Q: What’s the easiest way to charge money for software?
A: Build software that helps people make (or save) money.
Spending money on software becomes a lot easier leap for customers to make if they can say, “I make money when I use this software.” Or “When I finish using this software, I get paid.” Or “This software saves me X hours a week.” (Time is money, right?)
People are willing to pay for Basecamp because it’s part of the project management and billing story (and sometimes part of the sales story too, for example: Basetwo Media or Element Fusion). People are willing to pay for Blinksale because it’s part of the invoicing story. People are willing to pay for TextExpander because it saves them X hours/week (in trial mode, the app even highlights the amount of time it saves you every week).
It’s a simple concept. But it can also be a helpful guide for where to focus efforts if you charge for software.
Josh Lipton
on 11 Jan 08People pay for our software (via a service) that helps their business manage their cell phones, report on usage and compress cost through rate plan optimization.
That’s why we love Basecamp. It helps us make money by increasing efficiency in our process of integrating new clients.
Gavin Laking
on 11 Jan 08If you start building software initially to scratch a personal itch, how do you find out if people will like it enough to pay for it to scratch their itch, without giving it away for free?
I seem to have a problem getting people to feedback what they love, or would like to see; even on software or a service I’m giving away for free. I’d naturally like to earn something, so how does one make that leap?
Ward Andrews
on 11 Jan 08@Gavin: Have free and paid services. It’s the benefits, not the features. Ramp up on paid-for benefits. I like how Highrise gives you more flexibility in using cases (by allowing you to have more cases) as you pay more. You still get the basic benefit of Highrise but not the added organizational benefit of cases. In your forum, perhaps there’s premium forum with a Q&A forum with industry experts and a removal of your forum advertisng for a $35/yr fee?
FredS
on 11 Jan 08What people need to realize is that there are so many opportunities in this space. There are so many awful million-dollar “enterprise” software packages that need to be taken down and beaten with a stick.
Joel
on 11 Jan 08Heh, good placement marketing by Harvest on this article. Would have been even better if it was intentional.
As always, good words.
Brad Gessler
on 12 Jan 08... and people pay for Poll Everywhere because it literally saves them thousands of dollars on not renting or purchasing on-screen voting hardware.
But don’t just stop at the obvious; create even more value with more intangible benefits. Our customers also don’t have to hassle with setting up voting hardware, hiring a technician to make it work during a presentation (Yes, believe it or not… todays voting hardware rentals include a technician!) If they are on the road its one less thing they have to move around on an airplane.
It is a very simple concept. Pick a problem, find people who are having that problem, solve it, and more customers will come.
mitch
on 13 Jan 08wow, could “poll everywhere” be more of a rip off of 37s designs?
..but hey, imitation is the best form of flattery. =/
Seth
on 14 Jan 08I’m having some success with two of my projects following this theory as well.
People are much more willing to part with their money if the service you are providing can make them money in the end.
This discussion is closed.