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I seriously shy away from "saleable product", so my thoughts are purely from a conventional ad supported website model. I think it's just the opposite; a produ

I seriously shy away from "saleable product", so my thoughts are purely from a conventional ad supported website model. I think it's just the opposite; a product or service that you charge money for is way easier to make a living from than an ad-supported community. How big is the market for ad-supported communities for fish tank owners that are big enough that you could live off of them? A dozen or two? But how big is the market for companies that make a product or service that fish tank owners would buy? Probably thousands. Depending on your margins, you can make a living off of a handful of customers if you're selling them something (and you make money from the very first customer), but it'll take a large audience before you can make any money from ads. This also ignores the fact that ad-supported models have both users and customers, and they're not the same group, which can create all kinds of problems. Identify a problem, create a solution, and ask people to pay for it.

axod 16y ago
My main experience and success has been with advertising, so that's what I know, and what I recommend as being easiest to start, easiest to scale. I disagree with your argument. >> "it'll take a large audience before you can make any money from ads" It'll take a targeted audience before you can make money from ads. It's not about raw numbers, but about how well you match your users up to what they want. You can make a living out of a website that gets 100 visitors a month, if those 100 visitors are extremely targeted visitors.
- famfam 16y ago
  Okay, I'll bite. One of my webapps (http://todoneapp.com http://todoneapp.com) has 100 active users a week. How do I monetize it?
  - axod 16y ago
    The most obvious route would be: * Make it more of a reminder service for specific dates * Make it email/sms/etc you at pre determined times * Make those communications include handy adverts For example, "I need to buy a present for a thomas who is 8 by Aug 8th at the latest"... on Aug 1st it emails you saying "Don't forget to buy a present! Here's some cool offers, here's a coupon to buy toys. Here's a great place to buy e-cards, etc etc" I'd start by analyzing what sort of events/items your userbase are adding on your app, and working out how you can enhance their experience using advertising. If it turned out that 90% of your userbase are adding the todo item "Find a good deal on car insurance", then obviously it'd pay to find some good car insurance affiliate programs... (Hyperbole example, I know, just to show a point). But 100 users using a todo webapp aren't really that targeted. By targeted I'm meaning more like "They have already expressed a desire to buy X" etc
    - jbgoddard 16y ago
      The users are targeted, just not explicitly. An advertisement for David Allen's GTD book would target that audience.

axod 16y ago

My main experience and success has been with advertising, so that's what I know, and what I recommend as being easiest to start, easiest to scale. I disagree with your argument. >> "it'll take a large audience before you can make any money from ads" It'll take a targeted audience before you can make money from ads. It's not about raw numbers, but about how well you match your users up to what they want. You can make a living out of a website that gets 100 visitors a month, if those 100 visitors are extremely targeted visitors.

famfam 16y ago
Okay, I'll bite. One of my webapps (http://todoneapp.com http://todoneapp.com) has 100 active users a week. How do I monetize it?
- axod 16y ago
  The most obvious route would be: * Make it more of a reminder service for specific dates * Make it email/sms/etc you at pre determined times * Make those communications include handy adverts For example, "I need to buy a present for a thomas who is 8 by Aug 8th at the latest"... on Aug 1st it emails you saying "Don't forget to buy a present! Here's some cool offers, here's a coupon to buy toys. Here's a great place to buy e-cards, etc etc" I'd start by analyzing what sort of events/items your userbase are adding on your app, and working out how you can enhance their experience using advertising. If it turned out that 90% of your userbase are adding the todo item "Find a good deal on car insurance", then obviously it'd pay to find some good car insurance affiliate programs... (Hyperbole example, I know, just to show a point). But 100 users using a todo webapp aren't really that targeted. By targeted I'm meaning more like "They have already expressed a desire to buy X" etc
  - jbgoddard 16y ago
    The users are targeted, just not explicitly. An advertisement for David Allen's GTD book would target that audience.