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Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

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21–28 of 28 posts

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#21

Post by inerte »

- Analyze what calculations your users are doing and serve related ads. Example, for someone doing compounding interest 12 times, you show books related to investments. Or someone using some mathematician work, a link to his biography book;

- Contact a company and ask if they want to sponsor a contest. The first 5 users to complete some math problems will earn whatever the company is offering (essentially that's an advertising campaign for the company);

- Run a contest between your users. They pay 5 bucks to enter, and the winner gets the money (after your share ;). A tournament perhaps?;

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#22

Post by proee »

inerte wrote: post #21

- Analyze what calculations your users are doing and serve related ads. Example, for someone doing compounding interest 12 times, you show books related to investments. Or someone using some mathematician work, a link to his biography book; - Contact a company and ask if they want to sponsor a contest. The first 5 users to complete some math problems will earn whatever the company is offering (essentially that's an a…

Sounds like some great geek stuff... thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#23

Post by rdrimmie »

Maybe throttle the number of advanced functins or calculations unregistered users are allowed to do per day (or session, or other time period) and have a countdown/tracker displaying the number they have remaining along with a link to register.

Buy the desktop version, get unlimited access to the web version.

Put an identifier cookie on their machine and display the number of calculations performed over all time along with a link to the purchase. You know, guilt.

Maybe have a few of the more esoteric but ridiculously useful functions disabled and only enabled either in the pro or just by viewing a nag screen - click sin and get a popup (the first time this session only) that says "We're glad you like this, hey there's a free version). Only nag them a very small percentage of the time, but every now and then nudge them a bit.

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#24

Post by proee »

rdrimmie wrote: post #23

Maybe throttle the number of advanced functins or calculations unregistered users are allowed to do per day (or session, or other time period) and have a countdown/tracker displaying the number they have remaining along with a link to register. Buy the desktop version, get unlimited access to the web version. Put an identifier cookie on their machine and display the number of calculations performed over all time alon…

Wonderful Ideas... I'm thinking of trying just a nag screen to start that shows "buyNow", "free trial", and "continue using online"... If people still don't purchase it, then I will have to punish them more....

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#26

Post by stern »

proee wrote: post #24
rdrimmie wrote: post #23

Maybe throttle the number of advanced functins or calculations unregistered users are allowed to do per day (or session, or other time period) and have a countdown/tracker displaying the number they have remaining along with a link to register. Buy the desktop version, get unlimited access to the web version. Put an identifier cookie on their machine and display the number of calculations performed over all time alon…

Wonderful Ideas... I'm thinking of trying just a nag screen to start that shows "buyNow", "free trial", and "continue using online"... If people still don't purchase it, then I will have to punish them more....

I suspect some users might prefer a paid advanced version online instead of having to download a desktop app. You could either try a monthly subscription of $1 or a one time fee the same as your downloaded version.

To see which wording of "BuyNow" or "free trail" etc works best you should do some A/B testing using something like Google Web Optimizer. Hopefully it will speed up the process of finding the correct wording/strategy/layout.

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#27

Post by stern »

proee wrote: post #3
RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #2

As you've said, why pay, when you can use the free version on-line? You have to give them something for their money. You have to differentiate between the free version and the one they pay for. Graphing is one option, but you'll need to think of more. There's also the problem of people paying, downloading, and then giving it away to others. Do you not worry about this? Or do you somehow "lock" the download to that us…

Yes, these are all good points. I really want to find a way to keep the online version for free. The advantage of the download (desktop version) is that users can run in a borderless window with six color schemes and the ability to close the side palette. I'm sure there are many students in poor countries that enjoy having a nice powerful online calculator that is easy to use, but nice is not a good business model. W…

>The advantage of the download (desktop version) is that users can run in a borderless window with six color schemes and the ability to close the side palette.

Is this really an advantage? I'd want to confirm with potential users that they are concerned with color schemes (as I know I'd never pay for color) and having it in a borderless window as opposed to an additional tab in an already open FireFox.

You really need to define the additional advantage of the pay vs non-pay version. What is the screaming need in your users lives that paying $15 is going to solve?

Re: Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site

#28

Post by proee »

seunosewa wrote: post #25

Seriously, if you have that much traffic, just use adsense. And kill your downloadable product - it serves no purpose business-wise except to tempt you to take steps that will reduce your traffic and by extension your ad revenues.

We've tried using Adsense and the payout is really bad. I can't post specific's but selling one calculator a day is a lot more revenue that any adsense we've seen.

I'm thinking that the word "calculator" may be too generic for adsense and so we are SOL in seeing that as a revenue stream...

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