As a developer who administers the Concrete CMS Marketplace review board and who has many of my own products in the marketplace, a question I receive from other developers is "Can you make money from the marketplace?"

Lets look at what financial factors are involved:

Development cost

Back in the early days of Concrete CMS, many marketplace addons were relatively simple. Simple blocks to show a new menu design, package up a JavaScript widget, flash up a message. This kind of addon could be developed in hours to a few days.

We still see some of these kind of addons, but over the years the trend has been for more sophisticated extensions and complete vertical applications. Such addons can easily take weeks or even months to develop.

For experienced developers, addons usually begin as something needed for our own or customer projects. Hence much of the initial cost can offset from the marketplace equation. The trick here is to design with the marketplace in mind without compromising the objectives or budget of the project. For my own code I find that even for packages I don't submit to the marketplace this has advantages in quality and maintainability, so my customers also benefit.

Sales price

Most marketplace addons and themes sell for less than $100. There are a few products in the marketplace with a higher price, but not many. Price is largely dictated by what customers are prepared to pay, not what addons actually cost to develop.

As a developer you also need to consider that Portland Labs takes a percentage for running the marketplace, currency exchange if your bank account is not in $USD, and whatever tax you need to pay in your own country. The net received will be considerably less than the sales price.

Sales volume

Concrete CMS does not represent a big market. A successful addon could sell a few new licenses per month. Some addons only sell one or two licenses in a year and some just don't sell at all. 

A free addon typically gets 10 to 100  times more downloads than a paid addon. Many of those will be from collectors and the curious. Even though free, these still have a support cost.  Last year I put a $1 price on any of my addons that were previously free. Some of these used to attract hundreds of free downloads and have not sold a single $1 license since!

Support cost

If a customer has a problem, an hour of support could easily wipe out the income received from several licenses sold. Some suggestions to help manage support costs, which all carry a cost in their own right.

• Test thoroughly
• Make it easy to use
• Provide built in guidance
• Make it impossible to enter invalid inputs
• Documentation
• Examples of use
• Youtube video
• Have an FAQ page and update it whenever you get a support question

Adding it all up

Back in the early days of Concrete CMS a few developers could just about support a business based on marketplace sales, but things have moved on and the economics have changed.

I don't know anyone who makes a living from developing directly for the Concrete CMS marketplace. To make a profit, prices and/or volume would need to increase by at least 10 times and likely 100 times. Customers wouldn't stand much of an increase in price before volume drops. On the other hand, if volume increases, so could support costs.

Reasons for being in the marketplace:

1. To give something back to the community. For customers, even paid addons offer remarkably good value compared to developing bespoke code.
2. The original project benefits from enhancements arising through wider use and support.
3. To simplify deployment of further updates through marketplace integration.
4. To satisfy your inner geek.
5. To become a better developer.
6. To raise your profile in the community.
7. To make some beer money.
8. As a channel for further services business.
   
   But NEVER
9. As a business in its own right.

I benefit from all the above, but to be candid what I am ultimately doing is to rationalize point (4), to satisfy my inner geek.

If you have received support above and beyond expectation, consider buying your developer a drink. If you would like to buy me a drink, you can click the button on my Contact page.