As we approach 300,000 downloads of WPtouch and nearly half a million if you count up our other plugins, we’ve been reflecting on what we’ve accomplished and where we’d like to go from here.

Our plugins are freely available and GPL, which means that donations are the only source of income they generate at this time. So our main source of revenue is working with some terrific clients building websites, and doing various development and graphic design for 3rd party services and products.

Over the past year and half that we’ve been running we’ve poured thousands of hours into our client work, and hundreds into our plugins. More recently we’ve had very little time to improve upon our GPL offerings, though.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me that at times it seems that people think they’re entitled to the work we produce and improvements upon it. Though it is very much the minority of what we experience from our users, it’s something that can easily take the wind out of our sails— having someone acting as if a bug in your free software is a serious problem that you must resolve or they’ll axe you.

As tough as it is, we’ve realized that our experience with free software only serves to embolden the reality of the expectations we have regarding the future and the real liklihood that we’ll release some pretty cool products or services that will be revenue generating— and which will indeed be supported and will be improved upon over time.

The Ever-So Cool Pipeline

With all of that said we’re excited to soon promote and discuss the future of BraveNewCode and what we have coming down the pipes. Our focus remains with WordPress, but we’re looking at ways we can both expand upon our existing plugins, add new and powerful ones, and build an eco-system of BraveNewCode products and services which will enhance not only WordPress but the way people use the internet, period.

It’s an exciting time, and there’s nothing but hard work ahead for us.

Fade To Black

We’re taking off on a company hiatus/strategy planning vacation in late November, and at that time we’ll be phasing the next steps for what we’re trying to accomplish. For the most part there will be a code-freeze on what we’ve done to date, but rest assured that WordTwit, WPtouch and our other forthcoming plugins like Integrity are going to get the love and attention they deserve.

Look for some exciting changes to take place in the coming weeks/months ahead from us. If you want to stay on top of the pulse follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter— in both places we share secrets you won’t get here : )

For the most part, BraveNewCode will be shutdown during that week. While we may answer the odd email or attend to a few small client issues, we’ll be purposefully turning the computers off so that we can both strategize a bit around the pool, and ultimately get a little rest from a rather crazy (and equally enjoyable) first year of business.

We’ll be back in Canada and hard at it again once we get back from Mexico. We want to extend a big thank you to all our clients and everyone who has supported us over the past year, and plan to have a beer for each and every one of you around the pool down in Mexico!