[4sellff]

With all due respect, there are additional options to choose from. We are still very early in this, but I will "take the bait" since monetization seems to be an issue that people care about.

A percentage of revenue is I think a fair option. I am not referring to the previous comment about 30% [or even 10%]. I hate fees as much as the next person and taking a giant cut of your customers income is not the way to grow a business.

Also, as it relates to zero-cost, using your Visa card is free to you, but not the merchant. However, those fees are being included in the price you pay for the products/services.

A question for you: If you are making $100 per month from a service, what is a "fair" price for you to pay to continue having usage of that service? - Are you OK to look at ads, so long as your cost is zero? - Are you OK to pay $5.00 per month, so you do not have to look at ads? - Or, do you prefer to have no ads and pay a % of your monthly income that you generate from using the service?

[wpietri]

I'm sure you mean well, but "we'll figure out sustainability later" has huge negative trust value to me. That's basically what LinkedIn did and it has not worked out well for me. The incentives for eternal revenue growth are incredibly strong, and I have no reason to think you're uniquely capable of resisting them for the next 20 years. I'm am unlikely to go through all the switching cost just to help create a different hegemon.

[macspoofing]

>We are still very early in this, but I will "take the bait" since monetization seems to be an issue that people care about.

There's no 'bait'. I don't have issues with ad-supported or subscription-supported services. I do think you should set realistic expectations, namely, today you are 'zero-cost' and 'ad-free' because you're starting out and need to get users for your social network. This is how every social network started as well. At some point, that will change because you have bills to pay.

>A percentage of revenue is I think a fair option.

Can you elaborate on that?

>A question for you:

I actually have no issue with the linkedin model: Free/ad-supported tier, and subscription tiers for those who want extra functionality. I'm not sure about taking a cut of revenues. That would be a logistical nightmare unless you're also the payment processor.

[disiplus]

that's not zero cost, and would be closest to the subscription model.