5 ms·

Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the begin

by scrrr 16y ago

Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the beginning to eventually make it known?

eldimo 16y ago
That's why you offer free trials. :)
- scrrr 16y ago
  So the real advice is: Offer free accounts and then get rid of them.
  - meric 16y ago
    I wonder how well offering free accounts, getting rid of them and then grandfathering the free account users would work. How would the free users who have exclusive free accounts behave? Will they be more likely to promote your product (aka bragging) or would they be inclined to try to sell their account to someone?
  - dagw 16y ago
    That was basically what I took away from the article. Start by offering free accounts until you gain some sort of traction and people become aware of your product, but once you start getting significant traffic stop with the free.
    - hasenj 16y ago
      Something else to take away: don't require people to give away their billing information upfront when signing up for a trial; simply downgrade their account if the trial period ends and they haven't paid yet.
  - revorad 16y ago
    I didn't see that being advised anywhere in the article. I think the author is implicitly recommending limited free trials, which make perfect business sense.
alttab 16y ago
This only works if the user base also evangelizes. Your model wouldn't work well if they say "Use BidSketch, its free and awesome!" and then they went there and it wasn't free, they wouldn't sign up for a paid account because their initial impression was they didn't need their wallet. There are free/paid products that have been around for a fistful of years that people still accidentally stumble on. Because we spend so much time on the web we think others watch whats happening all the time and catch our moves. From a marketing perspective, you have to tell the same story for 12-18 months before it becomes "common knowledge" and you need the right PR connections. You could change your App's name and logo 10 times in 6 months and no one would really notice except for your users. More simply put: most people don't know if a product is "known" or "unknown" - they simply decide if it does what they are looking for and make their decision based on that. You are not your user, something we developers tend to forget from time to time.
revorad 16y ago
Yes, but would those companies have become popular You hit the nail on the head there. Web startups have become a popularity contest. Instead of building really good products and selling them for a price, people are trying to get as many users as possible and then tinker with all sorts of metrics to get "conversions". I can see the reason for doing this if you have big investors and want to sell to a big company one day. But, it seems like a really poor strategy if you want to build a profitable business.

by scrrr 16y ago

Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the beginning to eventually make it known?

eldimo 16y ago

That's why you offer free trials. :)

scrrr 16y ago
So the real advice is: Offer free accounts and then get rid of them.
- meric 16y ago
  I wonder how well offering free accounts, getting rid of them and then grandfathering the free account users would work. How would the free users who have exclusive free accounts behave? Will they be more likely to promote your product (aka bragging) or would they be inclined to try to sell their account to someone?
- dagw 16y ago
  That was basically what I took away from the article. Start by offering free accounts until you gain some sort of traction and people become aware of your product, but once you start getting significant traffic stop with the free.
  - hasenj 16y ago
    Something else to take away: don't require people to give away their billing information upfront when signing up for a trial; simply downgrade their account if the trial period ends and they haven't paid yet.
- revorad 16y ago
  I didn't see that being advised anywhere in the article. I think the author is implicitly recommending limited free trials, which make perfect business sense.

alttab 16y ago

This only works if the user base also evangelizes. Your model wouldn't work well if they say "Use BidSketch, its free and awesome!" and then they went there and it wasn't free, they wouldn't sign up for a paid account because their initial impression was they didn't need their wallet. There are free/paid products that have been around for a fistful of years that people still accidentally stumble on. Because we spend so much time on the web we think others watch whats happening all the time and catch our moves. From a marketing perspective, you have to tell the same story for 12-18 months before it becomes "common knowledge" and you need the right PR connections. You could change your App's name and logo 10 times in 6 months and no one would really notice except for your users. More simply put: most people don't know if a product is "known" or "unknown" - they simply decide if it does what they are looking for and make their decision based on that. You are not your user, something we developers tend to forget from time to time.

revorad 16y ago

Yes, but would those companies have become popular You hit the nail on the head there. Web startups have become a popularity contest. Instead of building really good products and selling them for a price, people are trying to get as many users as possible and then tinker with all sorts of metrics to get "conversions". I can see the reason for doing this if you have big investors and want to sell to a big company one day. But, it seems like a really poor strategy if you want to build a profitable business.