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Great article. It really surprises me how many people are building products that rely on the "get huge then make money from advertising" model. Personally I cou

by eli_s 18y ago

Great article. It really surprises me how many people are building products that rely on the "get huge then make money from advertising" model. Personally I couldn't imagine investing years on a project without a reasonable expectation of getting paying customers. Giving a (web) service away and having no reliable way to turn users into paying customers is a losing game. A product that I think is great, but which confuses me is Weebly. They have some excellent technology and offer a really awesome service, but their numbers are terrible. 1Million users and 1% paying customers! What other industry has 1% of customers supporting 99% of the rest? I would rather have 1000 paying customers than 1Million eyeballs that are just there for the ride.

emmett 18y ago
You wouldn't have the 1,000 paying customers without the 1,000,000 eyeballs to get them with then. It's not like it costs Weebly much to run those websites, and they essentially act as free SEO for their pay service.
- eli_s 18y ago
  It depends which sector you target. If you make software for business users there is never an expectation that a service is free. Small costs can quickly balloon when you reach figures of a million plus. The SEO is certainly a plus, however this exposure still needs to turn into dollars in the bank if you want to keep the lights on.
drusenko 18y ago
there's something honestly enjoyable for us in providing a free service that is useful to people. besides the point already mentioned (that it doesn't cost us that much), we're genuinely happy that we can help people and make their lives better. if at some point you help us generate revenue, that's great, but even if you don't, we're happy that we could make your life easier -- that's our perspective. why do you think of it as "giving it away"? it's not a physical good that we ship that we're "giving away", it's a utility with a small marginal cost per user, and it's a useful, free service for most people. how many people have argued that file sharing should be legal, or that CDs and paid music are on their way out? it's the same concept, and you have to eat your own dogfood, to some extent.
- eli_s 18y ago
  "it's not a physical good that we ship that we're "giving away", it's a utility with a small marginal cost per user" you just contradicted yourself. You're saying you don't give anything away and yet there is an associated cost to providing the service. The holistic approach is nice, but "making people happy" doesn't pay the bills, and if you're ever looking for investors (not saying that you should) then this argument will get you laughed out of the board room. I'm not criticizing your service - I think its great, really useful and polished. What bothers me is consumer mentality. The idea that "I'm willing to take advantage of a useful service but not willing to pay for it". In a sense though all the free web services out there are feeding the perception that web sites are free by giving away too much. Have you ever heard of a free plumbing, or child care or any other service? Bandwidth, storage and most importantly developer hours cost money - stop devaluing your own services!! Personally i think that a focus on small business or enterprise software gives a much better chance of long term success (which i measure as dollars in the bank, not smiles on faces). Love your product as well as the great tech that you have created - if I was a user I would definitely be a paying one ;)

by eli_s 18y ago

emmett 18y ago

You wouldn't have the 1,000 paying customers without the 1,000,000 eyeballs to get them with then. It's not like it costs Weebly much to run those websites, and they essentially act as free SEO for their pay service.

eli_s 18y ago
It depends which sector you target. If you make software for business users there is never an expectation that a service is free. Small costs can quickly balloon when you reach figures of a million plus. The SEO is certainly a plus, however this exposure still needs to turn into dollars in the bank if you want to keep the lights on.

drusenko 18y ago

there's something honestly enjoyable for us in providing a free service that is useful to people. besides the point already mentioned (that it doesn't cost us that much), we're genuinely happy that we can help people and make their lives better. if at some point you help us generate revenue, that's great, but even if you don't, we're happy that we could make your life easier -- that's our perspective. why do you think of it as "giving it away"? it's not a physical good that we ship that we're "giving away", it's a utility with a small marginal cost per user, and it's a useful, free service for most people. how many people have argued that file sharing should be legal, or that CDs and paid music are on their way out? it's the same concept, and you have to eat your own dogfood, to some extent.

eli_s 18y ago
"it's not a physical good that we ship that we're "giving away", it's a utility with a small marginal cost per user" you just contradicted yourself. You're saying you don't give anything away and yet there is an associated cost to providing the service. The holistic approach is nice, but "making people happy" doesn't pay the bills, and if you're ever looking for investors (not saying that you should) then this argument will get you laughed out of the board room. I'm not criticizing your service - I think its great, really useful and polished. What bothers me is consumer mentality. The idea that "I'm willing to take advantage of a useful service but not willing to pay for it". In a sense though all the free web services out there are feeding the perception that web sites are free by giving away too much. Have you ever heard of a free plumbing, or child care or any other service? Bandwidth, storage and most importantly developer hours cost money - stop devaluing your own services!! Personally i think that a focus on small business or enterprise software gives a much better chance of long term success (which i measure as dollars in the bank, not smiles on faces). Love your product as well as the great tech that you have created - if I was a user I would definitely be a paying one ;)