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Ask HN: Have you been afraid of charging your users?
I have a project, which I think is in a good position for me to start charging its users money. But I keep delaying it.
I think my reasons are
1. Fear - fear of... something going horribly wrong? (hm, what could that be).. getting sued? (ok I'm being ridiculous, I know).
2. Not desperate enough? - I do have a full time job on the side and I like the idea of having my personal project being monetized, but maybe that's going to make the whole thing too serious and etc.
Now that I've written the question, I feel like I'm ridiculous, and perhaps, I can't articulate exactly what my thoughts are at the moment.
Just wanted to ask if others have felt and gone through something similar. Or I should just... shut up and get to work eh?
Another follow-on question would be, does anyone NOT recommend charging early? I know most of the startup advice tends to be "monetize early", but was curious on your experience.
- mpbm 10y agoIt changes your relationship. If they get it for free there's a hard limit on what they can expect from you. The second they pay $0.01 for it they'll expect customer service. Maybe you can find out who your product's best users are and ask them what new features they'd pay for. That way if nobody likes it enough to spend money you can just leave it the way it is, and if you start charging it's for new features that your best customers love.