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Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

paraschopra.com

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Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#81

Post by chc »

cabalamat wrote: post #67

> If making money is the objective, I suggest going with the market-first approach That's one way to do it, but not the only one. For example, it's not how Apple designs products -- their design criterion is whatever Jobs likes.

I think this is pretty naive. Apple's products, for the most part, are very successful. Either Steve Jobs is just extraordinarily average or they do quite a bit of market research. In fact, one of Apple's first hires was a guy who specialized in collecting data from user-testing and figuring out how to make applications better fit how they were used in the real world.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#82

Post by chc »

axod wrote: post #50
cubicle67 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you know what 99c apps have done? They've got people paying for software. Normal people. People who have probably never paid for software in their life, save for Office (probably bundled with their PC), and a few XBox games They've got used to paying 99c for apps, then they've slowly adjusted their price expectations up to the $5-10 range for iPad apps, and the advent of the Mac Store looks like helping ease prices p…

Is there any evidence they've "got used to it"? People got used to paying for ringtones, and then the market pretty much disappeared. Part of me thinks the app store model is a short term fad.

Ringtones were pretty much always a worthless ripoff. There might be particular market segments in the app store that will die off (I don't know, maybe book apps will be superseded by ebooks), but the App Store as a whole offers a lot of value and convenience, and the "fad" for those things has been going strong for hundreds of years now.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#83

Post by toumhi »

ABrandt wrote: post #74
jdietrich wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The single most important anecdote I've ever heard about software is this: In the early days of VisiCalc, Dan Bricklin travelled with his Apple II, demonstrating his software to potential customers. The response from 'computer people' was generally fairly muted - they didn't see what spreadsheets did that they couldn't already do in BASIC. People with no experience of computers assumed that computers could do damned…

I don't mean to detract from the message of this story, but source? I'm hoping you can point me in the direction of similar stories of software lore.

Dan Bricklin' story (and many others inccluding interviews of the founders of 37 signals, apple, adobe, yahoo, flickr etc) is featured in "Founders At Work". Great inspirational read, but there is no trace of an old trembling man with a cheque though :-)

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#84

Post by chc »

jpcx01 wrote: post #75
jasonlotito wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being obtuse on purpose. But I'll bite: > I am expecting to make money. Merely expecting to make money doesn't make money. You have to have a plan to make money. You can expect things all you want, but they won't happen. > And I am calling what I do a startup. You can call what you do a startup. Calling it a startup doesn't make it so. A rose by any other name and all that jazz. > And the my goal of the startu…

You're right, I'm not really happy with my input in the thread. Obtuse is a good word for it. I doubt we have that different of an outlook. My passionate disagreement with the original author however is the belief you have to put making money above all else. I've seen too many startups end in failure (many of them clients) because they tried to monetize too early, or put nickle and diming customers above user satisfa…

I think you've got the article exactly backwards. As I read it, the point is not that you have to put making money above all else. The point is that your chances of making money improve dramatically if you consider first what people are willing to pay money for.

I find that the other approach is more likely to invent the kind of annoying and harmful revenue strategies you're criticizing. A product that has a built-in market of customers waving money does not need to stoop to that level to turn a profit. You can focus on making a product that your customers like and making sure they know about it.

How you prioritize making money is up to you. The OP is a helpful tip on getting it if you want it.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#85

Post by jasonlotito »

jpcx01 wrote: post #75
jasonlotito wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being obtuse on purpose. But I'll bite: > I am expecting to make money. Merely expecting to make money doesn't make money. You have to have a plan to make money. You can expect things all you want, but they won't happen. > And I am calling what I do a startup. You can call what you do a startup. Calling it a startup doesn't make it so. A rose by any other name and all that jazz. > And the my goal of the startu…

You're right, I'm not really happy with my input in the thread. Obtuse is a good word for it. I doubt we have that different of an outlook. My passionate disagreement with the original author however is the belief you have to put making money above all else. I've seen too many startups end in failure (many of them clients) because they tried to monetize too early, or put nickle and diming customers above user satisfa…

> My passionate disagreement with the original author however is the belief you have to put making money above all else.

That's where the confusion is. That's not what the author intends. Basically what he's saying is that you can't just build something and expect to get paid for it. Switch out the word expect for "demand" and that might help matters. Just because you create something doesn't mean people are obligated to pay for it. Expecting that is wrong.

The author doesn't believe in putting money above all else. You don't even need to monetize early. But you need to have a plan. Just expecting things to work out all right is the wrong way to do it.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#87

Post by ido »

jacquesm wrote: post #48
ido wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

software has been sold to individuals and businesses alike for decades now, the things that have changed the equation here are: - download sites for PC software - open source - massive piracy How are those (except for open source) new? Piracy has always been massive, in the past even more than it is today. Do you know anyone who actually payed for any piece of c64/atari 8-bit software? And for a long time the first p…

The internet has changed the piracy game completely, copying a cassette tape or ROM was time consuming and required some skill. Download.com and Tucows basically destroyed the shareware movement, barring a few exceptions. The upside is that there are now many more people that are using software so the markets are much larger in potential and the area where the app stores shine are convenience. A few clicks to downloa…

Maybe the game has changed by the time the 5¼-inch floppy becamse popular - or maybe it was just different where I'm from (Israel) from the Netherlands - but I don't think I've even seen more than maybe 10 pieces of legal, original packed software (except in stores) until the time CDs (which for a while were significantly harder to copy) started replacing floppies.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#88

Post by jacques_chester »

angrycoder wrote: post #64

For some, building software is the answer to the question: 'How can I make money?' For others, building software is the answer to the question: 'What would I do all day if I didn't have to worry about making money?'

I ask both questions and get the same answer.

Re: Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

#89

Post by axod »

chc wrote: post #82
axod wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence they've "got used to it"? People got used to paying for ringtones, and then the market pretty much disappeared. Part of me thinks the app store model is a short term fad.

Ringtones were pretty much always a worthless ripoff. There might be particular market segments in the app store that will die off (I don't know, maybe book apps will be superseded by ebooks), but the App Store as a whole offers a lot of value and convenience, and the "fad" for those things has been going strong for hundreds of years now.

I'd say the vast majority of apps area ripoff. The majority are available on various websites for free.
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