I'm starting a directory that lists dropshipping, reselling, turnkey and private/white label business opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs and side hustlers.
Should I charge the supply side to list on the platform
Charge users to access the details
Charge a commission for successful purchases made on the platform
Or are there other ways to monetize this?
Hello,
I feel like another method of monetization would be to charge a fee per job that is accepted by the freelancers using your site. That way, the website remains accessible to everyone and offers incentives for both the suppliers as well as the 'consumers'. Many aspiring entrepreneurs are lacking startup capital, so charging a monthly or yearly fee may prevent them from using your site. Additionally, newer companies often have a higher risk factor, which is another reason that charging a subscription may ward off potential clients.
Instead of charging a percentage 'per purchase', you could charge a flat rate per referral; for example, $0.60 per job or item sold. This way the startup costs are very low (almost nonexistent), there are no additional fees to suppliers and potential entrepreneurs can access the website freely. You'll still earn a commission, which can scale as the business grows.
Of course, diversifying your revenue could be a great course of action, perhaps combining the commission structure with a small fee for suppliers. Charging the fees upfront rather than at the end can provide greater security for your business.
Menashe Head Of SEO @ https://mysticsense.com
The best way is to set your margins on purchases through your platform. Also you can set a monthly or yearly subscription charges for all the services on your platform.
Before knowing how to monetize, we need to know why people willing to pay a price to use your platform/ service.
If you decided to try out different monetize approaches without first find out the above, I guarantee a very low success rate, your success will be due to luck rather than a controllable approach.
Suggest you first conduct a deep analysis of your directory list to understand:
1) the group that most insensitive when you charge a price
2) find out the reason why they are insensitive
3) set a reasonable pricing model and start monetizing
If you only have a very small number of members on the list, your above test will be less accurate.
Upon getting to step 3 above, you can try different monetizing methods to find the one that is most appropriate for your business model.
Lots of ideas in the answers here, and maybe one question to answer is: what do my competitors do? Because there are very few questions that are totally new and I'm a believer in not reinventing wheels unnecessarily.
Another principle to apply, in my view, is simplicity. I think many folks are tired of complex pricing models. Bear in mind that transactional pricing can become quite complicated if you have to track those transactions (and potentially police them if your clients are tempted to cheat).
So I'd be tending towards simple pricing - perhaps with a freemium model that sucks your customers in, gets the directory going, builds a client base and track record quickly.
Happy to talk it through if you wish.
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.
