That hope did indeed exist, but it faded after a month or two when the first big accounts started to sign up. If you dig around enough you can find a version of that silly pricetag graphic on the server from when I hoped to cover those server expenses for $1/month.
But you're right. Sense prevailed, and I eventually started charging money in exchange for goods and services.
You're right, i could have been more pleasant, sorry.
I am personally offended that someone is using "We had hoped to provide this for free but need to make expenses" as a marketing strategy to make more than expenses. When others really are asking for money just to cover expenses.
It may not matter to some people. There's nothing wrong with charging money for providing a service in order to make a good profit. But the marketing is obviously targeted towards those who it _does_ matter to, if it didn't matter to anyone, you wouldn't need to give the impression that you were _not_ charging money for providing a service in order to make a good profit.
I am in the minority of HN in having this reaction I guess?
Just to confirm, do you, yourself, charge an hourly rate for your time? If you do, it is natural to expect that he can ask for both time and materials.
I charge an hourly rate for my time. I don't tell anyone that I had hoped to work for them for free, but it turns out I need to charge just enough to pay for my groceries, while in fact making enough to go on fancy vacations. Because that would be lying. I didn't hope to work for them for free, and I am charging more than just enough to cover my groceries.
I have no problem with him charging whatever price he can get for his service, that's business. I have a problem with marketing it as "We were initially hoping to provide this service free of charge. However, watching our bandwidth usage and server costs as people started using us, it quickly became apparent that we'd need some help to cover our expenses," if that's not true.
What's the reason to say this except marketing, because you think people are going to be more likely to pay if you say this? Does it not strongly imply that the guy is charging just enough to cover bandwidth and server costs? And is that true?
I have no problem with what he's charging, which seems a reasonable price, and really I don't care if it's reasonable or not, people can pay it or not, their choice, I have no problem with people charging prices that seem unreasonable to me, if they are successful at it anyway, good for them.
I have a problem with being misleading about your business model in order to get business, and in particular in pretending you are doing what some people _really are_ doing, but you are not, because you want to undeservedly get the good favor those people those people deservedly get.
Exactly. I just don't find the OP's idea that he tries to "spend as little time with customers as possible" and "charges the previous months just because he can" very comfortable at all. A bit too greedy-sounding in a sense.
I mean if it works for your as a business with happy customers, more power to you. We'd certainly all like to work less but still make enough money.
I just don't like it in combination with the marketting suggesting he'd providing this as a public service only charging enough to pay server expenses, when that ain't true.
But you're right. Sense prevailed, and I eventually started charging money in exchange for goods and services.