Revenue Discussion

As requested by @voltaire, a thread for discussions related to how CP could generate revenue.

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I love it when something I’ve suggested is well-received.

Regarding donation revenue (and @scott’s post about Giving Tuesday): I’ve found at least 3 places to donate, linked below. The first 2 are falling out of sync and need some attention. Also, which of the platforms is preferred: DonorBox or OpenCollective?

https://donate.classicpress.net/

https://www.classicpress.net/donate/

https://opencollective.com/classicpress?utm_campaign=classicpress

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Don’t recall if I mentioned this or not, but would a Kickstarter campaign be a bad idea? To raise money and build infrastructure? Or Indieagogo?

My mistake on the 3 places.

We’re closing the OpenCollective account as it’s very buggy and I don’t feel confident in their security. And I need to remove the /donate page

Thanks for the reminder :slight_smile:

Re: kickstarter, I guess we could start exploring this

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/donate removed

OpenCollective is next on the chopping block!

Would it make sense to set up a Patreon for CP? In my opinion, yes! :slight_smile:

Kickstarter in my opinion sounds also good, and seems to be trusted by a lot of people.

@deckerweb patreon Is targeted to artists creating content on a regular basis. I don’t think it suits CP.
I think campaigns like Kickstarter are better.

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Ok that makes sense then - wasn’t clear to me with Patreon, thanks for the info.

Additionally, what about an own campaign on the CP website using the “Give” donation plugin or similar? That way CP has the full control.

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In the not-too-distant future we’ll have a direct donate option which does’t use any 3rd parties (which is ideal because all 3rd parties charge fees).

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Personally, and of course feel free to discard it if it doesn’t feel comfortable, but to me Kickstarter always seemed like a well-known legitimate source to ask for funding from a startup. Revenue will let you hire, consolidate resources, plan for future upkeep, pony up money for promotion if you want to down the road, and at the very least cover whatever expenses are out-of-pocket. As an NPO, you’ve got a different structure and tax status so need things in order a different way, but I don’t see any downsides to it personally as ClassicPress is a legitimate NPO undertaking with a noble cause focused on a fairly niche group.

I think a Patreon page would be fine if it were tied into a broad ClassicPress YouTube channel that could have general informative instructional videos just illustrating what CP is and how it works and just avoiding all the WP animosity entirely. If it’s relatively easy and quick to set up. I get ElisabettaCarrara’s point, which is fine, but that does not have to fly in the face of CP. Aren’t instructional videos relevant to CP - a new CMS? It’s just a question of content creation vs. time management and resources. Is it relatively easy to spin out a handful of broad instructional videos that focus on what it is, what it does, who it’s aimed at and then do some more “background” videos for Patreon? If it’s a low-hanging-fruit effort than I see no down side in it. If it’s gets a few donations, it earned its keep (to me).

If Patreon is too much of a pain (which I could see and why I haven’t gone there yet, either), Kickstarter, Indieagogo, I don’t see harm in exploring personally. The more revenue sources, the better. And a donation page, is a no-brainer for a NPO.

As for revenue, is there a way CP could attract some kind of investor or Board Member who could put some weight behind the project financially, like (and I’m just thinking of an example) someone sympathetic to WP and a long-time WP user/celebrity or company someone may have inroads with? We probably couldn’t get Robert Theil or Elon Musk, but someone who’s big in the WP community and who maybe has been vocal about where things are headed? Just an idea?

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@voltaire didn’t see from this POV… Patreon can certainly be used to submit instructional material like blogs, videos, podcasts and the like. We would need a group working specifically on creating such contents and managing the page in an official way however.
It’s not like creating a campaign - patreon relies on a continuous stream of content being created to stimulate people’s interest in donating. But on the other hand CP is growing (woke this morning to about 250 messages to read on slack about interesting developments going on around core, if that isn’t growing…) so we will need to release informative content and how-tos on an ongoing basis.
I can suggest we have a certain number of people writing/creating official content (posts, videos, podcasts, tutorials and the like) and distributing it via CP blog, opening an official CP patreon page linked to CP blog.

I think as much as possible we need to keep things “in house”. All of these platforms charge enormous fees.

Ultimately, we want to be self-sustaining without the need for donations. That’s not to say we won’t have sponsors as well - they will be an important part of achieving this goal as these relationships are mutually beneficial.

Whenever I think Kickstarter, I think “SCAM!!”. Not sure if I’m alone in that thought?

I’ve never used Kickstarter, but I’ve heard of many legitimate businesses and startups (especially) using it. It’s very well known, so that’s why I thought of it. Same with Indieagogo. I mean, if it can generate real revenue and help build a foundation for support, I’d look into it. Just my thoughts.

Well, we could launch an ICO. /s

I worry that there’s still not sufficient numbers of humans looking this way to make a KickStarter generate meaningful dollars — and if it did not, wouldn’t some folks be watching and use the results to their messaging advantage? I’m full-speed ahead on my day but I’ll think on this also some more. Maybe I’ll have a moment of brilliance but it’s rare. I’ll come back this evening. CIAO…

In all honesty, Elementary run a pretty successfully Indiegogo campaign to get their AppCenter set up. But I believe at this point they had a bit of a larger community compared to where we are.

What’s wrong with a CP Premium channel or version where Committee guys (however you want to figure out that structure) can work with enterprise clients on a more managed WordPress to ClassicPress transition? You can offer package deals or service bundles for improved marketing, and capitalize on the 5.0 / Gutenberg transitional period to a) legitimately help while b) solidifying ClassicPress’s future to offer a viable alternative.

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Great idea :slight_smile:

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@voltaire Setting up an “enterprise version” will (I believe) be key to long-term sustainability. It brings in a bit of a catch-22, however: To offer the service you need full-time staff (who need paychecks) | To pay the full-time staff, you need paying clients.

CP Enterprise is definitely something that should be in the plan and actively developed. (It works for Redhat, and it works for Automattic). I think the issue at this point is “how do we get the capital to start that?” Which is, of course, the catch-22 of any new endeavor.

On a side note: I look forward to working with you. We both seem to have the same goals, but approach them from opposite angles (I look long-term and favor a slow approach; most of my experience is with small businesses and start-ups). I foresee many debates where the best solution ends up being somewhere in the middle.

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@Blaze, I don’t get involved in marketing discussions any more with CP. I check in to see, what, if anything, may be new, but am no longer pushing for an organized, structured marketing plan with levels of execution (strategies). I was basically told that they’ve got it covered and just need help fulfilling “boring” tasks.

I’m not on the Committee so am not informed on what may or may not be planned so can only go by what I’ve been told directly and seen. I’m used to “boiler room” type agencies where ROI and lead gen had to be done within very tight deadlines and peoples’ livelihoods are on the line. By the same token, I believe the Universe rewards action, so I like to work quickly, start seeing results, and then build on those results. If someone tells me they don’t want or need the help, that they have all the answers and clarity needed, and only want help with random tasks, that’s not something that uses my experience.

I hope CP continues for many years, and I’ll continue to support it, but am focusing on working with more clients.