Hi Eve!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
In all, I really only have two real commercial extensions, but the plugin for DOCman is definitely the primary one that people visit my site for from the JED.
I don't think the other free extensions I have to detract at all...I feel if any of those provide significant value for people then they're more likely to have confidence in your commercial extensions as well.
I agree that most people are likely to try out any freely available extensions first, though I do think that more business oriented folks don't have any qualms with paying for software for their sites, especially if it fulfills an important function for them or saves them money by saving them time.
In 2012 with the new site I started offering the option of a free copy of the commercial extension for people to try out, and then leave it up to them to subscribe afterwards if it met their needs. Quite a few people have taken me up on that offer this past year and most of those eventually led to subscriptions. I felt that would be a nice touch because sometimes you do want to try out an extension before purchasing, but developers are usually reluctant to let you try before you buy due to the GPL nature of the extensions (once you give them a copy there aren't any restrictions on how many sites they can use it on or who they can give it to, but most people are very honest about things and don't try to take advantage of that openness).
I hope you're able to put that coding hat on soon!
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