For my very small case which is a software available as GPL with a free limited in space hosting and a paid "more space" hosting. 1) the offer is a freemium of

For my very small case which is a software available as GPL with a free limited in space hosting and a paid "more space" hosting. 1) the offer is a freemium offer and the free part is something I would personally use, the free offer gives traction and users are happy using it. Some are also slowly (no stats yet) converting to paid customers. 2) I had already my company so this was not an issue. The only thing I had to do was to get a merchant account and a payment processing gateway. It took a bit of time but it was way easier than expected. 3) No way, the customer service is telling you were you need to code and in my case helps my development momentum. When I have a paid customer who ask me something I wanted to implement but were procrastinating, it is the small kick pushing me ahead. What is also helping me is a paper in front of my desk with just the 13 sentences from here: http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html (minus the first one, I am a single founder).