

Ask HN: Next Step for Monetizing our Site - proee

Dear HN: I'd apprehiate some feedback on taking our site in a new direction.<p>http://www.ecalc.com<p>We have a great online scientific calculator called eCalc (been around for about 1 year).  We have a steady amount of users each day (around 10k) and recently released a new version of the calculator with a downloadable version for Windows and Mac ($15).<p>However, the conversion of the download product is very low and most people are not downloading the product from our site at all, instead they just use the free online version (but who wouldn't right?)<p>We'd like to make a monetization model from this product.<p>1.) Should we handicap the online version with a nag screen to encourage downloads?<p>2.) Should we try to sell ads on the site(note: average user is on page for 5-6minutes)<p>3.) Should we create a subscription model for say ($10 a year to use the calculator).<p>4.) Lower the price of the product to say $5<p>5.) Add more features (graphing, variables, sharing)<p>Any advice is much apprehiated...
======
run4yourlives
Before understanding the best option, you should examine your user base a
little more.

10K a day sure, but what's the breakdown? Do you have 2K that visit the site 5
times a day, every day? That lends itself well to the subscription model. Are
most of your visitors in and outs from google, with no recurring vistis? Ads
might be the better option here. Are most of your visits coming from .edu
domains? There may be an opportunity for school sponsorship here. Etc, etc.

You need to fit your monetization model to your particular user base.

~~~
proee
That's great information. Does Google Analytics break down if they are coming
from .edu domains or do I need more powerful analytic tools? Thanks

~~~
run4yourlives
I'm not sure to be honest. I think it may. You're basically looking at a
reverse DNS lookup, and that's not exactly accurate, but might put you on the
right path.

------
rdrimmie
Maybe throttle the number of advanced functins or calculations unregistered
users are allowed to do per day (or session, or other time period) and have a
countdown/tracker displaying the number they have remaining along with a link
to register.

Buy the desktop version, get unlimited access to the web version.

Put an identifier cookie on their machine and display the number of
calculations performed over all time along with a link to the purchase. You
know, guilt.

Maybe have a few of the more esoteric but ridiculously useful functions
disabled and only enabled either in the pro or just by viewing a nag screen -
click sin and get a popup (the first time this session only) that says "We're
glad you like this, hey there's a free version). Only nag them a very small
percentage of the time, but every now and then nudge them a bit.

~~~
proee
Wonderful Ideas... I'm thinking of trying just a nag screen to start that
shows "buyNow", "free trial", and "continue using online"... If people still
don't purchase it, then I will have to punish them more....

~~~
stern
I suspect some users might prefer a paid advanced version online instead of
having to download a desktop app. You could either try a monthly subscription
of $1 or a one time fee the same as your downloaded version.

To see which wording of "BuyNow" or "free trail" etc works best you should do
some A/B testing using something like Google Web Optimizer. Hopefully it will
speed up the process of finding the correct wording/strategy/layout.

------
RiderOfGiraffes
As you've said, why pay, when you can use the free version on-line? You have
to give them something for their money. You have to differentiate between the
free version and the one they pay for.

Graphing is one option, but you'll need to think of more. There's also the
problem of people paying, downloading, and then giving it away to others. Do
you not worry about this? Or do you somehow "lock" the download to that user.
Be very, very careful about preventing someone for using something they paid
for. If their machine breaks and they get a new one, with the program still
work? How can they move it?

And so on.

The real point is that people will only pay if they get something in return.
Think carefully about what that might be.

~~~
proee
Yes, these are all good points. I really want to find a way to keep the online
version for free. The advantage of the download (desktop version) is that
users can run in a borderless window with six color schemes and the ability to
close the side palette.

I'm sure there are many students in poor countries that enjoy having a nice
powerful online calculator that is easy to use, but nice is not a good
business model.

We don't have a good way to prevent pirating and my thinking was that even top
products like Adobe get cracked pretty quickly and distributed (so I figured
it was a lost cause...)

Anyway, we have plenty of great ideas for additional features that we can add
into the palette. Maybe we make a "pro version" that has these extras...

~~~
tstegart
Isn't the $15 download already the "pro" version?

~~~
proee
Yeah, maybe we need the "Super Pro" that includes Graphing and other cool
features. Or take away some online features and wrap them into the "Pro Only"
package.

------
inerte
\- Analyze what calculations your users are doing and serve related ads.
Example, for someone doing compounding interest 12 times, you show books
related to investments. Or someone using some mathematician work, a link to
his biography book;

\- Contact a company and ask if they want to sponsor a contest. The first 5
users to complete some math problems will earn whatever the company is
offering (essentially that's an advertising campaign for the company);

\- Run a contest between your users. They pay 5 bucks to enter, and the winner
gets the money (after your share ;). A tournament perhaps?;

~~~
proee
Sounds like some great geek stuff... thanks.

------
awt
There are already graphing sites out there, but they're more data oriented
than calculation oriented (not sure if that makes sense). But basically if you
could hook the calc up to a graph and make them really easy to create and
share you would be able to get some virality. If you had a ton of graphs out
on the web with ads on them you (like millions of them) you could make some
money.

~~~
proee
Great Idea. InstaCalc.com has this sort of thing for sharing spreadsheet like
calculations.

------
seunosewa
Seriously, if you have that much traffic, just use adsense.

And kill your downloadable product - it serves no purpose business-wise except
to tempt you to take steps that will reduce your traffic and by extension your
ad revenues.

~~~
proee
We've tried using Adsense and the payout is really bad. I can't post
specific's but selling one calculator a day is a lot more revenue that any
adsense we've seen.

I'm thinking that the word "calculator" may be too generic for adsense and so
we are SOL in seeing that as a revenue stream...

------
coglethorpe
iPhone app?

~~~
proee
This is a valid idea - though there are already a ton of calculators on the
iPhone store and so we'd be competing against a saturated marketplace. One
reason we did this project was the fact that most online calculators have
terrible user interfaces and don't support things like complex numbers, or a
traditional stack.

~~~
tstegart
Just because there's a ton, doesn't mean its saturated. Moreover, do the
owners of those apps have the ability to direct 10k users daily towards
downloading their app? I would seriously look into it. Same with Android. Its
silly to dismiss the iphone just because there are competitors. You can kick
their ass even though they were first.

Edit: I should also add, the iPhone/mobile apps would likely far outstrip the
sales of the $15 download, because people are used to buying iPhone apps, and
Apple has made it much easier than buying from you. I would even suggest
reversing the flow, so to speak, and talk about how iPhone users can find a
free version online from their home or work computers whenever they want.

~~~
proee
Good point. We created this calculator using just JS and CSS so it should be
really simple to port to the new Pre, which is our plan. However, our
background is not in programming so starting up iPhone programming might be a
bit of a trip...

------
vaksel
can try going for affiliate links for graphic calculators, but I don't think
it'll monetize that well

~~~
proee
We tried creating a calculator store and linking to Amazon, but the conversion
is pretty bad there as well. If people are looking for an online calculator
they don't real want a handheld... Thanks for the feedback.

