burdened with having to walk the perilous tightrope of achieving business results (including revenue targets), without pissing off users. In fact, the challenge is greater than merely avoiding pissing off our users; it is to make our users genuinely delighted, whilst the money rolls in to keep our business / investors delighted – all at the same time.

There are a few guiding principles which are helpful to consider when generating ideas on how to monetize your product:
Complement the user experience
Think long term
Be creative
1. Complement the user experience
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If you’ve ever worked in an organisation which has a product and an advertising (or other) sales team which are interdependent, you’ll know that exchanges like this can be fairly commonplace. For the sales team, their target is what matters most. Bad sales people will be more than happy to bastardize their product to achieve revenue targets without considering about how this may impact the user experience. Good sales people will understand that the key to long term revenue generation lies in the delicate balance between achieving quarterly targets and building a product that people still want to use.

monetization user experience

I once worked in a team which ‘commercialised’ the homepage by selling a £50k 1 day ‘home page takeover’ to McDonalds. This was an awesome deal for the sales team. The additional revenue meant the team had reached their target and would get a bonus. For the actual users of the site however, this meant they would be greeted by a hideous McRib burger whilst planning a luxury health spa trip. Hardly a complement to the overall experience but on the flip side, arguably not so painful as to drive users away forever.

How to complement the user experience
complement the user experience with monetization

Where possible, monetization should at best complement the user experience and at worst do nothing to negatively impact the user experience:

If you’re selling ads or working with commercial partners, pick partners which suit your target audience and can actively add to value to your users
Price your product in ways which make the jump from free to paid more manageable and attractive for different segments of your audience
Incentivise your users to give you the assets you need for monetisation by giving them a choice. For example, if your product is an app, don’t force your users to share contacts and personal data up front so you can sell sponsorships. Instead, build a product which your users want to share with other contacts and be honest and be up front about your commercial needs.
monetization strategies invasive

Before you commit to a monetization strategy, test the idea on a few users and measure how this impacts the experience. Use your NPS as well as qualitative feedback to measure the impact. If the reaction is outrage, consider alternative monetization methods.

2. Think long term
It’s easy to chase short term deals and revenue targets to achieve growth, but the key to smart monetization strategies is to force yourself to think longer term.

Sure, for startups this can be difficult. If you’re faced with an opportunity to commercialise a part of your product which means you’ll get funded it might make sense to take the cash and continue growing. However, be aware that your decisions may have a long term impact on your key product metrics.

3. Be creative
Monetizing your product can be a stimulating, creative process. Forget the conventional nonsense of advertising as being the only way to monetize your product. There are plenty of creative, innovative ways to generate revenues for your product.