About a week ago, I shared a link in r/languagelearning.
A tool I made to solve my own problem.
Paste in any YouTube link & get flashcards based on the video’s vocab. I built it because I live in Vietnam, I’m having a baby soon, and my Vietnamese isn’t where I want it to be.
So I shared it with other language learners.
I stayed up till midnight in the Da Nang airport implementing every piece of feedback in real time. I fixed bugs, added languages, made it better as fast as I could. I answered every comment.
The post got nearly 100,000 views, 1,500 unique visitors checked out the site, ~200 registered for accounts. The comments were absolutely GLOWING. SO much love and support.
Saying things like…
“This is godly” or “I never knew I needed this” or “I would pay for this in a heartbeat”
The thing is…no one did.
I have 0 paying users
Except one teacher in Afghanistan who reached out asking if she could use it for her class. I gave her a free lifetime account(i couldn't in good consciousness take her money). She’s the only “premium” user I have.
So I’m stuck. And I need help.
The product works. The feedback was real. The excitement was there.
But the conversion rate is 0%. 0 frikin perfecent. How?
I priced it at $4.99/month. No upsell. No paywall on core features.
And now I’m sitting on a growing tool with an API bill that will become unsustainable if I can’t figure out monetization.
My questions:
Is this a pricing issue? Should it be lower? $1/month?
Is freemium the problem? Should I force the paywall sooner?
Is it just a traffic issue?
Do I need a new audience beyond Reddit?
Do I need to go after teachers or enterprise instead of individuals?
I don’t want to burn this project out just because I didn’t know where to aim it. Because I think it's rad and it's mine but I need it to be self sustaining.
Appreciate the advice, harsh truths, or strategy ideas.
200 users. 0 revenue. Feedback was glowing. But no one pays. What the hell do I do?
byu/CourseSpare7641 inEntrepreneur
Posted by CourseSpare7641
16 Comments
Maybe try to check out the business model of similar software (like Duolingo) and try to use that as inspiration.
Making people pay for an app is hard I think, but adding advertisements might create additional revenue.
Advertising
If you don’t put a paywall on core features that depend on an API, you’re going to have a bill to pay. If you don’t want to pay for those API calls, then put them behind a paywall, if it brings value, then people will pay. Also, I would say a single post won’t cut it, why don’t you 10x that volume, every day.
Convert 2 videos a month free – then unlimited per month for five bucks.
How else can you apply the tech? To TV shows? Or does it need embedded speech to text subtitles?
Great job regardless, you should be super proud of yourself for getting this far!
Congrats! You finished step one: you have created a product.
Now you realize having a product doesn’t mean you have a business. Step two is: how do you monetize. At the moment you don’t behave as an entrepreneur, you behave as a developer. You could have made this tool for a company you work for during your 9-5 and you would have done exactly the same. There is nothing entrepreneurial about what you did (yet). I am not saying this to be mean, I am saying this to make you understand why it doesn’t magically makes you money. Running a business is so much more than coming up with a product and creating it.
You decided to sell the product yourself, based on a monthly subscription. But your only way to attract customers was a reddit post? You need to think about marketing: who is you audience, who are you targeting (be specific, it’s better to be a large fish in a small pond than a small fish in a large pond). You need to come up with creative marketing strategies and also spend some money on advertising probably.
But, if I were you, my goal would be to sell this product to a big fish. Like YouTube itself, or maybe DuoLingo or Rosetta Stone? You can sell the whole product or maybe get a license deal? It is easier this way if you have no idea how marketing works.
Think of it like this: it doesn’t matter if you created a software tool or a Tshirt, a product is a product. After you designed it and fabricated it, all you have is a product. In order to sell this product you need to go to a whole new phase. Having a business is not the same as having a product. Creating a tool doesn’t make you an entrepreneur, it makes you a software developer (which my guess is you already are).
If you don’t know anything about marketing and you still want to stay with this businessmodel I suggest you hire someone who can help you come up with a marketing strategy and plan to monetize.
I think it’s that your target user is not the paying type. I recommend watching this video: [https://www.instagram.com/p/C9C7oeMocN6/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C9C7oeMocN6/) It really changed my perspective when I first saw it.
You’ll have a significantly easier time building for people who (a) have money AND (b) are happy to spend money to solve real problems they’re facing.
200 accounts is not much.
Feel free to post in r/betatests too to get early feedback 👍
Some flags: ‘solving my own problem’, ‘imlementing all feedback’, …
Often thr pricing is not ghetto issue.
– Don’t solve YOUR problem and sell the solution.
=> Instead, ask people if this ‘would’ solve their problem and what they would pay for it, or ask them what they hate when they want do this or that and what they would pay for it to solve.
=> THEN build.
– People love to have an opinion, or vent an idea that would make things great, or mansplain the ideal tool. But they are seldom buyers. They are mostly people lacking insights and a helicopter view. You will lose focus if you implement their shortened view. .
=> Instead, filter the feedback into domains/functionality and you decide what needs to be in a MVP, what is urgent or brilliant.
=> Contact the originators from the implementeren feedback. Give them limited access (time or functionality), the price to unlock.
=> Since you already have an MVP, validate the solution within (the right) target group. Build an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and reach out.
– Congrats with the baby. Wish you the best of luck.
Try to plan some monetization strategies. Just releasing a product without a clear plan usually ends with underwhelming results, most people I know had to shut down their AI products due to huge API costs compared to revenue. The state of the current market also sucks as most startups are burning VC money rn, which means that their cloud costs are higher than their income, but they have piles of cash to burn.
Wishing you success on this, but unfortunately I do not see a clear path to it at this moment!
Its alot of money and it doesnt do the hand holding for you.
Sheep need guidance and structure, its too freeform
Story of many.
Will consume for free.
But not pay.
Add a pay wall after a 5 day trial or till a certain credits are reached ..eg 10 minutes .
If they don’t pay after it just means the solution is not important enough for them to pay. As long as it was free it’s ok.
Glowing reviews useless . It just means product is good but maybe they can just live without it .
Again emotional decision regarding the Afghani teacher. You are here to do business not charity.
You’ve created something valuable. Not all value can be monetized. But now you have trusting users, a built-in market for your work. Try to think of some other value you could create for them that they would be more likely to pay for.
> No paywall on core features
Then you’re relying on charity
Please read The Mom Test. The author lays out this exact problem and explains why you should never follow opinions but instead validate your product.
In my experience Reddit is one of the hardest groups to convert to paying customers. I own a few businesses, we’ve tried Reddit Ads and posts. Our cost for conversion on Reddit can be 50x that of other platforms. I would find appropriate groups on Facebook and do some TikTok videos. Man I hate TikTok but my god do they convert.