A Santa letter service strikes me as exactly the kind of thing that people will love when free, but not see the value proposition if they have to pay. Plus they're gonna use it just once.
Combine those factors and yeah I think you're better off just trying to get people to pay up front rather than trying to subsidize millions of free users with the handful that will pay.
On the other hand, many other types of services need to be demonstrated and repeated use will add progressive value that tips the scales to paid conversions that never would have signed up off the bat.
Yeah freemium is often a pain in the ass, but it's popular for a reason.
PS. As far as emails are concerned, people will flag any opt-out scheme, they will most definitely not read your copy, and getting angry about it does nothing but raise your blood pressure. The solution is to use a paid service like SendGrid, manage your reputation, and go opt-in if you're still having problems.
>Many free customers flagged the email as spam! So let me get this straight, you just used my service to make something for your kid for free and then you nail me with a spam complaint?
To be astonishingly tone deaf. Way to not understand how people are using your service.
I agree.. it's not like a monthly subscription to something like SendGrid or Pingdom... it's just a fun thing to do once, and forget about. Why would someone want to start paying? I think the OP created something that would solve a business need vs just fun once, he would have had better success
Combine those factors and yeah I think you're better off just trying to get people to pay up front rather than trying to subsidize millions of free users with the handful that will pay.
On the other hand, many other types of services need to be demonstrated and repeated use will add progressive value that tips the scales to paid conversions that never would have signed up off the bat.
Yeah freemium is often a pain in the ass, but it's popular for a reason.
PS. As far as emails are concerned, people will flag any opt-out scheme, they will most definitely not read your copy, and getting angry about it does nothing but raise your blood pressure. The solution is to use a paid service like SendGrid, manage your reputation, and go opt-in if you're still having problems.