As many know, I’ve been working on BestAgentBlogs.com for quite a few months and things are coming along very well. Truth is, it’s coming along way better than it should under normal circumstances due in large part to the talent and community at WPMU Dev Premium. It is a paid membership community for WordPress MU (Multi User) Administrators that develops and supports plugins and integrations that improve the user experience and management of these complex systems.
I’ve been meaning to mention them here for some time, but now that they have asked and they are giving away a few memberships to promote their 100th WPMU plugin, it seems seems like an especially good time for me to chime in. I started paying by month, and am now several months in to a (paid) annual membership. Well worth it, in my opinion.
Although I have given most of their plugins a try, the ones that I make the most of are these:
- Google Analytics for WordPress MU – Sitewide AND single blog solution!
- MailChimp Newsletter Integration
- Recent Comments
- Remove Email Verification From Signup
- Sitemaps and SEO – WordPress MU Style
- Supporter
Of these, I’d say that supporter is the heavy hitter. It is made to integrate in with PayPal as a payment facility and to control what plugins and features are associated with “Supporters” versus free accounts. It makes the whole system hum.
In addition to plugins, I’ve made great use of their Farms 100 big ones theme pack. Basically, they’ve taken 100 popular themes and modified them so that they all work with the various plugins and tools in a reliable way. I can’t imagine how many hundreds of hours they have spent fiddling with these, but I can say with certainty that BestAgentBlogs would have many fewer themes available without their efforts.
Congratulations, on your 100th plugin, WPMU DEV Premium!
About Christopher Price
WPMUdev is horrendous. They claim ‘risk free’, ‘cancel anytime’, ‘no risk’, ‘guaranteed to work with the latest version of wordpress’ and many other warm and cozy phrases. I signed up for the 1 year term for $419. One of their reps even told me in writing that “all premium themes support the WordPress 3.0 menu navs”. I was able to find exactly 1 premium theme that supported WP 3.0 menus. One. I tried to cancel WITHIN 7 DAYS and was told they don’t do refunds. I am currently refuting the charge with my credit card company and jumping through hoops to get my money back. WPMUdev is a HUGE waste of time. You’ll be much better off financially and emotionally, and you’ll have a far superior, significantly more professional end product if you do the legwork that WPMUdev promises they’ve done, on your own. I ended up with a PageLines theme. There are many others out there as well. Pass on WPMUdev unless you value misleading advertising and mediocrity.
Wow, Tim, you seem pretty unsatisfied. And you’ve been with them a week? I’m unsure of their refund policy, but I’ve never tried to get a refund. I would guess that paypal could facilitate a chargeback dispute.
My experience has been very different from yours. I’m on my second year with them and I think they are an excellent value to anyone running a WordPress-based business. Let me qualify that even further. They assume their customers have the skills of an average system admin. You don’t have to be a developer (I’m not) but there can be a bit of a learning curve. In my case, they and the forum participants have been generally marvelous in their willingness to walk me through a problem.
Their themes and plugins are very good, though I am comfortable tweaking them to suit my needs. When I find something better elsewhere, I’ll use that. So, for under a thousand bucks in these two years, I’ve got a bunch of custom plugins and themes, and a great resource in the forum when I get in over my head.
I think that’s fair. I’m still a very satisfied customer.
Disclosure: The links I have to WPMU Dev are affiliate links. I will get some credit toward my own subscription if anyone follows them and signs up. (No one has yet.)