4 ms·

Congrats for getting from zero to one! It seems like you have some product market fit, that's really great. As others have pointed out, I'd recommend: - pleas

Congrats for getting from zero to one! It seems like you have some product market fit, that's really great. As others have pointed out, I'd recommend: - please rename "amateur" to something more positive. no customer wants to be called an amateur - Increase prices for the pro tier - Improve your "pricing plan" page, take a look at other (more successful) SaaS products and change button labels accordingly. Just take the best things from their landing pages! - create a proper comparison matrix / table for all the plans - visually de-emphasize the free tier, and focus on the 3 paid plans in your comparison table. people will always buy the middle option, so you can increase the price of the "best" option by a lot in order to anchor your value - add features which are available only in "pro" and "pro plus", e.g. support, direct email to developer, etc! - maybe build a mobile app for this? it seems like something that could be nicely integrated into a mobile-first experience. you could make it exclusive for pro users

frits1993 7y ago
Awesome, great pointers. Thanks for that!
disiplus 7y ago
im not sure the "amateur" needs changing, it could be used to point more users to middle tier, we have something like that, where we call our first tier something that like that, and the second "smart" and people take the second one. also there is a decoy effect. we push our middle tier like that without "fake" most popular tier badge. we don't have a free tier.
- jjjensen90 7y ago
  Amateur, at least in common American English, is virtually never used in a positive or neutral sense. It should definitely be changed in anything marketing-related.
  - SECProto 7y ago
    > Amateur, at least in common American English, is virtually never used in a positive or neutral sense. "Amateur astronomy"[1] doesn't have negative connotations. And I don't think this is an exception that proves the rule - as a native speaker of North American English, amateur can have negative connotations, but that isn't the default. That said, in this particular case, something like "hobbyist" might fit better. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_astronomy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_astronomy
  - wolco 7y ago
    Amateur sports is pretty big and positive where professional sports has a slight taint. But in this sense it might remove ceetain tiers (pro).
  - FroshKiller 7y ago
    As a native speaker of American English, I have to disagree. I acknowledge that it is often used pejoratively, but I hear it used neutrally more often than not.
  - bovermyer 7y ago
    I speak common American English, and I've always equated "amateur" with "not paid or licensed to do the thing," rather than "awful at the thing." It's neither positive nor negative most of the time. Context: I've lived primarily in the Midwest and the East Coast, with a few years spent in New Zealand. I've also been either involved in or peripheral to a few hobbies that style themselves as "amateur X."
    - mindcrime 7y ago
      I speak common American English, and I've always equated "amateur" with "not paid or licensed to do the thing," rather than "awful at the thing." Same here. Native English speaker, lived on the East Coast all of my life. I don't find "amateur" to necessarily have negative connotations, but clearly it depends on the context.
  - CPLX 7y ago
    I'm real good at speaking common American English and I don't agree. The word means non-professional. So you don't do it for a living. Which is directly factually a description of what's happening here. In some contexts is could be negative, because the concept of a non professional doing the thing is scary. Like there's nothing positive about an amateur heart surgeon, or amateur parachute designer. But in the context of gardening it's clear and descriptive. The needs of a professional farmer and someone with a backyard garden are very different. The term clears up which one this app is made for.
    - jasonsync 7y ago
      I would suggest change "Amateur" to "Starter". Amateur definition: "sloppy, not professional looking." https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=amateur https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=amateur "a person who is not skilled" https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/amateur_1 https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/americ... "one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amateur https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amateur
      - bananocurrency 7y ago
        "starter" implies a cheap piece of shit throwaway that you're going to graduate from if you want to get anywhere serious. with "amateur" you feel like you won't need to replace/graduate until you're ready to go pro.
      - tasuki 7y ago
        It's from French, where it means "lover", ie someone who loves something: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amateur#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amateur#Etymology
  - albedoa 7y ago
    I'm another American English speaker chiming in to say that this is not true anywhere I've lived. I had never even heard your belief expressed before.
LeifCarrotson 7y ago
Amateur has no negative connotations to me (as a native English speaker from the Midwest US). It's comparable to "hobbyist" or "enthusiast", basically meaning "someone who can do X but doesn't get paid for it". I think a lot of people would be proud to be amateur musicians or amateur athletes, for example, and would have said that no (non-professional) customer would not want to be called an amateur. Just shows you have to be careful! And the pricing page (https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing) looks pretty good to me - nice horizontal feature matrix, easy to locate buttons...not sure OP wants to use dark patterns like de-emphasizing the free tier. I do agree that the top plan should probably be more than $5/mo.
- JshWright 7y ago
  Agreed, "amateur" has pretty positive connotations for me in this context (native English speaker from New York).
  - herohamp 7y ago
    As a native english speaker from Maryland while it doesnt have any negative connotations, I do feel a word like hobbyist would be better
    - emesis31 7y ago
      "Hobbyist" doesn't really make sense, as it's not my hobby to make MP3 playlists. "Amateur" is good as an antonym to "Pro".
      - atomize 7y ago
        I agree with Amateur as well. The Olympics (until the 90s [think USA Dream Team]) were only open to AMATEUR athletes. No one would argue that Olympians weren't skilled, and Olympians never felt slighted by this category. It simply implied that athletes trained and participated in a sport out of love for the game rather than for profit. Amateur literally describes: 'pursuing an activity independently of their source of income', that's all.
pimterry 7y ago
> please rename "amateur" to something more positiv As an alternative to amateur, I like "Hobbyist". Fewer negative connotations, and users can self-categorise between Hobbyist/Professional easily to find the right package. If I'm using a product for serious work, I know that 'Professional' packages are likely targeted at my use case. If I'm just messing around with something, Hobbyist is going to resonate pretty clearly and I'll start there.
lookdangerous 7y ago
You could always go the 'dummies' route
munk-a 7y ago
> - visually de-emphasize the free tier, and focus on the 3 paid plans in your comparison table. people will always buy the middle option, so you can increase the price of the "best" option by a lot in order to anchor your value Maybe avoid the dark UX pattern if you can avoid it. Though it's accepted in industry at this point that customers will need to actively fight against the producer not to get swindled - it's still nice to respect your customers.
therealx 7y ago
Try: "Getting Started"
MisterBastahrd 7y ago
Home, Plus, Pro. Microsoft figured this out years ago.
stevenwliao 7y ago
> rename "amateur" Possibly "starter"
momozaur 7y ago
Does it really need to be a mobile app? I mean, does a mobile app would realistically really get him more clients?

frits1993 7y ago

Awesome, great pointers. Thanks for that!

disiplus 7y ago

im not sure the "amateur" needs changing, it could be used to point more users to middle tier, we have something like that, where we call our first tier something that like that, and the second "smart" and people take the second one. also there is a decoy effect. we push our middle tier like that without "fake" most popular tier badge. we don't have a free tier.

jjjensen90 7y ago
Amateur, at least in common American English, is virtually never used in a positive or neutral sense. It should definitely be changed in anything marketing-related.
- SECProto 7y ago
  > Amateur, at least in common American English, is virtually never used in a positive or neutral sense. "Amateur astronomy"[1] doesn't have negative connotations. And I don't think this is an exception that proves the rule - as a native speaker of North American English, amateur can have negative connotations, but that isn't the default. That said, in this particular case, something like "hobbyist" might fit better. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_astronomy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_astronomy
- wolco 7y ago
  Amateur sports is pretty big and positive where professional sports has a slight taint. But in this sense it might remove ceetain tiers (pro).
- FroshKiller 7y ago
  As a native speaker of American English, I have to disagree. I acknowledge that it is often used pejoratively, but I hear it used neutrally more often than not.
- bovermyer 7y ago
  I speak common American English, and I've always equated "amateur" with "not paid or licensed to do the thing," rather than "awful at the thing." It's neither positive nor negative most of the time. Context: I've lived primarily in the Midwest and the East Coast, with a few years spent in New Zealand. I've also been either involved in or peripheral to a few hobbies that style themselves as "amateur X."
  - mindcrime 7y ago
    I speak common American English, and I've always equated "amateur" with "not paid or licensed to do the thing," rather than "awful at the thing." Same here. Native English speaker, lived on the East Coast all of my life. I don't find "amateur" to necessarily have negative connotations, but clearly it depends on the context.
- CPLX 7y ago
  I'm real good at speaking common American English and I don't agree. The word means non-professional. So you don't do it for a living. Which is directly factually a description of what's happening here. In some contexts is could be negative, because the concept of a non professional doing the thing is scary. Like there's nothing positive about an amateur heart surgeon, or amateur parachute designer. But in the context of gardening it's clear and descriptive. The needs of a professional farmer and someone with a backyard garden are very different. The term clears up which one this app is made for.
  - jasonsync 7y ago
    I would suggest change "Amateur" to "Starter". Amateur definition: "sloppy, not professional looking." https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=amateur https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=amateur "a person who is not skilled" https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/amateur_1 https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/americ... "one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amateur https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amateur
    - bananocurrency 7y ago
      "starter" implies a cheap piece of shit throwaway that you're going to graduate from if you want to get anywhere serious. with "amateur" you feel like you won't need to replace/graduate until you're ready to go pro.
    - tasuki 7y ago
      It's from French, where it means "lover", ie someone who loves something: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amateur#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amateur#Etymology
- albedoa 7y ago
  I'm another American English speaker chiming in to say that this is not true anywhere I've lived. I had never even heard your belief expressed before.

LeifCarrotson 7y ago

Amateur has no negative connotations to me (as a native English speaker from the Midwest US). It's comparable to "hobbyist" or "enthusiast", basically meaning "someone who can do X but doesn't get paid for it". I think a lot of people would be proud to be amateur musicians or amateur athletes, for example, and would have said that no (non-professional) customer would not want to be called an amateur. Just shows you have to be careful! And the pricing page (https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing) looks pretty good to me - nice horizontal feature matrix, easy to locate buttons...not sure OP wants to use dark patterns like de-emphasizing the free tier. I do agree that the top plan should probably be more than $5/mo.

JshWright 7y ago
Agreed, "amateur" has pretty positive connotations for me in this context (native English speaker from New York).
- herohamp 7y ago
  As a native english speaker from Maryland while it doesnt have any negative connotations, I do feel a word like hobbyist would be better
  - emesis31 7y ago
    "Hobbyist" doesn't really make sense, as it's not my hobby to make MP3 playlists. "Amateur" is good as an antonym to "Pro".
    - atomize 7y ago
      I agree with Amateur as well. The Olympics (until the 90s [think USA Dream Team]) were only open to AMATEUR athletes. No one would argue that Olympians weren't skilled, and Olympians never felt slighted by this category. It simply implied that athletes trained and participated in a sport out of love for the game rather than for profit. Amateur literally describes: 'pursuing an activity independently of their source of income', that's all.

pimterry 7y ago

> please rename "amateur" to something more positiv As an alternative to amateur, I like "Hobbyist". Fewer negative connotations, and users can self-categorise between Hobbyist/Professional easily to find the right package. If I'm using a product for serious work, I know that 'Professional' packages are likely targeted at my use case. If I'm just messing around with something, Hobbyist is going to resonate pretty clearly and I'll start there.

lookdangerous 7y ago

You could always go the 'dummies' route

munk-a 7y ago

> - visually de-emphasize the free tier, and focus on the 3 paid plans in your comparison table. people will always buy the middle option, so you can increase the price of the "best" option by a lot in order to anchor your value Maybe avoid the dark UX pattern if you can avoid it. Though it's accepted in industry at this point that customers will need to actively fight against the producer not to get swindled - it's still nice to respect your customers.

therealx 7y ago

Try: "Getting Started"

MisterBastahrd 7y ago

Home, Plus, Pro. Microsoft figured this out years ago.

stevenwliao 7y ago

> rename "amateur" Possibly "starter"

momozaur 7y ago

Does it really need to be a mobile app? I mean, does a mobile app would realistically really get him more clients?