As a plugin developer your goal should be to allocate some time to handle support requests.
That's a responsible thing to do and especially true if you want to make it a successful business eventually.

Note: At the end of the article I've included a video how to do it.

Why provide support in the first place?

Providing support (via email, WordPress support forums or your own forums) has many benefits.

  1. Your users will have an incentive to donate to support the future development
  2. You will see how people are actually using your plugin(s).
  3. You will get ideas which you can put into paid version of the plugin
  4. You'll get better reviews
  5. Some of your users will hire you for their future web work

I strongly suggest that you stick with support forums and not email because it is a way more scalable approach.
People will keep asking you the same question over and over. Your time will be better spent developing new features instead of answering the same question over and over.

How to setup WordPress.org notifications

To setup the notifications visit the link below but make sure you replace YOUR-USERNAME with your real username.
https://profiles.wordpress.org/**YOUR-USERNAME**/profile/notifications/

how to setup wordpress.org support notifications for plugins you contribute to list

If you scroll down you'll see the add new notification form

how to setup wordpress.org support notifications for plugins you contribute to add new notification form

Tip: After my 10th free plugin I started prefixing my plugins with my company name (Orbisius) e.g. Orbisius Child Theme Creator, Orbisius Just Write etc.
That turned out to be a great move. It builds brand credibility to AND it also makes setting up the notifications easier.
All I had to do is add a new Notification Search String to be Orbisius and whenever somebody mentions one of my plugins and I'd get a notification.
By default WordPress.org notifies you when somebody mentions your username.
Actually, it would've been even wiser if I submitted all my plugins through Orbisius WP account.

Oh, I almost forgot WordPress.org also provides RSS feeds for the support requests.
You can add the feeds of each plugin to your favourite RSS feed reader e.g. netvibes

how to setup wordpress.org support notifications for plugins you contribute to rss feed link

Do you have other tips to share with your plugin development?

 

Video walk through how to do it

 

Do you need a quick way (seconds!) to set up a test WordPress site?
Then you need to check out qSandbox now.

Disclaimer: The content in this post is for educational purposes only. Always remember to take a backup before doing any of the suggested steps just to be on the safe side.
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