4 ms·

Most people won't valuate their time at $600/hr. (Assuming it takes you 30 seconds to manually send a fax.)

daniel_levine 16y ago
assuming you don't have a fax machine. If you can sign up online for an existing faxing service and then unsubscribe or put up with having your email sold in even close to 30 seconds I will hire you.
- coderdude 16y ago
  Well now we're throwing in additional variables. If you don't have a fax machine, perhaps someone might wish to spend $5 to send a single fax.
seanahrens 16y ago
I think it's designed for people that don't have a FAX machine. So I think maybe (30 minutes of your time + cost to FAX at your local fedex kinkos) might be a more accurate comparable.
stevelosh 16y ago
Grab coat, get in car, drive to UPS store: 5 minutes. Wait in line: 0-10 minutes. Talk to cashier, send fax: 3 minutes. Pay: 1 minute. Get in car, drive home, remove coat: 5 minutes. Total: 14-24 minutes. My time is worth more than an average of ~$17/hour.
- coderdude 16y ago
  Since you took the time to figure that out, I'll contribute. I just called a FedEx Kinkos (in Riverside, CA, USA) and they said it's $1.40 for the first page and $0.99 for each additional page, and that's to the same area code.
  - swirlee 16y ago
    For some more perspective: InterFax's smallest--and highest cost-per-page package--is $0.11/page. So to send 15 pages through InterFax will cost a developer at most $1.65: http://www.interfax.net/en/prices http://www.interfax.net/en/prices I worked on a project very similar to this (and of course the others linked in this thread) for awhile (because I had a need for just such a service), so: 1) Kudos to you, the developer for actually shipping, which I did not do, and 2) I agree with others that you're pricing himself out of the market. Personally I think that $0.99-1.99 is the sweet spot, and you should tweak your cost and page counts to match that. I've never had to fax more than ten pages, so if I went to this site with my 3-6 pages I'd scoff--"Five bucks for three pages? Pffff." But that's me--maybe lots of people need to send 10-15 pages. You'd want to do some market research to figure what are the most common page counts. Off the top of my head, though, I'd charge $0.99 for the first five pages. Disregarding marginal costs, that's 50% profit per transaction (assuming you eat the cost of a cover sheet)--at least! 125% profit for three-page faxes. After that you can tack on your $0.25/page and it's all gravy. And, of course, this would be an easy thing to A/B test. Edit: By the way, if you were willing to buy $500 in InterFax credits up-front (instead of $10 for their smallest package) you could do 10 pages/$0.99 with at least 33% profit. If you went down for the $2k package you're up to 48% profit. With 15 pages for $5 you're looking at a minimum 184% profit. So I can understand the draw--but I don't think the average customer will. Edit 2: Changed numbers to factor in cover sheets, which you'll likely want to eat the cost of.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]

assuming you don't have a fax machine. If you can sign up online for an existing faxing service and then unsubscribe or put up with having your email sold in even close to 30 seconds I will hire you.

coderdude 16y ago
Well now we're throwing in additional variables. If you don't have a fax machine, perhaps someone might wish to spend $5 to send a single fax.

seanahrens 16y ago

I think it's designed for people that don't have a FAX machine. So I think maybe (30 minutes of your time + cost to FAX at your local fedex kinkos) might be a more accurate comparable.

stevelosh 16y ago

Grab coat, get in car, drive to UPS store: 5 minutes. Wait in line: 0-10 minutes. Talk to cashier, send fax: 3 minutes. Pay: 1 minute. Get in car, drive home, remove coat: 5 minutes. Total: 14-24 minutes. My time is worth more than an average of ~$17/hour.

coderdude 16y ago
Since you took the time to figure that out, I'll contribute. I just called a FedEx Kinkos (in Riverside, CA, USA) and they said it's $1.40 for the first page and $0.99 for each additional page, and that's to the same area code.
- swirlee 16y ago
  For some more perspective: InterFax's smallest--and highest cost-per-page package--is $0.11/page. So to send 15 pages through InterFax will cost a developer at most $1.65: http://www.interfax.net/en/prices http://www.interfax.net/en/prices I worked on a project very similar to this (and of course the others linked in this thread) for awhile (because I had a need for just such a service), so: 1) Kudos to you, the developer for actually shipping, which I did not do, and 2) I agree with others that you're pricing himself out of the market. Personally I think that $0.99-1.99 is the sweet spot, and you should tweak your cost and page counts to match that. I've never had to fax more than ten pages, so if I went to this site with my 3-6 pages I'd scoff--"Five bucks for three pages? Pffff." But that's me--maybe lots of people need to send 10-15 pages. You'd want to do some market research to figure what are the most common page counts. Off the top of my head, though, I'd charge $0.99 for the first five pages. Disregarding marginal costs, that's 50% profit per transaction (assuming you eat the cost of a cover sheet)--at least! 125% profit for three-page faxes. After that you can tack on your $0.25/page and it's all gravy. And, of course, this would be an easy thing to A/B test. Edit: By the way, if you were willing to buy $500 in InterFax credits up-front (instead of $10 for their smallest package) you could do 10 pages/$0.99 with at least 33% profit. If you went down for the $2k package you're up to 48% profit. With 15 pages for $5 you're looking at a minimum 184% profit. So I can understand the draw--but I don't think the average customer will. Edit 2: Changed numbers to factor in cover sheets, which you'll likely want to eat the cost of.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]