Now that we’ve launched Custom CSS and the response has been good, I’m pretty curious what you guys would be interested in for future paid upgrades.
So this is an open thread. Suggest, kvetch, wish, fantasize. Is there anything we’re not doing today that would provide enough value that you’d be willing to pay for it?
Update: Sorry for being away from the comments for a few days, I was busy at WordCamp. Just to clarify two semi-common concerns from the comments: we’re not going to charge for anything we’re currently giving away for free, and we still will be constantly improving the service, free and otherwise.
I think some folks got confused by the “upgrades” language and assumed every future enhancement to WP.com would be paid. Of course not! We want to give away as much as possible, and just charge what we have to keep the service running and continue providing great support.
WordPress.com News 
more analytics, and being able to customize sidebar/headers with HTML. adsense, upload space for mp3, and more ability to embed things in posts
Call me strange but I rather enjoy knowing there are still some small corners of the web which aren’t cluttered up with ads.
It seems a majority are requesting these, so I will add my voice and hope they’re top of your list. 😉 This is what I’d be willing to pay for:
domain parking / mapping
ability to use polls
more statistics (I’d personally like browser type and operating system, but I’m sure there are more useful statistics :P)
you guys are awesome!
Take care of yourselves. So you can offer this fine free service, allow others to go farther for a fee however you see fit, and to give yourselves room to offer bodacious features/ideas/adventures you might come up with.
I am absolutely delighted with being able to tag my entries. I can do in one blog what takes 20. And thankyou for your admonition: if you have a great blog title, take it, use it, but don’t just camp out on it. That being said, blogblogblog.blogspot.com is a keeper and I hope it stays forever. I could not improve on that.
I would love to be able to customize the themes that are available on WordPress.com just a little more than I can currently. Background graphics, other graphics.
I would also like to put embedded web apps in my site if I wanted. Like Weather, Flash, etc…
Domain Mapping, I would pay like $10.
Please, please PLEASE add Markdown/Textile support. The tinyMCE thing is just too flaky and slow for those of us who are used to typing and styling text as we go, and the current “Tiny or Nothing” situation is just too limiting.
I’ll echo a few of the things I’ve seen in the thread already:
Ability to use my own domain
Email on domains
More storage space
Hosting email would open a whole new can of worms, but maybe a partnership with someone like Fastmail would prove to be a worthy arrangement. That way folks who point their domains at you would have email options as well. Otherwise, they’ll still have to leave their DNS elsewhere and still have another host of some sort in order to get email services on their domain.
Agreed with many: support for third party plug-ins/widgets. For example:
Site Meter
Google Analytics
Meebo Me
Last.Fm, Flickr, Del.icio.us “badges”
I want to say a couple of the themes allow for an approved flickr plug-in, but I’m looking for something more general for all themes.
While I would love for support of “approved” third party plug-ins such as the above for free, I would probably pay a small fee to have the ability to use some of these.
I’d pay to have plugin options, customized headers, image links.
I’ve been granted affiliate status by Reuters News and would very much like to add a Reuters video feed to my blog. I also would like to add a virtual spokesperson from SitePal.com. (They’ve been nice enough to offer me an upgrade of their product — after I dissed them in my blog.)
Maybe these things are already possible, and if so, I’d very much appreciate someone letting me know. But if not, those are not only what I want, but what I “need.”
1. Dialoging in comments – similar to how LiveJournal works, with tiered comments & notification emails in response to comments. When a commenter comments, and I respond to said comment, I want the commenterto get an email telling them I responded.
2. Public, Friends, and Family posts, not entire blogs. See Flickr’s levels of privatization.
3. Customizable CSS (done, I see :)).
4. Make site-meter work, or improve WordPress’s stat tracking abilities to be on-par with Sitemeter’s.
5. No Ads.
Domain Mapping, Plesase.
1. Ability to change the template like you can w/ Blogger;
2. Colored fonts like Blogger;
3. Upload mp3’s
Here’s my wish list:
For paid services (within the range of 10 to 15 dollars on a yearly basis)
1) Photo albums similar to the service provided by Typepad and MovableType
2) An enhanced html editor
3) Javascript
4) Blog This similar to the service provided by Googles’ Blogger
I also would be interested in low-cost security, like $10-15 bucks per year for a password protected blog and the ability to disable automated search engine submission for those of us who need to run private blogs.
What about managing partner links for gazillions of stores?
Amazon has a partner program – create links, if people buy you get a share. Many other stores have that too. Sure, I managed to set that up on my own, many others do that too. But maybe it would be a nice service for lots of people if WP.com was something like the concentrator, so it would be even easier to create such links to whatever stores, and then share the revenue with wp.com?
you could handle all the contracts, signups, whatever, so people only had to create a specialy crafted link. or you could even detect links in postings and offer the user to transform it into a partner link with earning commission.
Comment previewing! Preferably the optional live style as implemented on these weblogs:
http://www.hawkwings.net/
http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/
Any type of comment previewing would be an improvement over nothing. And why that functionality hasn’t been included in the generic WP distribution is still a mystery to me.
Nothing thanks. I’m quite happy with the free service and distinct lag of adsense. 😉
What I’d REALLY like, and definitely pay for, (and I know that this is probably just a huge pipe-dream), is a WordPress.com hosted alternative to Flickr. A lot of boring blogging services offer image hosting (like Xanga, Yahoo 360, Vox, Blog-City, etc), and the ability to create sets, and what not. This sort of integration with a WordPress.com account would be incredible, not to mention all the many possibilities, like when it comes to writing posts. Definitely something I’d pay for.
It’s currently a wonderful site. How in the heck do you guys pay the bills? To all those begging that the site remain free, I’d like you to consider going to your jobs and not getting paid.
Everyone has given great suggestions…I like the javascripting for adsense, the direct Amazon links or itunes links, customized template themes, and personalized domain or ability to export everything to own domain, and last but not least file storage. I’m new here so not sure if any of these features are already options.
I’d like to see advanced HTML.. And
F R E E is precisely why my daughter commenced blogging.
People and Machines that make WordPress happen~ I Love You.
I think $15 is too expensive.. it’s just only for customizing CSS.
I would pay for a system that is better than Adsense, ala blogads. The most logical seems to be for WordPress to make their own system then not have to charge blog users for run ads and take a % of ads. Then maybe every other feature could remain free!
I would like more themes and customizing of themes.
Nevertheless let me encourage you to follow providing ‘paid’ services above the free basic blogging. And to find the right balance between free services that attract new bloggers like myself and add scale, and what many clients are willing to pay for extra-added layers of service. And I even encourage you to keep on figuring out how to discriminate between clients that can afford and those who cannot. You have many variables you can tweak (price, time horizon, centralized-decentraliced, amount of content, bandwith use, etc) and a loyal base with ready feedback to help you polish the approach.
would pay for statcounter. Current site statistics are a bit lacking…!
I’d pay for a constantly updated blog that worked more easily with picture albums.
I’d pay for an own hosted job that got updated somehow automatically, XP do it, so why can’t you?
I’d pay for that.
brendan
1. domain mapping.
and not just a pointer for the index but a complate domain map so that every appears and could be bookmarked from that domain. I would definitely pay for this.
2. ajax style posting interface
the make or break for group blogging (such as for tha gath.wordpress.com project ive been working on) is ease of use for those new to blogging. you could use ajax for smoother posting. also it would help two have two versions to the admin interface: full and a simplified, for people new to blogging. perhaps also let me, the admin, set some defaults for my new users such as having their default interface be the simplified version.
I will pay if you allow following
1. Full control over layout – look and feel
2. Full control for Audio-Video podcasting
3. Full control for file storage on WP server
(like storing word copy of my resume)
4. Full Featured Site Statestics
5. Support to put advertisement in specified area
6. Full support for custom HTML/JS code
Thanks
some ideas on revenue …
give custom css free and force adsense at the bottom! I think what you could do is have adsense for free with threshold money from adsense {compulsorily :D} and with that if you can get say $5 (could be % based) from every blog! More than that you if have ready to pay up front – give the following:
1. look and feel control
2. Analytics
You folks anyway help the users to get better google ranking and I think you use google analytics backend … so it should work really well!
analytics
domain parking
ability to put code into your own template
would happily cough up for these 🙂
Saya mau lihat forum personal di site saya,terima kasih(I’d like to see personal forums for one’s site myself.Thank you)
* Being able to buy an exclusive template.
Allow others to submit them and split the profits.
* Ability to choose from a wider selection of templates.
* Faster site speed
More robust tracking!!
Something else I’d pay for: magazine hosting.
GigaOm, Huffington Report are hosted on blogging software. Put together a major tweak that lets me combine multiple authors, multiple blogs, into a single, navigable online mag. tags, departments/sections/channels, plugins for easy podcasting and vlogging, themes varying a little by department. use my domain. And make it easy to customize the look and feel. I’d pay real money for this.