fix.

I've used Wave before, they have a payments solution and I think they charge around 5% fees per payment taken on your behalf. At bulk you can usually get fees down to the 1% mark so they'll make their ~4% per invoice paid via their system.

I think they also have a paid support option but I can't remember, it's been a while since I used them.

A lot of people run their entire business directly from their WordPress website. Having a plugin that allows quotes, invoicing and payments in the same place is quite convenient for them.

I built this because people were asking me for it before I sold my previous software business. I know tools like WaveApps (and countless others!) are really useful but I think invoicing built into WordPress does meet a need.

Thanks for taking the time to give feedback like this. 1-3 definitely agree and I've just put them on the backlog. I've already got 4 on there and will likely add it in the next update.

Exactly! Answered it better than I would have :)

Happy to hear any feedback and suggestions

I'd listen to offers for my WordPress plugins business QuipCode (http://quipcode.com). Solid software, OK sales just never marketed it and not sure the best way to do so.

I also have http://buyindiegames.com right now just a basic blog but I think it has loads of potential for someone with a bit more time.

You can email me at jamie [at] quipcode.com

Can I ask why you're shutting down? Do you have customers?

Rock Pamper Scissors | Nottingham, UK | Full time

We're looking for web developers of all levels. Backed by 500 Startups and Seedcamp we just raised money to build the tech team.

Check out one of the job postings here: http://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Rock-Pamper-Scissors/jobs/Senior...

Any questions, email me jamie [at] rockpamperscissors.co.uk

Just finished reading this, thanks it's a great resource especially all the breakdowns comparing the salary lost over 4 years vs stock value after vesting.

Thanks for that, looks really useful!

Well, I know it's just a title but generally CTO is a board level position and as such you're expected to be in charge of the technical side of the company including some strategic elements as well. At least, that's how I've always seen it and I believe this is how the other founders of this company see it too.

The problem when trying to work out a fair compensation is searching for CTO salaries online tends to return only large company information and not so much startups. Same thing with stock, how do you know what is fair for a late entry co-founder? It could be anything from 25% down to 5% I guess, I simply don't know.

All good points, thanks for the input :) I don't want to go into too much detail here but it gives me something to think on so thanks again.

I've done this by reaching out to friends and old work colleagues to see what they're up to and offering to help. Because it's people you know it is much easier to make arrangements you will both be happy with. After 15 years working in software that turns out to be quite a lot of people, especially if you take the time to regularly reach out to people via LinkedIn etc.

I sold my software business with FE International earlier this year and hit about 3x yearly earnings for a 1.5 year old company. Comparing it against the rest of the market, particularly Flippa and Empire Flippers I felt that it was a good deal. Plus you get great guys like Thomas to handle everything for you.

Note: reading that back almost sounds like an advert but I'm not affiliated in any way, just a happy customer :)

I love this but reading the responses is extremely sad and a worrying indication about the future of this country.

Take a look on Craigslist but the prices vary quite a bit around here. We're in Overland Park, where Google Fiber isn't here for another year or two and a 1400sqft 2 bed with a garage will set you back between $1000-$1500 a month.

15 years now and no, back when I started I wouldn't have expected a sign-on bonus or such a large salary. If you're in one of the major hubs though you can expect six figures early on, within 2-4 years depending the skillset and your negotiation abilities.

Resume-wise he can just not put the position on there, it's easily explained away by a break traveling/freelancing etc.

As for financially, I agree with you for the most part. I'd still rather take the hit on the money and get out ASAP, you can always earn more. The best situation would be another sign-on bonus that paid the original one off - as long as the new position was good enough to last the year.

But, if he's getting a $35k sign-on bonus he must have quite a good skillset and be earning a high salary wherever he lands. Paying it off will be unfortunate but is totally doable.

Life is short and precious and you could die tomorrow. 7 months IS a long time if you are hating every day.

I think you're giving bad advice saying "Quit being a baby". That's the kind of advice that gets people stuck in crappy jobs their whole life being unhappy.

The OP needs to get out now before the unhappiness ruins his passion for the work and potentially his entire career.

I was in almost the same situation as you a while ago, though the sign-on bonus was slightly less than yours it was still a large chunk to just pay back.

In the end, I couldn't stand being at the job another 8+ months and so left and negotiated a repayment agreement with them. They weren't so happy about that and wanted to add interest, fees and so on but after I explained that they could accept the monthly repayments OR basically get nothing and go through a long drawn-out legal process to try and reclaim some of it they reconsidered.

The sign-on bonus is a tiny fraction of their profits but if you owe it then it is only fair to pay it back, especially if agreed to in a written contract.

For my situation, I appealed to the fact that I spent a portion of the sign-on bonus in order to relocate and get my life setup for this new job and so it wasn't such an easy thing to pay back in one go. You're not going to win any friends by leaving so soon anyway so my advice would be to arrange a payment plan, explain that the job just isn't what you're looking for and leave as soon as you find another position you like. If the new position has a sign-on bonus too even better but be careful of the same thing happening again.