Deciding on pricing? Context is everything. 👇
It's great to see a bunch of conversations around this lately, and here's my take after seeing multiple early to late-stage founders tackle monetization.
Pay-walling works best for products that are powerful painkillers.
If your user has a clearly defined problem that you can solve right away, this is the way to go for you. The key here is - the problem is significant and urgent.
Take an indie tool (flookup) for example. It solves a very well-defined problem with a clear and fast method. The user knows exactly what this will fix and how.
Asking for a CC in this situation is most likely to lead to a yes. If this is you, you're in a good place. Go for it!
A couple of exceptions to this are stage and messaging. If you've nailed your messaging and/or already found a good fit with your market, pay-walling can work for you despite your product not being a painkiller.
However, I'm sure a lot of us do not fit in either of these buckets.
If your product is a vitamin, focus on free trials.
If your product is something that has a longer time-to-value or is yet to find a decent fit with the market, I'd recommend not asking for a CC right away.
Longer time-to-value means being a product like Notion or Spotify. Not yet nailing your messaging/market fit means being a tool like MyCheckins.
If your users experience the true value of your product only after repeated use over a period of time, it's best to use free trials to drive conversions.
If you're thinking of picking the right approach for you, look into the details first. When it comes to pay-walling, context is everything.
