Many independent developers fall into a misunderstanding when building products: they firmly believe that the product threshold should be low, preferably completely free, in order to attract a large number of users. They believe that as long as the number of users is large enough, word of mouth can be formed, which can then be converted into revenue. But reality is often not the case.
Independent developers often have one ideal: to provide users with maximum benefits and allow them to enjoy services without spending a penny. They choose to free the features that competing products charge for; they still offer free features that competing products don’t charge for. But the results are often discouraging—in addition to potentially dragging down their peers, they also struggle to make money themselves.
This is because independent developers have limited resources and are destined to only serve a small number of users. The ceiling for this group of users may only be in the millions. When the number of users exceeds this scale, it is difficult to maintain operations alone, and a team is usually required to deal with it.
Since the number of users is limited, it is crucial to increase the paid conversion rate. If the product has no threshold and anyone can use it for free, then developers may face survival difficulties when the user base is small and cannot be monetized through advertising.
Many independent developers do this part-time. They have their own main business and do not have a strong sense of monetization. This resulted in them not charging for the product when they should have, and by the time they wanted to charge, it was already too late. Because users have become accustomed to free services and are unwilling to pay anymore.
Therefore, independent developers must dare to charge fees. When your product can solve users' problems, you should launch a paid package. Payment can not only motivate you to continuously optimize the product experience, but also verify whether user needs are real.
If users are willing to pay for a product that’s still in its early stages, that’s proof you’re on the right track. On the other hand, if users are unwilling to pay, then you may need to reconsider product positioning and market demand.
Since the products of independent developers are destined to only serve a small group of people, they should maximize the experience of these people. For example, the normal website launched by level, a well-known independent developer, specializes in providing city evaluation services for digital nomads. The entire website is paid content, and registration requires a one-time payment of $118. Despite this, the website still has 400 to 500 new paying users every month, and the current total number of paying users has reached 28,000.
This example illustrates a truth: as long as the product experience is good and the reputation is good, the target group can be attracted to become paying users. Rather than spending a lot of energy serving all users and providing free content in the hope of monetizing it through advertising (which is often difficult to achieve), it is better to focus on serving the users who are willing to pay.
Assume that your product can only serve 100,000 people. If you insist that most functions are free, then your paying users may only be 1% (that is, 1,000 people). Based on the annual payment of 100 yuan per user, your annual income ceiling is only 100,000 yuan. But getting to this level is very difficult.
However, if your product requires users to pay to use most of its features, your revenue ceiling will be greatly increased (for example, to 10 million yuan). What's more, one paying user is often worth much more than ten free users. Therefore, serving the people who are willing to spend money with you should be your top priority.
In short, independent developers must dare to charge fees and earn income through products. Only in this way can we stand out and go further in the highly competitive market.
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