'Monetizing' a premium site…
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Hi –
I’m running a premium site selling greeting cards. It was originally designed as a portal for retail buyers to view and purchase, with links to Etsy for individual purchasers. We’re now realising that direct sales via the website itself would make more sense, esp with shopify / facebook / instagram integration.In the past we’ve run into problems with embedded links on the the premium site and html ‘maps’ appear no-go without plugins too, so the question is will a premium site do what we want, or will shopify ‘buy’ buttons (for example) be blocked?
Any tips on achieving these aims without having to pay almost three times as much a month for a few plugins that shouldn’t really be needed greatly appreciated
David
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi David,
I see you chatted with one of our Happiness Engineers a short time ago and they’ve looked at your options. Feel free to start a new chat if you have any more questions and we’ll be happy to help :)
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Yes, I messaged support as no response on forum. Basically it’s ‘pay three times as much for a business account or forget it’, if anyone else is wondering. In 2019 having a basic shop as part of website should be an option even on a ‘standard’ package. I don’t imagine I’m the only one thinking WordPress is resting on its laurels: that ‘first in’ advantage you’ve had with developers must be starting to wear a bit thin by now.
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Another option you have to is to start a self-hosted https://wordpress.org blog with the https://woocommerce.com plugin. Both are free, but you do need to pay someone else to host the site.
To clear up any confusion, WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two different entities, though roughly the same software: http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Our prices are such because we provide a managed hosting environment for you, so all you have to worry about is running your site.
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Thanks for reply –
Yes, I know about self-hosting, and I know dot.org is a different platform, but I chose the dot.com route because self-hosting is more complex and our needs were – and still are – fairly basic.What I DIDN’T realise was just how restrictive the ‘premium’ plan is or the degree to which plugins are needed even for very simple items like a shopping basket. On your price list it lists ‘monetizing’ as a ticked item in both premium plans and business plans, but the reality is vastly different between plans and relies totally on plug ins to achieve anything more than a one click / one item radio button that would quickly annoy customers rather than encouraging them to purchase additional items. At the premium level it also effectively blocks any other integration options by blocking html that would get around the need for plug ins to do simple things that could be achieved without plugins. It’s VERY misleading and extremely frustrating, and the price difference between the two plans is exorbitant (almost 3x) to achieve basic monetization / integration that could be built in. Why not just add ‘woo commerce’ (or a lit version or something) into the premium package rather than misleading people that ‘monetization’ is a viable option at this level? Or, at the very least, drop the ‘tick’ from monetization on the premium plan’s feature list, because what is actually on offer is the ‘Simple Payment Button’ already listed above…
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There are many ways to monetise a site without plugins, and there are in fact options that can be used even on the free plan.
The “Monetize your site” feature on the plans page specifically refers to the fact that sites on the Premium and Business Plans have automatic access to our ads service where anyone can earn income from their site by displaying ads. If you click on the Info button for that item on the Plans page a tooltip appears that explains this.
But if you want advanced features like a fully integrated shopping cart, that requires the use of an ecommerce plugin. Sites like that are a lot more complex from a maintenance and support perspective, which is why that option is only available in our most expensive plans.
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Thank you –
Yes, the tooltip does say what you say, but it is in the same ‘tickbox’ as the business plan (see link: https://wordpress.com/pricing/?currency=GBP&sgmt=gb&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google_WPcom_Search_Brand_Desktop_UK_en&utm_medium=paid_search&keyword=%2Bwordpress%20%2Bpricing&creative=329692445195&campaignid=647897976&adgroupid=58186201331&matchtype=b&device=c&network=g&cpn=647897976&device=c&pl=&targetid=kwd-92198501051&locationid=9045125&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgezoBRDNARIsAGzEfe68XmxOyBQsgE9sfMQpL22nma48AWuBQKTFX4J8MCU7MQCwyFLm5HoaAnzqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds), suggesting that both plans offer the same features. The ‘and more’ is very misleading, because it doesn’t mean the same thing in both cases. Another line saying (for example) ‘advanced e-commerce tools’ that applied ONLY to the business plan would not be misleading.The link you provided may prove useful, but before I invest my time trying to manually add a paypal button with ‘cart’ and drop down items will it actually work? As I’ve advised earlier, premium usually blocks HTML code snippets embedded into pages, so this seems unlikely to work (?) If it doesn’t, can you suggest an option that WILL work, because pointing me to another link which just leads me back to buying a business upgrade would be frustrating to say the least.
Thanks for help
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Hi oddlyactive,
before I invest my time trying to manually add a paypal button with ‘cart’ and drop down items will it actually work
PayPal button code is supported on your current plan and doesn’t contain any script tags (which require the Business plan or above). The instructions in that link will guide you through the process of generating the HTML button code.
Simple Payments can also be used on your current plan and PayPal is used to process the payments. Again, this option doesn’t contain any code that is restricted on your current plan.
Neither of these options include an integrated cart though — the payment button takes customers straight through to the checkout.
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Yes, I saw that from the link sent earlier – WordPress DOES block the ‘dropdown options’ with paypal buttons that would allow an integrated cart for multiple purchases (see step seven in your Paypal Buttons link). So effectively there’s nothing (that I can see) to be gained from using their ‘one shot’ radio button via HTML over the Simple Payments button. But I will investigate further when I’ve found the log in details for my paypal account!
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