One thing led to another, and I decided to build a no-code landing page builder.
I think this is a tool that many would find use for, and could benefit from.
I intend to make most parts of this tool free to use (including adding your own custom domain to your landing page). There would be paid add-ons, sure.
So, initially I was building a first cut for the product.
A notion-like interface where you simply select the blocks you want your landing page to have, fill in the details, and publish.
https://twitter.com/mx_abhishek/status/1756969547137945799
The problem was, the more I was working on it, unsurprisingly the more work it needed.
And so far, I had no idea if:
this is something people would want, need and love this is something a good number of people would pay for. So, I decided to go about it a different way.
I am still offering the service more or less the same. Build your landing page without needing to code or design Instead of giving an interface, I am making the page driven by a YAML file. A person can use online editors such as codebeautify.org to generate the YAML file, upload the YAML file, connect their domain and the page goes live. I am making this a LTD to evaluate interest. One payment of $49 for a landing page, and the user will have all benefits of whatever the paid plan will have - for life.
https://twitter.com/mx_abhishek/status/1758843135872950639
The way I see it, if the product is valuable enough, and at a good enough price point, people may not mind the extra work -- specially since it still holds true to the core premise of not needing coding and design knowhow.
Am I mistaken in my approach, or do you guys think this could help me validate things?
This will almost guarantee your product will have a cohort of users that will one-star-review you and do everything they can to hurt your business if you don't implement their often insane feature requests (patio11 calls them "pathological customers")
A lifetime deal where there are ongoing costs incurred by you is almost always a bad idea (unlimited plans too). Someone with a ridiculous workload will come along and take advantage of it, and I'm speaking from experience.
You aren't evaluating interest in your long-term product with a lifetime deal, you're evaluating whether people are interested in paying almost nothing for years of using your product.
Instead, talk to people in your personal network that are already using products like this, and work out what they're already paying, and price around that.
Don't.
Instead go for product-led growth through free, but branded, landing pages hosted on your domain and make the custom domain your top paid add-on.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7142932...
Just A/B test both ideas. Use each as a control against the other.
Don’t let opinion drive your decision. Use hard data.