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2M users but no money in the bank

exercism.org

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Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#291

Post by voidee »

JeremyNT wrote: post #288
ihid wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for commenting. Always awesome to hear about from the people exercism has helped.

I agree with the parent, I love exercism and although not a daily user I am surprised by this announcement. I hope you would consider a "hard sell" banner ad for donations in the vein of Wikipedia before giving up on the model. I wonder if there are a lot of potential donors out there who would respond if they understood the stakes.

Yes. Like others here, I did not know there was a paid Insiders tier. Just nudging free users with a “consider becoming an insider” hard sell splash screen upon each login with a 10 second countdown would go a long way towards encouraging users to join Insiders and might be enough to avoid going the ad route. Then you are still offering a free option but I think lots will sign up.

Redesign the donate/payment page for clarity. Enable Apple Pay to reduce friction.

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#292

Post by nnurmanov »

voidee wrote: post #291
JeremyNT wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the parent, I love exercism and although not a daily user I am surprised by this announcement. I hope you would consider a "hard sell" banner ad for donations in the vein of Wikipedia before giving up on the model. I wonder if there are a lot of potential donors out there who would respond if they understood the stakes.

Yes. Like others here, I did not know there was a paid Insiders tier. Just nudging free users with a “consider becoming an insider” hard sell splash screen upon each login with a 10 second countdown would go a long way towards encouraging users to join Insiders and might be enough to avoid going the ad route. Then you are still offering a free option but I think lots will sign up. Redesign the donate/payment page for…

They definitely should consult with monetization gurus. Building useful product does not lead to paid users

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#293

Post by nnurmanov »

ipaddr wrote: post #280
lanecwagner wrote: post #263

I don't know if iHiD will see this, but this is Lane, the founder of Boot.dev. One of our students shared this article with me, and it really sucks to see. Exercism has always been a go to recommendation of mine for students who need additional practice or to learn languages we don't yet teach. I know you mentioned you don't wanna do ads, which makes sense. But if you're getting 1200 sign ups a day thats worth a lot,…

I agree with the ads model as a way forward where purchasing a membership removes them. The fairest way.

Another thing to try is to find mentors to train juniors and charge small %

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#294

Post by nnurmanov »

gradyfps wrote: post #147
charlie0 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would $1/month even be worth it? It seems payment processors would take a big chunk out of that $1, which is why I very rarely see monthly subs of that amount.

Some payment processors have "micropayment" fee structures, where they take a higher % (5% in PayPal's case) for a lower fixed fee per transaction. PayPal's traditional fee (for USD)[1] = 3.49% + $.3, for $1 = $0.3349 PayPal's micropayment fee (for USD)[2] = 4.99% + $.09, for $1 = $0.1349 Using that model would make sense in OP's case. [1]: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#statemen... [2]: https://…

I did not know if Paypal had micropayments fee, thanks fir sharing!

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#295

Post by [deleted] »

mlyle wrote: post #175
thinkr42 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entirely. You can't eat using "good feelings" / "impact" alone.

Not everything beneficial to the world has a viable business model. In the best case, you get to change the world and make a bunch of money. Sometimes, you just have a viable business selling sugar water. And other times, you're doing something really good that's just not going to get you paid. There's nothing wrong with the last thing, other than its potential lack of sustainability. I'm now a teacher; I could easil…

[deleted]

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#296

Post by huijzer »

lolinder wrote: post #150
huijzer wrote: post #139

> We've tried a lot of things to change that. We've spoken to hundreds of funders and companies, The goal isn’t to get investors! It is to get money from customers. A lot of startups seem to get this wrong.

This is apparently a nonprofit, not a startup. They weren't looking for investors, they were looking for donors.

Ah yes you’re right. Thanks.

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#297

Post by sroussey »

stavros wrote: post #122
ihid wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for being so kind and supportive. I really appreciate your comment. I'm ok. I'm hopeful for the future. I believe there's lots of amazing stuff we can do and that Exercism has a great future. But right now it's in a hard, low place. The last few months have been pretty tough emotionally, but I think getting to this place is one of acceptance. The only direction now is up :)

Can you please just add a paid tier before shutting down? Just a $5/mo something that shows a badge on your account, or whatever. Call it something other than "donate", "premium account" or something, and see how many people pick it up. You "only" need 1500 people to do that to cover the costs, which is less than a thousandth of your user base. Even if it gives a few useful features to subscribers, that's better than…

I’ve had things with more users and 1/1000 would have been amazing. The difference between $0 and $1 is gigantic though, and a hard ask for content in most cases.

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#298

Post by mvkel »

Adsense alone would more than cover this.

Of the 2M users, guessing the MAU is much lower, which would render the ad model non viable.

Still always sucks to see solid products rendered unsupportable

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#299

Post by ToucanLoucan »

mvkel wrote: post #298

Adsense alone would more than cover this. Of the 2M users, guessing the MAU is much lower, which would render the ad model non viable. Still always sucks to see solid products rendered unsupportable

> Adsense alone would more than cover this.

God please no. This is already dreadfully normalized and the web is utterly drowning in low-effort link spam, dick pills, cryptocurrency and hot Russian singles. I can't think of anything sadder than taking this lovely product and letting Google piss all over it.

Re: 2M users but no money in the bank

#300

Post by dghlsakjg »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #231
freedomben wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I think this approach of asking for donations is the right move for a non-profit. Subscription fatigue is real and is becoming a major problem. I am now at the point where I will go without software I would absolutely pay for one time, but because it is a subscription I refuse. I'm sure when all is said and done, there just are not enough people like me to make a difference, but I sure hope things swing t…

You could use the time value of money formula to convert between one-time prices and subscriptions. just multiply annual price by 30 to get forever price. So my $6 per month VPS would be about $2,000 upfront. And a $500 game console would be a $1.50 monthly subscription. (Obviously glossing over tons of differences in say, a PS2 and a Stadia subscription) It feels easier to ask customers for $1 per month than $360 up…

What is the math on multiplying times 30?
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