Startups are too skiddish about charging. This shouldn't be novel or surprising, this is regular business 101. Businesses charge money for useful products. Peo

Startups are too skiddish about charging. This shouldn't be novel or surprising, this is regular business 101. Businesses charge money for useful products. People are used to paying for useful products. The only difference is that the variable costs associated with hosting more users are tiny. How much does each user cost you? Basically nothing in the scheme of things. The problem is that the fixed costs are high - development, overhead, etc. Just becuase the variable costs are low doesn't mean you can't charge your users for the fixed costs. Other businesses do this all the time. Startups should not be afraid of charging their fixed costs on to their customers. Advertising is fine if you are a media website and are trying to be an online newspaper or a website with no real function at all, but if you are a full fledged web app with useful features, CHARGE!