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Comment by dclaysmith | Hacker News Reader

Still hacking away on http://www.thetaboard.com on nights and weekends. Getting a good flow of signups. Trying to decide whether to charge for it (and if so, how to market it) or possibly just leaving it free (it isn't costing much to run).

As always would love to have some feedback.

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Great great job! I love the demo and love the clean interface compared with Trello. I think eventually you'll reach a point where you need to decide if this is still a side project or there's some potential there. Leaving it free for now is perfectly fine but eventually as more and more people use it, it might cost you a whole lot more (in which case, it might be a good thing). Good luck!

Thanks! Glad you like it. Yeah, I've got some features I would like to add but am holding back b/c they would result in increased operating costs. I'll need to make a decision in the next 6 months or so.

just had a quick look at it but i've had the best experience adding a paid option to it as soon as it works enough to support this. start with low prices, but get somebody to actually pay for it.

it might take weeks to get a payment, you can route up paypal for it, make it a yearly payment one off fee or something. keep it low.

as soon as you have someone paying for it, your speed will greatly increase, you'll be working and focusing more on working around that person to make their experience top notch. you'll most likely receive an e-mail from that person soon. it's not your regular type of customer. this person is special, he/her will start e-mailing you with ideas. work with them, see what you can do to make it happen.

the rest will be history. if you reach this point, it'll go fast.

edit: and just to add, in my last project, i've had to refund over 25 customers (my decision, didn't ask for it), since the service was down for a few days, some things went undetected, stuff like that. it helps making sure you work smarter and more aware moving forward.

What is your marketing methodology? Do you have any blog post that tells story of thetaboard : idea - to - inception - to - first few users ?

I write the odd blog post but have not done any focused marketing. I've gotten a few write ups here and there that provide a trickle of traffic that converts into signups pretty well.

My goal with ThetaBoard is to keep it very simple and flexible. I think I've achieved that (which is good) but it makes marketing more difficult--it's hard to market "unspecific". And having Trello as a free 800lb gorilla doesn't help.

I have a full time job so it's not a huge priority for me right now--I'm just focused on building out new features people request (that make sense). It's growing on its own at a pace that keeps me interested.

Not necessarily agree.. the simplicity is what would make it use vs trello = you sell an EASY way to Trello =)

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