Well I hadn't thought of a license file but rather, by default the install would allow a max number of items.  A table could be used (or file) based on a serial number schema the number of items that could be included in the store would be verified only on the management side.  That way if the number of products exceed the licensing then the store manager would be notified.

The buyer side would never have to be impacted by checking the item count/limit.  Of course this was just a high level thought  process I had come up with, implementation is obviously a determination of whether it would be viable for AliCommerce because it could obviously affect the release but then getting the product in the hands of as many people as possible may drive more purchases of higher limit licenses.

 

Russ

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Russ

Sorry for the bad info Frank.  IMHO both solutions are strong, very flexible, but way to complicated for the vast majority of DNNers and too pricey as well.  I didn't spend much time researching them to be honest.

In reading this thread though, I like Caddy's suggestions of having a "limit" of some sort on the number of products a store could have, and an upgrade price to gain access to have more products listed in the store.  I have seen that licensing model on other systems outside of DNN and it seems to work well for them. 

I know I'm sort of cutting my own throat here in suggesting anything other than low priced, unlimited sites as a licensing model, but I believe a good programmer should be compensated.  That said, there has to be an "entry level" of some kind so people will buy the product, and an "upgrade" of some sort so you can be paid properly, even on this version.

Limiting the number of Sites in an Instance still seems to me a workable solution.  If as a site creator and "host" of sites in my DNN Install, I can't get a few buck per store, something is wrong.  Everyone else is charging for them.  Godaddy, for example charges a monthly fee for use of their store.  They have three versions.  Economy version (20 products only) at $9.99 per month with discounts for longer subscriptions.  Same with the Deluxe (100 products for $29.99 per month) and the Premium Stores (unlimited products $49.99 per month).  Theirs is also restricted by storage size (GB) and Bandwidth.  The more expensive two having a Quickbooks integration feature.

Your imagination really is the limit here on pricing models.  Personally, if the "market" can bear the price, you should be able to charge it.  Unfortunately, we operate in a market that is spoiled by freebies.  Though I will admit that is part of what attracted me to DNN.

Frank, God bless you my friend.  You have a great product and I hope you can figure out a strategy from all this that serves the community well, and makes you rich at the same time.

Clay

Frank,

I agree with most of the discussion that has occured in this thread and thought I would add my two cents.

First of all I am just now starting to review/test the module and I have to say I am impressed so far.

For myself I find that I need a good store module for myself and my customers with the following features the most often

-Easy Administration
-Easy payment integration
-Minimal number of products (typcially less than 50)
-Minimal price

My clients and myself personally are not selling expensive products, but we need ways of getting these products on the internet in an easy to manage method.  A module in the $75-$150 range would be good for almost all of my clients.  The biggest thing with some of the "better" ones out there now is that they are just too expensive.  A $300+ module is something that would take my clients quite a while to get their money back on as their markup on their products is quite low.

I find that the modules that are currently out there in the $75-150 price range are ones that are NOT easy to use and require a very steep learning curve, even for experienced DNN users  I would say that this is the place where your module really will shine.  It is MUCH easier to use and that will be huge with your bringing to market of this product...

My only true advice is to try and keep the price resonable, or at minimum create a low cost option for those of us with smaller stores!

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-Mitchel Sellers
Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, DNN MVP
CEO/Director of Development - IowaComputerGurus Inc.


Visit mitchelsellers.com for my mostly DNN Blog and support forum.

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