Why I threw an excellent WordPress plugin I built into the trash

A typical WordPress success story looks like this: hundreds of thousands of downloads. Updates, sometimes urgent. Dozens of support requests. And $0.

Does that make sense?

I built a WordPress plugin I was proud of. It worked, it solved a real problem, and I could see it doing well in the directory. Then I looked at where that success leads: more users, more updates, more support, and no one paying for any of it. So I dropped it.

It wasn't a bad product. It was a product without a business model, sitting in an ecosystem that trains users to expect everything for free.

The lesson I took with me: the business model isn't something you add after launch. It has to sit at the center of every development, from the first line. Who pays, for what, and why would they keep paying? If I can't answer that, the product isn't ready, no matter how good it is.

Building is now fast and cheap. That makes this question more important, not less.

Has a platform's culture ever decided your pricing for you?