Comments on: Want To Give Pinboard A Try? You’ll Have To Pay $2.84

By: susan

susan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:37:21 +0000

Good plan for making money.

By: Article Playground

Article Playground — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:46:37 +0000

not paying for that ..LOL

By: Article Playground

Article Playground — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:01:22 +0000

FREE is like 30 is the new 20. That is a must have. He’s not going to succeed charging ppl. Better off slapping up some ads…LOL

By: Gorden

Gorden — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:14:47 +0000

I have signed up with crystalpin.com, which provides a lot of more features in addiction to the bookmarks and it is free!!!

By: Joe s

Joe s — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:58:23 +0000

Ever heard of “read it later”? Free service.

By: You need to pay if you want to try Pinboard | I'm Knight

You need to pay if you want to try Pinboard | I'm Knight — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:09:26 +0000

[...] the company even need to offer some reward in order to get user to beta test their product. Base on techcrunch’s post comment, we can see that most of the user agree that this is quite innovative but most of the user [...]

By: RD

RD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:45:53 +0000

Ditto to your comment.

By: Marcelo Ramos

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:57:15 +0000

Wish all the best to the effort. People are bitching to pay a couple of bucks for a useful service. Is it beta? Well Google docs was beta until a few days ago.

People wont mind paying MORE for some stupid Iphone App. It’s not about the price. It’s about being anchored in the free concept.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:44:33 +0000

Price of an iPhone app? I’m in.

By: Satyajit Sahu

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:02:57 +0000

I second your argument, however, given the kind of service, its hard to monetize, because its not a particular pain point (I am happy to be proven wrong!). Instead, I would monetize on things people are sharing, and create people’s behavioral and interest profiles, that is way more valuable than $2.84 x n can generate!

By: David Saunders

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:12:11 +0000

Perhaps the pinboard guys need some $$s without going cap in hand to dodgy banks?

I wish more beat invites were charged for – I would happily pay for Google Wave and so many other programmes – I have a little budget for possible “rash but maybe not rash spending” this falls under possible rash spending but I will pay – not because I’m a fool but because I think everyone needs a bit of money.

I am not rich by the way – I operate a small husband and wife business from home because I am slightly disabled

Cheers

David

By: Vincent

Vincent — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:49:36 +0000

Hi Maciej,

Maybe a short video tour would be a good idea so we can get a good feeling about the application.

-V

By: Paul R

Paul R — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:47:20 +0000

Maybe he could encourage sign-ups by having a discount for the beta version and raising the price to $5 or so when its out of beta.

By: Maciej Ceglowski

Maciej Ceglowski — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:24:17 +0000

First off, thanks to everyone who has signed up as a result of the TechCrunch articles!

Pinboard had a bunch of alpha testers, and about a hundred beta testers, all of whom got free accounts. They caught a lot of bugs and I am very grateful to them for putting in the time and energy.

I turned on the new user fee (an idea I got from Joshua Schachter) after the first TechCrunch article, for the reasons Marcelo lays out. The site still needs a lot of work, but at this point I am confident it represents a chocolate-muffin-equivalent of value and hope the people joining up will agree with me.

I do plan to make a preview page once the dust has settled a bit, so people can see what the site is like before deciding whether to sign on.

By: Lauren Fisher

Lauren Fisher — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:54:55 +0000

Charging for the service and charging for beta testing are two different things. No problem with the first, but charging people to test during the beta phase for bugs and send through feedback?

By: Puranjay

Puranjay — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:08:11 +0000

I have purchased tons of games, music, and books without “trying” them. In the process, I’ve learned to actually judge a book by its cover.

By: Mike Kingston

Mike Kingston — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:08:14 +0000

good post man, well put. i agree 100%

By: Nikolay Kolev

Nikolay Kolev — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:49:57 +0000

Not true. Web 2.0 is about the smart way to revenue.

By: plunge

plunge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:49:51 +0000

Have to agree.. the idea of not having a profit model will only last for so long, I think. (Twitter: I’m looking at you.)

Ad-supported works as long as you have paying advertisers and performing inventory (eyeballs who buy your advertisers’ stuff.)

By: plunge

plunge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:45:09 +0000

Yes, because we all know Web 2.0 must be synonymous with “I have no revenue model.”

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:29:49 +0000

For all the people that think paying a couple of bucks for a service before you try it out is stupid, let me ask you a question. Have you ever paid for a piece of software before tryin it? Maybe put purchased an iPhone app without trying the “lite” version (if there is one)? I’m sure at some point you have purchased something without trying it first. Everone has been conditioned over the last 3 – 5 years to be able try these services out for free. I think this business model might have some legs. I for one, am interested in the product because it costs a few bucks – it has a higher perceived value than a lot of the other “free” services out there. I might have to check it out myself…

By: T-Break

T-Break — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:23:56 +0000

Yea, they should not charge during beta.

By: Chris Wheat

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:34:29 +0000

“Pinboard is free to use, but charges a small, one-time membership fee.”

Some one tell them charging a one-time fee means it is not FREE to use…

I wonder how many people will pay to be beta testers?

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:33:54 +0000

Going back to the first post which garnered many comments along the lines of “what is wrong with del.icio.us” and “I never had the problems you claim with del.icio.us”, I have to return to that same point. Arrington insists on slamming a service and I have seen maybe 2-3 people in the comments agree…but I have never experienced any problems and it appears the majority have not either.

So, introduce a new “free” service by slamming an old one, and then a few days later the new service is charging a small fee. Another writeup on techcrunch that could be perceived as negative but really isn’t, and drives more traffic to the new service.

My conspiracy theorist mind asks – “how much is Arrington’s cut?”

By: yang

yang — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:32:06 +0000

well, when demand exceed supply, price tend to go up. even in this case when it is free.

before you know it. some genius out there will start a company where users will bid on beta trial privileges