| I've done something similar by creating a 3rd party companion website for an online marketplace (which has ~50 employees), but haven't contacted the company directly. Now I'm stuck. What Shane did requires not only hard work, but the guts to engage the company and knowing what it is that you really want. If you're considering this, make sure you're resolved to a particular course of action. My site targets sellers from that marketplace and provides a search of information scraped from the official source as well as detailed sales statistics which are not available from the official source. For active users, these two things can easily save several hours per week. The 1st party company has acknowledged the existence of my site and indicated to their users that they'll allow it but are unaffiliated, which is completely understandable since they have no idea who I am. My companion site was created out of necessity and receives about 20k pageviews a month (approx 2000 users). Currently, I am not charging for the site but a half a dozen people have suggested charging for its use or contacting the 1st party site to license it to them. The people making these suggestions are the marketplace sellers from the 1st party site (the users who are common to both sites). But now there are difficult decisions to be made. I've worked from home for over a decade and loathe commutes, even those measured in minutes. This company is 2.5 hours away and best-case public transportation would have me out for 12-14 hours per day. This company makes no mention of any kind of remote work possibility but my impression is that it's done some of the time by some of their employees. I wouldn't want special treatment even if they offered it. With all of that said, if I did have to travel to work... this place looks like the kind of place I'd enjoy working. It was relatively easy to find about 1/4 of their team on social media and get a feel for their culture, even found some video of their office on a regular workday. If I did join them and the commuting situation were overcome, would that constrain my freedom to make the new features and enhancements that the community wants? Contacting them with a laundry-list of questions feels wrong. If I didn't join, would enough of my currently free users convert to paid to make it worth continuing? What's the optimal price to balance the seesaw of retention vs dollars (number retained free users * price per month)? Is it unknowable? What percentage of the existing users might actually pay? It's all very uncertain. It'd be great to get some feedback from everyone, maybe with your own experience(s). Shane's idea is great but it doesn't magically fall into place, relationships are complicated! |
> I wouldn't want special treatment even if they offered it
That's a bad thought that you should get rid of before it has a chance to harm you. Life is hard enough as it is; you don't want bad thoughts creeping into your head and handicapping you. (I'm not saying they'll offer special treatment, of course, only that you should certainly take it if they do.)
For Plan B, go ahead and charge for your site. If people are willing to pay, great! If not, chalk it up as an experiment worth trying and shut it down. I don't know what the price should be, but I do know you should not trust your instincts; us geeks always err on the low side. Either charge significantly more than you think you should, or ask some non-geeks and follow their advice.