How should I monetize my product?
I'm working on file recovery software that will be cross platform and easy to use. One of the things I'm trying to work out is how to charge people.
Currently I'm thinking they could view for free then only pay when they actually recover the files this seems to be what most people in the business have done.
I'd like to do something different and easier so I'm reaching out to you guys to get some ideas.
Also I'd like to make it stupid cheap like $5 give or take.
Judging from your description of the software, I think the industry is correct in letting the user download the software for free and viewing a list of files they could recover. I don't really see any other way to get customers interested in your app.
I also agree with @abeLuna, this should be the best way to monetize.
One thing you can test it is to show a blurry list of files to try to spike the user's curiosity, but I still believe the approach of showing the file is the best.
Yeah, I don’t think blurring is the way to go. Feels scammy, and opens up “are those my files or just a blurry photo” questions. Plus, if someone recognizes a file they really badly need then that’s worth a lot more than a mystery box of unknown value.
People will hate it if they only can see the files but not recover them without paying. In the short term you might earn good money but it will also get you a lot of bad reviews.
I would suggest to think about crippling the free version to only be able to recover one file at a time. If they want to recover multiple files they would have to select the file, click "Recover", then "Confirm" again and again.
This way they can test the functionality. And they will leave your tool on their computer. When they then really need the multi file functionality they will come back to your tool and pay instead of searching for something else.