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I have my own thoughts on this: http://fireworksfactory.blogspot.com/2010/05/hacking-on-dyna...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other trick here is that you are not Google. Nobody who is Google is going to read my post. They can afford to run at a loss -- because their goal, remember, is to have all of the information in the world. Therefore Gmail serves their ends, even if you never click an ad. It's a bad idea to look at a behemoth like Google, who operates on completely different physics, and decide to model yourself after them without…
While I understand that they do tailor their ads to the information in your email, it was my (perhaps naive) understanding that the particulars of your emails were not used outside of determining those ads. Am I wrong in this?
They are also clearly trying to cover ALL the bases, to have everybody sucking at their proverbial info-teat. They want you to store your calendar, docs, contacts, phone, videos, status updates, internet reading, spreadsheets, etc., etc., all on their servers.
Did you know they used Goog-411 to collect spoken phonemes to improve their auto-captioning of YouTube videos (so they can search them)?
This is clever… and largely unknown… and slightly scary, since it shows on the kind of game they're playing.
OK so this is totally off-topic. My point is, if you don't have the capital of Google, or their 30-level thinking, charge money! You can make a really good income. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other trick here is that you are not Google. Nobody who is Google is going to read my post. They can afford to run at a loss -- because their goal, remember, is to have all of the information in the world. Therefore Gmail serves their ends, even if you never click an ad. It's a bad idea to look at a behemoth like Google, who operates on completely different physics, and decide to model yourself after them without…
While I understand that they do tailor their ads to the information in your email, it was my (perhaps naive) understanding that the particulars of your emails were not used outside of determining those ads. Am I wrong in this?
Anyways, I have a couple of ideas kicking around in my skull. Right now I'm trying to get some work so I can fund them with my salary though. One idea relies on ads for money, because no one in their right mind would pay for such a simple service. The other two are direct sales things.
Also, after reading the article, I became curious about which "fucking awesome" products the author (you?) is selling. I didn't see any links on the page to them.
I buy all the Unicornfree ideology here. But I can't help but begin to think that I reject shit sandwiches simply because the shit sandwich makers reject me. By the way, I also eat up all the preaching that comes out of 37Signals. I love that stuff. I love being an underdog. But, is it an inferiority complex? I have my own thoughts on this: http://fireworksfactory.blogspot.com/2010/05/hacking-on-dyna...
I don't agree with "always work on your best idea." My philosophy is "always work on the your best idea that is the nexus of being fun and earning you money soonest."
That's why my first SaaS is a time tracker, and not the giant perfect project management suite that lives on in my daydreams.
And the best reason to avoid VC is not so you can feel like an underdog, but because A) it's often a pyrrhic victory, and B) you add one more cook to the kitchen. I hate anyone telling me what to do. A VC is a client, in another form.
I buy all the Unicornfree ideology here. But I can't help but begin to think that I reject shit sandwiches simply because the shit sandwich makers reject me. By the way, I also eat up all the preaching that comes out of 37Signals. I love that stuff. I love being an underdog. But, is it an inferiority complex? I have my own thoughts on this: http://fireworksfactory.blogspot.com/2010/05/hacking-on-dyna...
That's a really good point. I read most of your essay, and you're probably going to hate me for this, but… all that effort you put into engineering a new type of business, why didn't you use that energy for building a product you can charge for? I don't agree with "always work on your best idea." My philosophy is "always work on the your best idea that is the nexus of being fun and earning you money soonest." That's…
We're going to do it though. In our case we had the idea for the business before the idea for the product. I would not suggest doing it that way again, but that's just the way we were thinking at the time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I understand that they do tailor their ads to the information in your email, it was my (perhaps naive) understanding that the particulars of your emails were not used outside of determining those ads. Am I wrong in this?
Hmm, it seems we can only nest three times. (edit) nevermind, I either missed the reply button when looking for it, or it wasn't there before, but I see I can nest further (end edit) Anyways, I have a couple of ideas kicking around in my skull. Right now I'm trying to get some work so I can fund them with my salary though. One idea relies on ads for money, because no one in their right mind would pay for such a simpl…
My main products now are:
http://letsfreckle.com/ http://jsrocks.com http://yearofhustle.com/
EDIT: I also do in-person (and soon, online) JavaScript training (http://jsmasterclass.com)... and I have quite a lot of free not-for-money sites you might recognize, including http://twistori.com and http://everytimezone.com
EDIT: I am a linkwhore.
Hmm, on the whole monetization thing, there are a lot of good services that people (myself, anyways) would not pay money for. Twitter, Gmail, others. Figuring out how to monetize in a way other than "sell your product to your customer" is a real problem for such services. Btw, I have never clicked on a google ad. Not once. I also now have adblock installed. Monetizing useful but free services is a tough problem, not…
But I think a lot of the community sites can't charge money. I don't see Twitter, Reddit, StackOverflow and other such community sites gaining nearly enough users that way.
hah. I love it. Now, personally, I don't have a problem with 'free' but I do think that 'free' goes more with "I'm doing this because I think it's fun" than "I'm doing this so I can get rich." - I think most of the problems you see with 'free' happen when you try to get rich off your free product, rather than just trying to create a good product that happens do be free. Craigslist is an excellent example. I mean, cra…
If you just wanna have fun, don't twist yourself into a pretzel trying to "monetize."
EDIT: Clarity!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what she's trying to get at is that you should try to focus more on ideas that have monetization baked in rather then the ones that just try to get popular and figure out how to make money afterwards. In that sense, figuring out how to monetize good but free services is a non-issue because you won't be building a good but free service.
Yes, you got it! There's also a good reason to believe that lots of people WOULD pay for something like Gmail. Remember people trying to sell off invites back in the early days? More importantly, having a direct line to the company controlling their email -- attached by money -- is a very appealing prospect for people who understand that free is dicey.
Hmm, on the whole monetization thing, there are a lot of good services that people (myself, anyways) would not pay money for. Twitter, Gmail, others. Figuring out how to monetize in a way other than "sell your product to your customer" is a real problem for such services. Btw, I have never clicked on a google ad. Not once. I also now have adblock installed. Monetizing useful but free services is a tough problem, not…
Gmail could probably cost money and have a big userbase (at least now, when so many people know about it and use it). But I think a lot of the community sites can't charge money. I don't see Twitter, Reddit, StackOverflow and other such community sites gaining nearly enough users that way.
Granted the network effect is still in effect, but it could be a killer freemium.