We’ll never rely on advertising in this business. I have a second business that is funded via advertising and it’s a terrible, terrible business.
Actually, advertising as a concept isn’t too bad – it’s the advertisers and the braindead marketing departments that request dumb things; mismanage the relationship and then blame the platforms for under performance. Oh, and I don’t think people want shit pushed at them … all … the … time.
Yes, this is more a blowing off steam because our largest advertiser for the other company is dicking us around (sadly represent about 50% of my revenue line), but it also serves why this company will never rely on it. We may provide a few oppys as a little gravy if it is respectful to our customers, but participation will be on our terms.
We’re not going to harvest and sell data either. My team is more than happy to leave that money on the table. Spying on our users and then selling the information just seems wrong to me.
We’re going freemium with a really nice feature set and then great options for a reasonable amount of money.