Does anyone have any tips on using a donation-model, something like Buy Me A Coffee?
I'm guessing it depends on the type of business as well, but was curious if anyone's had success with Buy Me A Coffee or a donation-model to reach profitability? Any learnings to share?
For context, I just launched a task manager (web) and have added BMC as the first means of getting some revenue. The website is https://llamalife.co/
Intending to make it a paid service later, but because it's just new and there are still a few kinks to work out, thought I'd start with donations?
Hi Marie, firstly, your product is very cute. I love it.
I have a small online tool for artists called JustSketchMe. For the first year of it I had roughly 30,000 users per month, and I decided to try and monetize it using donations. I tried Patreon first, hoping for some recurring donations (this failed miserably, I think I got to $15 per month, most of which was from my brother). I then tried BMC, which worked significantly better. It wasn't worth it though as over a 4 month period I made $300.
I then decided to add some premium features to my app. The first new feature was so inconsequential, just the ability to save poses, and by the end of the first month of monitization I'd already made over $1000.
It's an unfortunate fact that if something is free, people will use it for free. It's a precedent set by the internet. Secondly, it causes people to undervalue what you're providing.
From all of this, I'm sure you've guessed that I'm suggesting not using a donation model. You'd need millions of users in order to justify it. BMC and Patreon are built for people with these kinds of audiences. Think YouTubers and bloggers with large followings.
I hope this has helped :)
Hi Herman, wow thanks so much. This is incredibly helpful, especially sharing the specific numbers. I think you're right, I'm going to move it to premium features model.
Congratulations on JustSketchMe! I'm not your target audience, but it looks like a great tool.
I also like how your call to action button says 'Open the Web App'. I was having an issue where despite telling everyone Llama is web only, that they all tried to open on mobile. I guess we know it doesn't matter what we say, we need to design the experience we want into our product. Ha! Thanks again, much appreciated.
All good, and best of luck :) I've shared Llama with a friend of mine who will find it very useful.
thanks!
Hey @threehourcoffe, this tool looks awesome. Congrats on the recent launch. I love the simplicity of it and they user interface is clean and simple.
I think the cool thing is that IT JUST WORKS!!. It is super intuitive and I can use it immediately. I am using it right now and gave myself 5 mins to write you this response.
Regarding donations and pricing... I think the buy me a coffee model is alright for short term, but as @channingallen and Sam Parr spoke about on the latest IH Podcast, if you believe you are providing value with your product, you should not hesitate to charge for it.
I think an alternative could be to look at a freemium model where users could get to create 2-3 tasks on a free version and could then upgrade to be able to create more than this.
I've tried out other time boxing tools in the past and they are not as simple and intuitive as this one. The added bonus of having the estimated finish time for all your tasks is great too.
I think this is the basis for a great productivity tool. Well done. I'm out of time Lol
Agree 100% on trying to find a way to charge.
I've added BuyMeACoffee to a project I'm working on and have only received donations from close friends.
Donation models don't work well in my opinion.
Here's a link to that ep @gordon mentioned:
https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/161-sam-parr-of-the-hustle
thanks @dbredvick, yes I've just received from family and friends too. Will switch up the model.
Cheers for the podcast link, off to listen to it now!
Thanks for linking the episode @dbredvick . It is a good listen.
Hi Gordon, thanks - it really tickled me that you were using the product to time your response haha!
Agree, I'll keep donations for the short term and then try and move to freemium later.
If someone has donated in the past, I can then reward them for being an early adopter by grandfathering them into premium.
Thanks again for the feedback.
Haha that is great @threehourcoffe. Ye that is a good idea. Your early customers will be great for giving you feedback and helping you refine your product. You are very welcome :)
Nice use of it on your about page. Very good copy.
Here's a crazy idea:
These are great ideas, thanks Andrew! I was thinking of the feature request board - something simple like Trello. But I love your idea of active user points to vote. Great stuff.
Hi Marie, just wanted to say I found this post (and the responses) super useful! I'm in a similar situation where I have a free web app which I'm trying to figure out monetization strategies for, and have also tried donation with little luck. Thanks for this post!
Awesome, great to hear. Good luck with your app. I'm in process of trying to shift away from donations (thanks to the advice in this post). My challenge is I know front-end but not backend, so exploring if there's a simple option out there. I think I just need something to store username/email, password, if they've paid. Maybe I'll do another post asking about that!
I've been using Firebase which has made it very easy to set up user accounts, and data storage! It's all designed to work from front end too I believe so it sounds like it could be a good fit for you. Happy to answer any other questions.
Thanks - I'll give it a look!