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Is my app launch ready? Monetization ideas?

By Ernest Mistiaen
April 3, 2018

Hi all!

After lurking here for about a year and getting tons of inspiration, here’s my first post :)

The last couple of months I worked on www.kiddoviddo.com. With KiddoViddo parents can curate videos themselves or just use the videos I curated for them. Here’s a little more about the story why I built it: http://www.kiddoviddo.com/about

Now there are some things I hope some indie-hackers can advise me on

  1. I’ve set a personal goal this year: I want to launch something on ProductHunt. I wonder if my app is ProductHunt-launchable, or that it needs some more TLC. Also, I get doubts because of...
  2. Monetization. It all started as a scratch-my-own-itch-project, but I would love it if I could make this into a little business. I’m thinking about adding affiliate ads for toys (related to the videos) and offering a paid account where users get a premium user experience (such as autoplay, kid/parent-mode, countdown, no-ads).
    Monetization-wise I’m afraid I’m very constrained by the Terms of YouTube. Do any of you have advice how to deal with the YouTube terms or other ideas for monetization? And do I need to get the monetization-plan in place before launching it?

Looking forward to your ideas :)

Ernest Mistiaen's avatarErnest Mistiaen
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  1. 3

    Here are some generic feedback pieces from my user acq. perspective:

    • The first paragraph on the home page under the title needs some shrinkage
    • Your collections need to be named (For seo Juice and what not) instead of a number you need some text there
    • Add a CTA at the bottom fo the page and put the "how it works" content in there, having it on the homepage's bottom, next to the footer after all that wall of text isn't really tactful IMHO

    Now about the monetization:

    • YouTube runs their own ads on the videos, unless you self host the videos you won't be able to show them with your own ads - so I think "in between videos" relevant ads could work. But you will have to create your own player that feeds off YouTube and inject the ads after a video is finished or so, that way you don't really break their TOS
    • More content means more control is needed, maybe have something to allow a parent to lock the videos after 1h of playing so the kid on the ipad or whatever tool they use to do this, has to stop and do some homeworks? Which probably leads to...
    • Adding some kind of educational aspect to your site, whether it's a quiz at the end of each show where the kids have to select an answer based on the video before moving forward - that kinda allows kids to become passive-active and not just mindlessly watch videos one after the other
    orliesaurus 👉 Follow for insights on growth's avatar orliesaurus 👉 Follow for insights on growth
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    9 years ago
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    1. 1

      I think I've been too deep into the building of this thing, that I did not give enough loving to the website and SEO side of things. Very actionable advice, thanks! I'll add it to my Trello.

      I think creating a custom player is breaking the TOS of Youtube:

      If you use the Embeddable Player on your website, you may not modify, build upon, or block any portion or functionality of the Embeddable Player, including but not limited to links back to the YouTube website.

      The in-between-ad might be a good way, thanks.

      I agree with the extra controls, such as parent mode where a countdown can be set. I thought this would be nice as a premium feature.

      Like the educational idea a lot, will keep it in my mind !

      Ernest Mistiaen's avatar Ernest Mistiaen
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      9 years ago
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      1. 1

        Great,
        people will pay for extra features that are good for their kids, ad blocking is surely one like you suggested. But any feature that is just "finding a great set of playlists for kids" isn't enough IMHO. hence why the educational side, if my invisibile kids are to learn something while watching a show...bonus points. It doesn't have to be elaborated but maybe like..."What was Bob the Builder's favorite color in this episode?" , or "How many planets did Bob the Builder say there are?" Hope this gives you an idea...

        Regarding the player, i am pretty sure YouTube has an API for that...
        here is an example of a paid product that does that: https://www.reembed.com (Not affiliated with me FYI)

        orliesaurus 👉 Follow for insights on growth's avatar orliesaurus 👉 Follow for insights on growth
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        9 years ago
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  2. 2

    I just had a quick look and your website indeed is great, a great business model, but you are over-using word "kid". Try use synonyms like "child" and "little ones".

    Bart Boch's avatar Bart Boch
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    9 years ago
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    1. 1

      Great advice, thanks. I'll use some more synonyms for 'kid' :)

      Ernest Mistiaen's avatar Ernest Mistiaen
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      9 years ago
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  3. 2

    I wanted to first off say that I really like this site. The design and feel of it is really great. As a father of a 1yr old I will definitely be a frequent user.

    I'm afraid I don't know enough about YouTube to give any advice in that regards, but I do really like your idea about adding affiliate ads for toys. You don't need monetization in place to launch your site. If you have little to no users a PH launch could be an opportunity to get a lot of traffic and feedback on your initial idea. A lot of times these first users will give you ideas on monetization or ways to improve it.

    If you're collecting those first user's emails you can always reach out to them after you have monetization in place to get them to upgrade.

    I would also suggest reaching out to your current users to get a feeling if it's something they would pay a subscription for. Pricing my app was something I really wrestled with and I was too afraid to ask my current users about pricing for fear of scaring them off. However after talking to some of them they really gave me some great ideas and price points for the service.

    Best of luck!

    Gareth Harte's avatar Gareth Harte
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    9 years ago
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      Thanks for your reply! Good to hear, you as a parent are compelled by it :)

      A lot of times these first users will give you ideas on monetization or ways to improve it.

      👆That's a great advice! I will go with that. PH launch coming up pretty soon I guess :)

      Ernest Mistiaen's avatar Ernest Mistiaen
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      9 years ago
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  4. 1

    Because you are curating lists of videos, one way I can think to monetize would be to reach out to the channels that you want to include in your video sets and try to get them to pay you for the promotion. You are directing traffic toward them so why not track the views you are sending their way and work out some kid of deal. May be difficult to do initially, but as you grow your service if you can get your view #'s high enough, then you could leverage that influence you would have over what your audience is viewing.

    Ken's avatar Ken
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    9 years ago
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      Great, thanks! Maybe I could offer these channels some sort of premium so they can offer their merchandise within KiddoViddo. But first, let's get to some serious viewing numbers 💪

      Ernest Mistiaen's avatar Ernest Mistiaen
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      9 years ago
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