Ask HN: How much value does your product need to provide to warrant charging?
Hi Hackers
I launched a no-code popup builder called PopupPilot last month and I originally had it behind a paywall. After predictably not being able to make any real money from the product I have decided to make it free as I don't think the product provides enough value on it's own.
How much value does a product need to provide before you would consider charging for it?
But how do you measure "value"? "Value" has a large subjective and ephemeral aspect to it that can't readily be expressed in purely monetary terms.
You can't answer your question until you know who your target audience is, what problems they have that you're trying to solve, and how much those problems are costing them (in money, time, and annoyance). A thing may have no value at all to one person, but have enormous value to another. Finding your market is really just locating the audience who is bothered by the problem your product or service is solving.
>that can't readily be expressed in purely monetary terms.
This is so true along with everything else you mentioned.
All I can do is give a generic answer myself, from my own experience to the question:
>How much value does a product need to provide before you would consider charging for it?
More than enough :)