Comments on: To Freemium or not to Freemium? http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/ Social Media innovation and marketing for business Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:51:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-694 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:45:08 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-694 Thanks!! Free v’s Premium is a difficult balancing act as we’re finding out with our website monitoring web app.

I recently read this ‘Guide to avoiding free mistakes’. It says: “Offer something that the customer values more than the price“. A Premium service needs strong justification against your own and competitor free offerings. “What is it worth if it’s free?”.

I don’t think there is a easy answer to this challenge apart from have a solid strategy, keep understanding your target customer needs, and trial and error learning to find the right balance.

]]> By: Sell my number plate http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-693 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:26:34 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-693 Great post and something to really ponder over. At the moment I’m trying to strike a balance of providing some information for free to draw users in/earn money from ad’s, and charging for services, its just difficult to get the balance right!

]]> By: Martin Thomas http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-588 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:01:52 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-588 Hi.. Your post got me thinking… What is more valuable for a software company (like facebook or flickr). 1,000 paying users or 100,000 non-paying users? What are your thoughts? View my blog post here: http://www.purlem.com/blog/?p=57

]]> By: 7 ways to price SaaS and Web Apps « Nickpoint http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-568 Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:02:20 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-568 [...] to price SaaS and Web Apps By Nick Barker With Web 2.0 Ad funded sites going out of fashion subscription based services are on the rise. Setting the right pricing for your SaaS and Web App service is a difficult decision. It is also a [...]

]]> By: Bangexpress » What your bank can teach you about freemium http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-534 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:18:20 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-534 [...] he’d be willing to pay a modest annual fee to use. Social media blogger Nick Barker wrote a thoughtful blog post about the model late last week and Adobe’s Acrobat.com initiative is also relevant, for reasons I’ll circle [...]

]]> By: Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-403 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:42:21 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-403 SaaS writer Phil Wainewright of ZDNet has kindly linked to this post, saying in his post What your bank can teach you about freemium: “Social media blogger Nick Barker wrote a thoughtful blog post about the model”

Thanks Phil :)

]]> By: Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-402 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:36:40 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-402 Hey Littlemango :)

Thanks for the comment. The saying, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” is as true today as it was in the 1940′s/60′s. Attitudes seem to be changing with the recent growth of micro payment e.g. iTunes, etc. The recession is also forcing monitisation with the drop in Ad revneues.

Consumers are increasingly willing to pay small amounts for services / products they value. Business users have more money and so will pay a higher rate. If we as startups can bring a strong value proposition then we can get paid. It’s pricing v’s perceived value. I look forward to trying to get it right.

Best

Nick

]]> By: littlemango http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-401 Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:27:53 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-401 Getting the balance is a real challenge. There are many ‘customers’ who really don’t expect to pay for anything online. Even in a B2B environment, it’s difficult to get clients to pay for a valuable service.
Getting the pricing right is quite a challenge too.
There’s a lot of trial and error.

]]> By: Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-388 Sat, 30 May 2009 23:03:57 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-388 Twitter comments:

Darren Ramowski: “tough one. difficult to go premium only at a later date if you start on free or freemium.”

]]> By: Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/05/28/to-freemium-or-not-to-freemium/#comment-387 Sat, 30 May 2009 23:02:50 +0000 http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=1253#comment-387 Twitter comments:

Adam Bird: “it could be seen as a brave move to go premium only, but then fortune favours the brave.”

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