[imraj]

paid system definitely has its benefits, while you are debating free vs monthly charges, how about one time nominal sign-up fee till the site is in business? Similar model as iPhone Apps, where for some odd reason, people are more inclined to pay than for web apps. I wonder if anyone has had serious success with such a model on the web ?

[vaksel]

that nominal sign up fee will kill 90% of your potential users.

[imraj]

I see your point, but 90% is just an arbitrary number I am guessing you have made. But number is going to be up there, so 90% might be a good guess. I probably won't pay monthly for facebook if a day like that comes. Unless you provide a service that provides constantly changing information of sorts, it is hard to charge customers monthly, I would have a hard time paying for the game scramble that I play on facebook. I might be tempted to pay them $5 once after trying the game for a month,

I might be wrong, but this might be worth exploring as a revenue stream for simple applications. Donations probably still do better than this.