I’ve had a lot of conversations about startup monetization lately and have been noticing a trend where services are moving away from simply building a userbase and worrying about revenue later. To survive in the startup world right now, the path to making money has to be clear (especially if you’re trying to raise cash to get started).
So which of the services you currently use for free would you actually pay for? And how much would you be willing to pay for each?
The following is a list of services I use and what I think I’d pay for them. After that, I’m going to list some miscellaneous examples. I’d love to hear what you think. Which services would you pay for, and how much?
1. Facebook– I really rarely use facebook, but do value the connections that exist there. I only go to facebook when I get an email notice (friend request, message, etc.), but do connect my facebook with my twitter account and my blogs. So to me, facebook is a friend aggregator and another publishing mechanism.
Would I pay for it? Yes.
How much? $5 a month
2. Twitter- I use twitter all the time, on my mobile and my laptop. I embed my twitter badge on my blogs (when it works), and I’ve been playing around with the API to see what I can do.
Would I pay for it? Yes
How much? $15 a month
3. LinkedIn- Lately I’ve been using LinkedIn a lot. It’s one of those services that you don’t think about when you don’t need it, but when you need it, it’s really, really useful.
Would I pay for it? Probably not. Sure, it’s really convenient, but I think I could do without it.
How much? I wouldn’t pay monthly, but maybe $20 for a year.
4. Gmail– I depend on gmail. Absolutely depend on it. Since the moment I got the beta invite way back when, gmail has been my default email account. Jobs come and go, so if it is an important email, I store it in gmail. Out of all these services, gmail is the one I can’t be without.
Would I pay for it? Yep. Absolutely.
How much? $25 a month or more if they blackmailed me.
5. Flickr- I love flickr but don’t use it as much as I probably should. It’s really easy to hit the free account limit, and since the PRO account is fairly inexpensive, I moved to the pro account.
Would I pay for it? Yes.
How much? $2 a month (a pro account is $25ish a year, unlimited)
6. StumbleUpon– Sure, this could be an apples to bowling shoes comparison, but I thought I’d throw a weird one in here. I use stumbleupon daily, but don’t think of it as a necessity.
Would I pay for it? No
How much? Um, I said no. So, I’m not going to pay for it.
7. BlogTalkRadio- I love BlogTalkRadio and am still surprised it is a free service.
Would I pay for it? Yep
How much? $20 per year
8. YouTube- When I have a video, I usually post it to YouTube, but I don’t spend much time as a viewer on YouTube. I wouldn’t pay for it.
Would I pay for it? No.
9. GetSatisfaction- GetSatisfaction is awesome for site owners, and is a great customer service site for users. If I owned a web service company, I’d definitely pay for it.
Would I pay for it? If I were an owner, yep.
How much? $15-20 a month for a company account
10. HackerNews- I like social news sites like reddit as much as the next guy, but they’re usually pretty broad in scope. That’s why I love Hacker News, as they are laser-focused on tech and startup news. If I had to pay for that exclusivity I’d do it.
Would I pay for it? Yes.
How Much? $5 a month
Miscellaneous Examples
- Blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress.com
- RSS readers like Google Reader
- Event sites like Upcoming.com, meetup.com, etc.
- Wikis
- Social Bookmarking sites like delicious and diigo
- Social news sites like reddit or digg
So, what would you pay for? How much?
