Author: aronprins

  • How much should WordPress customization cost?

    I get a fair amount of project inquiries. One of the biggest things I see is people wanting small WordPress plugin customizations. I don’t mean small in the sense of change a line or two of code, I mean small in the sense of changing how part of the plugin works. Changes that may take a half day or up to maybe two days.

    I even get requests that involve wholesale changes to how a plugin works, these types of changes can take up to a week’s worth of development time. Though this isn’t really “small” in my book, it usually still is in the eyes of the requestor. They don’t understand the mechanics of why a “premium” plugin costs $49 (or $99 for that matter) and add-ons cost $19.

    Surely if a plugin costs $49 and an add-on costs $19, you should be able to do my custom tweak for like $15, right?

    No. 

    To make that assumption is to throw out basic principals of how things are made. The plugin may cost $49, but that wasn’t the cost to make the plugin. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours went into the initial plugin creation. The plugin developer makes this back on sales of the plugin. If 1000 copies are sold, they’ve grossed $49,000.

    The same goes for add-ons. Depending on complexity, they can be made in a day, or over the course of a week or so. Selling 100 copies of one for $19 gets the developer $1900 towards the cost of development. Common-use add-ons are great. You generally won’t see an add-on that only 5 people may use. Either it’s more expensive or the developer would never make back the cost of building it.

    I’m not going to complicate things at this point on how products are bundled and priced to add value and drive sales, lets just stick with basic math for the sake of this argument.

    The custom shirt scenario

    Have you ever looked at the cost to screen print shirts? The more shirts you buy, the cheaper the cost-per-shirt becomes. Sure you can get 1 shirt made, but it’s going to be expensive. The screen still has to be made whether you use it 1 time or 100 times.

    But if you get 100 shirts made, the cost to make the screen is divided out over the shirts produced. The same goes for plugins and add-ons. The cost can be divided if it’s re-sold as a generic add-on, but this doesn’t apply to the single-use customization someone requests.

    Now, when you contact someone to do custom work on a plugin and change how it works, you need to understand that you’re paying for time.

    For a beginner developer this may be $35/hour. You might expect to pay closer to $100/hr for a seasoned developer, and upwards of $150 to $200 (or more) for an expert. Choosing a developer is a topic for another day, but keep in mind– if your customization is going to take a day, expect to spend more than $500 to make it a reality. You’re paying someone to make something custom for you that they aren’t going to resell.

    Assembly Lines and Customizations

    Henry Ford revolutionized the Auto and Manufacturing industries with the invention of the assembly line. The best part of the assembly line is that it works great when you’re doing the same thing over and over. Ford was able to assemble a Model T in 97 minutes.

    The downside to the assembly line is that it didn’t allow much room for customization. If you wanted a custom product, it was usually still made by hand; and at the time, hand-assembled automobiles cost more than assembly line automobiles.

    The Bottom Line

    In the end, if you want custom work, understand the mechanics of your request. You’re asking for something custom that isn’t going to apply to anyone else. If you need something super custom, be prepared to pay for someone who knows the ins and outs of the systems you plan to use.

    As the requestor, you have to afford the full development cost. If you can’t do that, assemble a solution based upon what plugins and extensions exist. That’s the inexpensive way out.

  • What is blogging?

    Blogging is a discussion on the world wide web which flows in the chronological order in the form of posts, from the most recent to the oldest. Convert a regular journal from paper to web, and the blog is formed. Blogging can be defined in various ways; from very basic of the definition to very specific explanation.

    Here are some of the definitions of blogging much wiser people:

    ‘A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.’ – Source 

    ‘A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there’s also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc.’ – Source

    Aligned with the flow yet? It’s simple. Click here to see an example of a blog. Checkthis as another example.

    You are not confused anymore are you? – Hopefully not.

    Blogs are mostly written by one person, however that is not always the case. Blogs are updated regularly and are often written on more than one topic. You can find a blog on any topic that you can imagine. These days blogs are being written on daily hobbies, routines, fitness, recipes, food, photography, spirituality and anything and everything.

    tumblr-scrollAs a blogger and a reader one should know of the features of a blog to make the most of out of the blogging experience.

    Archives: When you first land on a blog you might think there is not much to blog. Just a couple of recent entries and some links around it; however, there is a lot that has been done underneath the recent blogs. Clicking on the archives button allows the viewers to see all the entries from the author ( recent to oldest). There the reader can go over and read what interests them. For a better scan through of the previous articles, one can search through “category” option; thus is likely to find the information easier.

    Comments: Most people use comments some choose not to use them. Comment section is used to get feedback from the reader to discuss the blogged topic. Users can simply click on the comment button below to give feedback, in return the author can reply to your comment and start a conversation.

    A great way to know about blogging is to read a few and try and test how different people write blogs for different purposes. Blogs are mostly written like  conversation, rather than a formal academic journal article.

  • Lekker Parfum

    A few months ago, I was able to start working from my own home which has enabled both me and my girlfriend new opportunities and setting new goals.

    Along with me, she started her own company in her own field: Perfume.
    Check out her awesome new website at www.lekkerparfum.nl

  • Twitter Auto Poster

    Posting on social media and specially Twitter can be difficult and time consuming. Twitter Auto Poster will take manage your tweets for you, saving you at least 1-2 hours each day.

    Easy to use Interface
    Simply write your message, upload an image (optional) and set the date and time. We’ll handle the rest!

    Easy to Set Up
    Video Tutorials are included with all plans. Setup is a breeze, you’ll be posting within 10 minutes.

    Check it out at www.twitterautoposter.com

  • ExpertPlayingCard.com

    IIt’s my honor and pleasure to introduce you to my latest creation:
    The Expert Playing Card Company Offical Website!

    Visit http://www.expertplayingcard.com/
    Thanks to Bill Kalush for his ever lasting patience while creating this awesome website Stay tuned for some killer Decks!

  • Ryan Leslie + RenegadesNYC = New Project?

    After a long time of no blogs posts, here’s an update!
    For the last 1 or 2 months I’ve been in touch with one of my favorite artists Ryan Leslie on some projects we’re trying to accomplish.

    For his #RENEGADES project Ryan was looking for an Instagram feed that placed both video’s and photos added to his Shopify powered storefront.

    We’re currently in the process of getting this up and running and next to that I’ve sent some examples to him and his partner that might potentially replace Shopify for his entire artist expierence… Can’t disclose too much about it 😉

    Last wednestday on October 30th Ryan attended de Melkweg in Amsterdam where I was fortunate enough to shake hands and have a little chat before he did the concert. Had a great time 😉

    To get Ryan Leslie’s latested album titled “Black Mozart”, join the #RENEGADES Club today and get the album FREE!

  • Case study: AskAlexander.org

    As i’ve told you in my last blog post, i’ve aqcuired some cool projects on my trip to New York City january one of which is AskAlexander.org. With way too many books ( over 1.5million pages! ) regarding magic, ventriloquism, mentalism, coin magic, card magic, rubber band magic, how-i-can-remove-a-womans-bra-in-seconds magic and so much more it is the ultimate research tool for magicians and people interested in the artform.

    Founder Bill Kalush tells you a little bit about the project in this video for EMC 2010:

    Bill gave me the challanging task to re-design AskAlexander to be more 2.0ish and to fit the current market better with its design, functionality and the way the site is layed out. More to come…

  • NYC: Visiting The Conjuring Arts Research Center

    So as I’ve posted about before i visited New York City. Had a horrible time in my hotel but thats a diffrent story.I met up for coffee with Ricky Smith, aka Founder of The Buck Twins.
    We emailed about visiting the library but it wasnt sure if that was possible.

    End of story: visited the library – met founder and owner Bill Kalush – got 4/5 projects more then before I entered the United States of ‘Murica!

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  • I’m a BuddyPress NL Moderator

    Hey everyone,

    Screen shot 2013-01-06 at 2.53.23 PMRecently i’ve seen a tweet by @JJJ fly by requesting international admins for the BuddyPress website.
    Off course I offered my help, and after a good talk with @DeFries I am now a BuddyPress Moderator.

    This means, that if you’re dutch and have BuddyPress related issues – you can post them in the special forum and we will try to help you resolve the problem!See you there!

  • I’m here till 2014!

    Hey everyone

    A short but good message: I’ve just renewed aronprins.com ( and hosting 🙂 ) untill 2014!
    Another full year of me me me 🙂

    Take care, A Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2013!
    Cheers, Aron