
Ask HN: How to turn my web application into a lifestyle business? - aymeric
I wrote WeekPlan.net as a weekend project for myself and it grew into something that is getting me excited.<p>It got reviewed in KillerStartups.com, MakeUseOf.com and LifeHacker.com and is getting some positive buzz on Twitter.<p>The communication is flowing with the users, they are giving constant feedback and are asking tons of new features.<p>I haven't fully commited my efforts to WeekPlan.net yet because I haven't found a way to turn WeekPlan.net into a lifestyle business (via a subscription based model). How would you do it?<p>I don't want to be rich, I simply want to live comfortably helping people achieve their goals.<p>What process should I follow to understand what features would the users pay for?<p>I guess some of the HN crowd use todo apps. What features do YOU think could make WeekPlan.net worth paying?<p>Thank you for your insights.<p>(one of the WeekPlan.net users actually suggested I sent this message to Hacker News, thank you!)
======
adammichaelc
Start charging. 3 plans -- good better best. use the money to hire another
developer. maybe eventually build an iphone app; charge $5 for it. build an
iPad app. charge $15 or $20 for it -- you're still selling to early adopters
who have money so they will buy. i think the Getting Real book would be a good
read, as @steveklabnik mentioned.

How many visitors do you get to the site currently? With a decent landing page
with the paid option you could probably start out around a 0.5% - 1% +-
conversion rate, and improve from there with some intense A/B testing. What's
your free conversion rate?

Other random ideas: 1\. Partner with a small company that has a popular paper
day-planner but no technology. Grow together and cross-pollinate. 2\. Partner
with a huge company that has a popular paper day-planner but whose technology
is lacking. 3\. Partner with another planning company, Apiggo (ToDo) and work
out a deal to play off each other's strengths somehow 4\. Add team-tasking and
sell that version to businesses 5\. Partner with somebody that sells to people
that love productivity stuff, like David Allen. There's probably somebody at
HN that knows him, or knows somebody that knows him.

Anyway, you're an awesome designer! Great work. Good luck.

~~~
aymeric
Adam, thanks for taking the time to answer.

An iphone application has been a frequently asked feature from my users and I
considered setting up an API for them to develop the iphone app. I don't like
the iphone/ipad model (one-off sales versus subscriptions) but it is true that
it would make my application more Premium.

I haven't thought about it but what @nudge said is true, the Covey system is
more than a todo application and my application can have a premium aspect.

I thought of the team-tasking and it sounds like a viable idea to me too.

I am getting enough traffic per day to get relevant data from A/B testing. The
reason I haven't started them is because I am not sure if this is a viable
market or not. I should probably survey the users to ask them.

Thank you, your message was very helpful.

(I consider myself a developer, not a designer :) I can barely use photoshop
so I guess it is a nice compliment, thanks)

~~~
MaysonL
If you don't like the one-off sale model, make a free basic iPhone app that
has an in-app subscription available to your premium features.

------
steveklabnik
Read everything by our own patio11: <http://www.kalzumeus.com/> specifically
this post: [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/03/20/running-a-software-
busin...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/03/20/running-a-software-business-
on-5-hours-a-week/)

I'd also suggesting reading Getting Real (or Rework, if you want to pay, I
think it's worth it) by 37signals: <http://gettingreal.37signals.com/>

~~~
aymeric
I will re-read them, thanks for the reminders.

------
nudge
pedalpete is right about the number of other online todo lists available, so
you need to be quite careful about your monetization, but I think it can still
be done.

The Covey model is more than a todo list anyway, right? It's kind of like todo
plus. It's already a premium entity. It takes more effort to use, but with the
promise or more return. I think your users - your repeat users - will already
therefore be slightly more convertible than the users of any other todo list.

If it were me, I would sell things that are not necessarily features but which
still emphasise the premium aspect of the service, and allow the user to
demonstrate their commitment to their own self-improvement through committing
monetarily to you. Kind of like people going out and buying a very expensive
filofax, if you know what I mean.

Some examples of things you could charge for:

\- Themes for the plan page (see Tumblr and their premium themes)

\- A small visual token of my premium status, e.g. a star icon that appears
next to my username or the logo (you may think this is worthless, but it has
been known to convert quite effectively when users of a website are committed
to it - see kdice for example)

Also, you could take the rememberthemilk strategy of selling certain extras,
like mobile apps. I think that would work quite well for you. Just don't sell
yourself short. You don't want to compete at the bottom end of the todo list
market - you want to be a far more sensibly priced Covey system, so the low
end of the top end of the market. A $5 iphone app (maybe more?) wouldn't be
out of the question if people were really finding your site useful.

~~~
aymeric
Your answer made me realize something important. The Covey system is premium,
and targets a different group of people.

Thank you for that, it is very valuable and will probably shape the way I
present my web application to the world :)

~~~
nudge
Happy to help. Come back and let us know how you're getting on from time to
time!

------
pedalpete
First off, that site is amazing in it's simplicity. Even your sign-up process
is the easiest I've seen (though I'd make it more clear that it is a sign-up,
because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to already have an account).

As far as monetizing, with the volume of todo lists available, you may have
difficulty monetizing in such a direct way as getting users to pay monthly.

You mention Covey, and clearly you are influenced by his work. Have you
considered contacting them and seeing if they'd be interested in partnering
with you?

They could use your services to build their brand online, and help with
defining new features, while you do what you do (which we can see you do very
well).

The Covey site (<https://www.stephencovey.com/>) mentions that they have
online tools, but maybe your stuff is better, and maybe you could sell them on
it. Or other competitors who are in a similar market.

~~~
aymeric
Correct, I considered contacting FranklinCovey but I think WeekPlan.net needs
more traction before it can be taken seriously.

They do have a <http://PlanPlusOnline.com> offering that looks great and
provide similar features but the registration form scared me away. (I believe
FranklinCovey is very much corporate oriented, you can't even know how much
they charge for PlanPlusOnline.)

------
adamtmca
Two ideas, one is straight forward and one is probably crazy. Either way I
think it's going to take a variety of strategies to make it work.

Definitely figure out if people will pay, but don't "Rework" yourself into
thinking that business models don't have any room for creativity either.

First, and it's been said in various forms but what about selling other self-
help & organization related products alongside through affiliate links or, a
store? Books planners, calendars etc. I think you might be able to get a
better return than ads this way especially if you built up a community that
trusted your recommendations.

Second, I always thought it'd be cool to build a planner/ to do list
application that had a concierge/secretary service linked into it. Sort of
your man in india deal but interfaced through the planner software.

------
ig1
Ads, you've got a valuable source of information, a list of thing people want
to do. Give them relevant ads related to their todo list and you'll get a much
higher click-through rate than usual.

People are in an "action" mode when going through thier todo list, take
advantage of that !

------
eliot_sykes
Clickable link <http://weekplan.net/>

