There are elite authors and then there are ELITE authors!

You can offer support for a lot of issues. And if you solve all of them, even small changes to the theme, some come back for more and more and more. I have some cases with 100+ posts on the forums and 99% not related to any issue that the theme has. What do you say to that?

I often ask questions about if product x supports feature y. If the answer is no, then I ask how easy it is to implement by author / myself. However, I never expect “enhancement” requests (not bug fixes) to be fulfilled without purchase. I’ve certainly had cases where the author has surprised me by doing so. In most cases like that, I’ve bought the item. Not everyone will though. It’s a gamble. I’ve also sometimes just bookmarked an item for later or completely passed on it if it didn’t do what I want at that time. If you say, “No, it will never happen.” then I won’t bookmark it, if you say “Maybe (or similar)” then I may bookmark it for later.

If you’re making all sorts of enhancements before purchase for a particular prospect, then I’d say you might be enabling the situation by not properly “training” your prospects / customers. You’re in control. You can decide to what implement or not implement (and when). You can update anything in the demo and tell them they can benefit from it when they’ve purchased. Doing anything else may be inviting the abuse you’re talking about. Making loads small changes or a few complicated one for an non-customer would also seem ill-advised. That’s certainly your option though.

Any product behaviors / malfunctions that you agree are “defects / bugs” though should be dealt with swiftly as these very different from “enhancements” to me. If I later return to a product that I previously spent the time to inform the author about one or more issues and they’re still there then I often remove that from my bookmarks within 7 days. Where do I look to see if you’ve corrected the issue(s)? Your live demo and / or change log (whether posted on the product details page or elsewhere). If your live demo isn’t updated yet but you did update it, I won’t know if I can’t see your change log somewhere public before purchase.

duotive said
You can offer support for a lot of issues. And if you solve all of them, even small changes to the theme, some come back for more and more and more. I have some cases with 100+ posts on the forums and 99% not related to any issue that the theme has. What do you say to that?

^ +1

Good support – it’s helping a customers with the theme (as is). For example, if user don’t know how to insert an image, setup a gallery, also make a minor changes (like a font size, background color and so on) – he can request a support. But sometimes buyers ask answers for a queries like: “How can I create a new post type”, “How can I add my own template?” and so on. Hey guys, it’s not seems like a customer support. I’m not a free infocenter. Some buyers understand this and asks how much this will cost.

Dear buyers, don’t confuse a real customer support with a tasks for freelancers.

@kotofey – I would say to you much of what I said to duotive in the post above yours. If you’re getting abused by your prospects / customers it may be because you’re potentially enabling / inviting that kind of behavior in certain instances. If not, then consider the following as well…

If I was asked how to create a custom post type, I’d point them to one or more free / paid plugins that do that (there are plenty of no code ways to do this). If it’s a common question, put it in your products details page / faq sections. People that read those may not need to ask such questions then. You could also easily link them them to the WP Codex (or specific page there)? I never like to assume that people know the Codex exists so I suggest it often. It takes very little time to do one or both of these things and more often than not, you may find you’ve just converted a prospect to a customer!

If they still aren’t satisfied with any of that and you’re available for freelance, by all means offer your services. If you’re not available for freelance work, by all means refer them if that’s what they need / want. If they still yet aren’t satisfied then you’ve already been more than reasonable. Otherwise, you may come off as a “lazy developer” (or worse) even if you are not / didn’t intend to present yourself that way. I’m also not trying to imply that anyone is so please don’t take it that way.

Definitely, please feel free to not do anything as that’s your prerogative. I can identify with the sentiment, “I don’t work for free” but posting a link or two isn’t really “work” is it? As far as being a free info center, that’s why I suggest (if you can) to pawn them off on a site (such as a the WP Codex) that is an info center. Remind people that there’s loads upon loads of info out there but if they can’t bothered to read / search / do for themselves then (if you’re available), again suggest your services. I agree you can’t satisfy everyone all the time but you can often satisfy many much of the time. Leaving someone hanging that could be helped rather easily often can turn out to be beneficial in the long term. You can loose sight of that if you’re solely focused on the short-term.

but posting a link or two isn’t really “work” IMO

Yes, you right. I don’t tell that I don’t helping a customers with this queries. But if you getting more than 20+ queries with this question it’s really can killing you. My post was a cry from the heart

I’ll agree with that if those 20+ people don’t read either the FAQs or Product Details that already contain the needed information. There’s not much that can (legally) be done about people that don’t read / search. However, you can refer them once and hope they learn. The repeat offenders should be dealt with harshly (not really)!

Perhaps a BIG notice in your product details section like the following might suffice?

“Every time a question gets asked in the comments section that’s already in the FAQ this FORCES two kittens to FIGHT to the DEATH with medieval weaponry! Do you want to be responsible for the outcome? Do you?!” – Inspired by Chris of SevenSpark (I take no credit) – Just make sure they know you’re joking because no one needs the animal rights activists knocking at their door. (asterisk / star). LOL .

(asterisk / star) = No kittens were actually harmed during the writing of this post.

You’re welcome

I agree about the video, as this is a great way to show users how to use an item. The best way to put it is a quote from the video user guide included with my item:

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures (or at least 25 of them every second).

Of course, since working on putting together the video, my sales have gone right down. Hopefully not a link there. Maybe people think I just went too far, providing 4 different versions of the user guide in PDF , ePub, Kindle and video formats.

On the support side of things, I have always believed that when somebody pays for a product, no matter how much they paid, support should be a part of that. Not only is this good for future sales and your reputation, but it’s just good manners.

cool post man

electronicpakrat said

Perhaps a BIG notice in your product details section like the following might suffice?

“Every time a question gets asked in the comments section that’s already in the FAQ this FORCES two kittens to FIGHT to the DEATH with medieval weaponry! Do you want to be responsible for the outcome? Do you?!” – Inspired by Chris of SevenSpark (I take no credit) – Just make sure they know you’re joking because no one needs the animal rights activists knocking at their door. (asterisk / star). LOL .

(asterisk / star) = No kittens were actually harmed during the writing of this post.

hahaha glad to see my feeble attempts at documentation humor are appreciated