It's not about "cheap option" at all.
You get fanatical customers everywhere, and they can be good and bad. They've mainly been good in my experience though.
You get fanatical customers everywhere, and they can be good and bad. They've mainly been good in my experience though.
I have heard from many other software developers, and seen in my own life, that charging more money disproportionately chases them away. I had a major decrease in the number I dealt with just when I went from $25 to $30, while sales went up. It is amazing: charge $5 more, see people suddenly have less hard drive failures, virus infestations, and "bad days". (I called you a dishonest SOB thieving from poor defenseless women when I mistyped my password... because I'm having a bad day, you see.) And it wasn't 20% less, it was closer to 80% less.
If you give it away free as ad supported, users tend to be extremely grateful. Once they start paying, even a tiny amount, they start to be more resentful and demand far more.
What Patrick is saying over and over and over and over again is that you have to be willing to let the pathological customers go. One function of your pricing is to chase out the people who aren't driving your business, so you can concentrate on serving the people who derive the maximum value from your work.
Asking for small change is just about the worst thing you can do; pathological customers can afford it, and will immediately feel entitlement.