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Creating a Free WP Plugin for Marketers, What do you want?

by Russell Mark
19 replies
I'm going to build a Free Wordpress Plugin for Internet Marketers like you.

By day I'm a PHP Developer, by night, Wordpress tinkerer. I want to improve my development skills, the only problem? I don't know what you guys want!

So tell me, what Free Wordpress Plugin would you like to see developed for the WF community?

Some rules:
  1. Must be limited in scope, i.e. no shopping carts or membership plugins
  2. Must be useful for Internet Marketers
  3. Must not be illegal or blackhat
#creating #free #marketers #plugin
  • Profile picture of the author jungl
    Hmmm... Many of us are interested in SEO plugins, but of course there are many already out there. Generally, what you want to build is a simple and easy to use plugin that does one thing very well, and doesn't clutter up their page. If you could do it, a simple and uncluttered version of Google's in site search. So basically it's like their in site search, but either you can stay on the same page (that would be cool) or at least doesn't have those annoying Google Ads on the top.
    Good luck,
    Alex.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kendrickk
      If there is going to be another wordpress plugin it has to do something the other cannot and it should be of value. So if it is something new you are creating then surprise me!
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  • Profile picture of the author PeterKnight
    If it's to be limited in scope I'd probably look at building an addon for existing products like Woocommerce, Gravity Forms, or a some of the popular theme frameworks.

    I agree with the above, I wouldn't do an SEO plugin unless you're covering new ground. There are a lot SEO plugins out there already and frankly, some of these plugin encourage people to over-optimize their pages which in today's SEO landscape can actually be a bad thing.

    Some good places to find ideas are the WordPress jobs board, the wp.org and commercial theme forums where people ask for feature requests and elance type sites where you can see what kind of WordPress jobs people are asking for.

    Personally I'd love to see someone modify the recently released PressBooks plugin. This is a plugin that turns a WP install into a publishing machine, creating books in all the popular formats. The only problem is the dependencies one would normally install which do the compiling into epub, mobi, pdf etc. It would be great if the plugin would tap an external service for compiling these formats instead so users don't need to install the dependencies on their self hosted WP site. I'd say im'ers would love to be able to easily create their ebooks for all platforms, so it could be a nice free plugin and if you charge for the book compiling, you could even turn it into a business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    I'll have a bash...

    I know sod-all about coding, and have no idea if it's possible but here are my thoughts on what it would be nice to be able to do to increase speed and admin usability


    • clear the admin dashboard of widgets with one button
    • put in a second layer of text editing icons at the foot of the page content
    • when switching from HTML to WYSI, the cursor remains in the same place and uses a colored place marker
    • a stand alone log out button, like it used to be
    • disables that narrow admin bar when in page view with one button
    • make the admin dropdown menu reveal ALL the 'H' tags without scrolling or a standalone H3/H4 button
    • a button to triple the width of the scroll bars and darken input box borders
    • increase the width of the page slug box with one-click selection
    • disable those bloody info windows
    • be able to generate a full list of page and post URL's and ID's


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    • Profile picture of the author Tim Franklin
      Awesome stuff, I totally agree, the TinyMCE, editor in wordpress is horrible, in fact much of the post and page UI is a disaster area, I have been developing a suit of tools that I use for all these irritating things about wordpress that most casual users just do not realize are a big deal, like having thousand of useless tags and not having a good method of deleting them.

      There are tons of good simple plugin ideals out there, most of them really are simple things that the WP crew, probably dont have much time to deal with or manage after all they are busy dealing with the heavy lifting, so cant really complain, but we still do right...

      If I had a Red Easy Button, I would click one button and be able to restore my WP installations, (all of them) in one go, but hey if it were that easy someone would have done it right...

      I have tested out every backup system and plugin you can imageine and some you cant, none of them work 100 percent, there is always some kind of black hole that sucks...

      Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

      I'll have a bash...

      I know sod-all about coding, and have no idea if it's possible but here are my thoughts on what it would be nice to be able to do to increase speed and admin usability


      • clear the admin dashboard of widgets with one button
      • put in a second layer of text editing icons at the foot of the page content
      • when switching from HTML to WYSI, the cursor remains in the same place and uses a colored place marker
      • a stand alone log out button, like it used to be
      • disables that narrow admin bar when in page view with one button
      • make the admin dropdown menu reveal ALL the 'H' tags without scrolling or a standalone H3/H4 button
      • a button to triple the width of the scroll bars and darken input box borders
      • increase the width of the page slug box with one-click selection
      • disable those bloody info windows
      • be able to generate a full list of page and post URL's and ID's


      I have credit card ready...
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      • Profile picture of the author Tim3
        Hi Tim,
        Yeah I always wished I could code, but I don't have the aptitude for it.
        I did think of posting my little list there on the WP org forum, but I didn't want to offend anyone those guys do a really great job, and of course it's for free.

        Nothing ever seems to be 'just right' does it? I think perhaps the best Plug-in though would be something that makes a site 100% hack-proof at the tough of a button (and I know I'm dreaming here), still we can live in hope.

        For all it's faults WP is still a great user-friendly platform.
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        • Profile picture of the author Russell Mark
          Originally Posted by jungl View Post

          If you could do it, a simple and uncluttered version of Google's in site search..
          Very cool idea Alex, I would have to check if something like that is possible and if other Warriors want it.

          Originally Posted by Kendrickk View Post

          If there is going to be another wordpress plugin it has to do something the other cannot and it should be of value. So if it is something new you are creating then surprise me!
          The problem with surprises is you might get yet another jumper knitted by your Nan!

          Originally Posted by PeterKnight View Post

          Some good places to find ideas are the WordPress jobs board

          Personally I'd love to see someone modify the recently released PressBooks plugin. This is a plugin that turns a WP install into a publishing machine, creating books in all the popular formats. The only problem is the dependencies one would normally install which do the compiling into epub, mobi, pdf etc. It would be great if the plugin would tap an external service for compiling these formats instead so users don't need to install the dependencies on their self hosted WP site. I'd say im'ers would love to be able to easily create their ebooks for all platforms, so it could be a nice free plugin and if you charge for the book compiling, you could even turn it into a business.
          Completely forgot about the jobs board, thanks Peter! Will be checking it out.

          Modifying PressBooks is probably not on the table, but creating a new one which compiles books on a server sounds like a winner. The only issue is I'd have to pay for the server and if it got popular I'd have to pull the plug with a free model.

          Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

          • disables that narrow admin bar when in page view with one button
          This times a million.


          Originally Posted by rocket2uranus View Post

          How about making a better body text editor? One that is actually more responsive and with better control over details?
          Hi Rocket, that would be cool but far too large in scope for me right now.

          Originally Posted by Tim Franklin View Post

          If I had a Red Easy Button, I would click one button and be able to restore my WP installations, (all of them) in one go, but hey if it were that easy someone would have done it right...

          I have tested out every backup system and plugin you can imagine and some you cant, none of them work 100 percent, there is always some kind of black hole that sucks...
          I've had a lot of success with backup buddy. What kind of problems have you had with it?

          Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

          Nothing ever seems to be 'just right' does it? I think perhaps the best Plug-in though would be something that makes a site 100% hack-proof at the tough of a button (and I know I'm dreaming here), still we can live in hope.
          A lockdown in one plugin would be great Tim, not sure if people would bother using it though, most people don't even block multiple login attempts on their wordpress sites...!


          Great ideas everyone, keep them coming. If you want to second something, reply to someone's post so I know what people want.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
    I know a good one, but keeping it to myself for now...

    How about making a better body text editor? One that is actually more responsive and with better control over details?
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  • Profile picture of the author AceOfShirts
    I started a thread last year looking for a plugin that I think other people would use, especially for free. Right now I am having to manually use a combination of 2 plugins: cookie monster and pretty link. Having it done automatically would be great. Here is the thread:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...e-my-team.html

    I have another plugin idea that I tried to get someone to work on but they said it would require the plugin to make changes in cPanel and they didn't know how to do it. It was a plugin that would let you sell "email forwarding addresses" if you have a cool domain name. There is a plugin out called wpvanityemail but you still have to manually edit the email forwarders in cPanel.
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  • Profile picture of the author Russell Mark
    Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

    Don't make one for free.

    Make a premium one and sell it.

    One that does this but works with Multiple Autoresponders not just Aweber.

    Make it for icontact, Getresponse, Constant Contact etc..etc..

    Build that and I'll be your first customer.
    That's by far the most interesting idea I've seen! Would anyone else be interested in such a plugin?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      1. I install the plugin
      2. I activate plugin
      3. I put a shortcode on a page
      4. Instantly traffic is generated to the page, converts, and payments go to my paypal account.

      I really don't think I'm asking a whole lot here.
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    • Profile picture of the author Russell Mark
      Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

      You've got two choices, you can either create it or I will and sell it.
      I wanted to thank you for the suggestion drunkenmonkey. I've looked into it and integration with all those auto responders is possible so I've started work on the plugin. Decided not to PM you because of the 'Doughnut pm me!!', but if you would like to be a beta tester, feel free to PM me.
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  • Profile picture of the author gregdbowen
    A simple easy to use plugin for managing an affiliate network for my product - would be awesome!
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  • Profile picture of the author aerm85
    Simple: a Wp Plugin that connect with several social network accounts, sign ups and send backlincks with every new post.
    Best Regard
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  • Profile picture of the author carlamae
    I need a plugin that is a scrolling feed of users products from a shopping site. I want to plugin 10 or 20 user id's and have the item image and an excerpt of description to scroll continuous. I don't want this as a widget, but rather a full page continuous scroll. PM me for more info if interested.
    I don't know if something like this already exists or not....having trouble finding just the right plugin.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    I think this has been mentioned but I'll go again with it. A plugin that would remove sidebars. I have a theme I really like but it's got a sidebar. I was looking for a solution to get rid of it earlier in the week. I found one but I would have had to monkey around with a bunch of code. Ugh.

    I've done that in the past and it took me a while to get it the way I wanted. It would be really cool to just install a plugin and with a couple of clicks that sucker is gone.
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