Unfortunately: - competitors use revenue from ads, tracking, selling data to their advantage and undercut your value based on price.
- and free users love free stuff. I had a user ask me to include ads in exchange for paid features.
- and yet people still distrust you. Once I proudly posted a new feature to Show HK and the first response was "How does this post not qualify as 'spam'?". Some people automatically think you're a bad guy since you sell something.
- without advertising, how do you get the word out?
I rely on word-of-mouth, since it carries much trust, and news articles. This means it's a slow game.
It is very hard to find mutual respect (both ways) between user and maker. Most relationships start with distrust or "what is in it for me".
