We have been hard at work on tons of new updates for the products at WPSocial.com, but none more important or needed than our newest creation: The New Licensing Plugin. If You are a current WP Social product owner than you should have received this same update in Your email, if not please check now.
One of the most cumbersome aspects of using the Plugins from WP Social has been the licensing system we are using. While this has always been a short term fix for us, it has also been an issue for You as well and we know it. I use the licensing system myself and having to go into the individual plugin page in the member Account Area and generate a license code is a very tedious process. Well that is about to change.
We wanted to create something better for You while still keeping a high level of security on our products and we think we have done that and then some. We initially looked at emulating the WooThemes licensing setup which requires you to install the WooThemes Updater plugin on your blog and then input a product license for each item you purchase.
After looking hard at this, we felt we could do it one better. Instead of simply creating a plugin where you now have to input a bunch of license codes, we set our New Licensing Plugin up where you only have to input Your Personal License Key for Your Account at WPSocial.com one time. The plugin then communicates with WPSocial.com and Your Account and it will identify each product You have access to on Your Account and activate the license automatically.
Right now I don’t know of too many businesses using this type of licensing setup and we think it will be much more convenient for You and a whole lot more secure for us.
Because of this, in the near future we will begin creating Licenses for Single Use, Multi Use, and Developer Licenses for each product. With our new licensing setup we are now able to restrict and limit the number of sites our plugins are on automatically. As You know, right now we only offer a Developer License tier and if You have purchased one of our products with this Developer License You will always have that. We will not take that away, but we will be adding it to our purchase options soon.
So in the future, if You purchase a plugin from us and You Purchase a Single Use License, You will only be able to use that plugin on One Site and if You try to use it on more, the licensing plugin will automatically keep the plugin from activating.
When Will the New Licensing System Go Live?
As You know, we have been preparing to release the Social Deals Engine Plugin for quite a long time. One of the holdups has been the licensing plugin. We did not want to release the Social Deals Engine and all the new Extensions and then have to turn around in a month and change the licensing setup on everything. it just didn’t make sense. SDE has been ready for quite some time now, in fact I received the first full version with Extensions on July 3rd, but we needed to make sure this was all setup and ready to go first.
After we release the Social Deals Engine Plugin this week (and Yes, it is finally being released this week) we will slowly transition in the new licensing plugin for all our other plugins. As soon as it is live in the Customer Account area I encourage You to install it on Your sites and activate it with Your new License Key. This way, when each plugin is updated You can make a seamless transition to the new system.
**Don’t worry, none of Your plugins are going to stop working all of a sudden because of this, but you will not be able to receive Updates until You do.**
Social Deals Engine Plugin Release
The Social Deals Engine release is waiting on just one thing now. We have the licensing setup complete, we have the knowledge base complete, and we have the Extensions loaded and ready to go on WPSocial.com.
We are waiting on WordPress.org.
We are releasing the base plugin for the Social Deals Engine in the WordPress repository and giving it away for Free, but WordPress must approve our listing before it goes live and we are waiting on them right now.
For half of the users of the plugin, this version will be more than enough to run deals on their WordPress blogs. Much like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, we are going to have a bunch of Premium Extensions which will allow you to Extend the capabilities of the Social Deals Engine and those you will have to purchase (unless You already did via the Social Deals Bundle or the WP Social Developer Bundle).
The Social Deals Engine Bundle will be removed from the WP Social Developer Bundle as soon as WordPress.org approves our listing there, but those of You who have already purchased the Developer Bundle will still have access to the Bundle Extensions and their Updates just like you do now. No change for You there. But for new buyers of the Developer Bundle, the Social Deals Engine Bundle will not be available anymore in the next day or 2. There is no set timeline as we will simply release SDE and the Extensions Marketplace when the base plugin is available for everyone on WP.org.
Member Dashboard Going Away
The Member Dashboard inside Your Account Area will be going away. With the new licensing setup with WooCommerce on WPSocial.com we will now be able to deliver Your purchases to You in a much more convenient manner. You will be able to login to Your account, see Your current list of purchases and download them and install them without having to click on a bunch of buttons to find them. This will all change as soon as the Licensing system transition is complete which we hope to do over the next 2-3 weeks or even faster if we can. We will let you know.
Social Media Optimization for WordPress Webinar
Just a reminder. Tomorrow I will be giving a Webinar on Social Media Optimization and WordPress and how you can use the SEO Booster plugin effectively in your optimization.
Date: Wednesday, August 28th
Time: **3:00 PM EST** (Please note that the countdown timer on our site is off by one hour. Technically we are in Eastern Daylight Time right now due to daylight savings time here in the USA, but the Countdown timer didn’t get the memo I guess.)
If You didn’t register already, here is the Registration URL (We will be recording it as well as it is a Hangout on Air and will record to YouTube automatically):
Social Media Optimization for WordPress Webinar
We have more stuff coming, so keep an eye our for our next update.
Thanks.