Profit Monetize Later: A harder thing to do?

[Shawn Gossman]

Are free forums hard to monetize later on down the road?

If you start a forum that's free and you don't immediately make a premium feature, are you setting yourself up for monetization failure?

Think about it this way. If you join a forum and everything is free, why would you later on agree to upgrade because you already get what you want for free? Most people are upgrading for a benefit, not just to support a forum or the owner.

And if you take away something that was free and then all of a sudden put a price tag on it, you're asking for a negative result and potential mutiny.

Would it better to launch a premium plan right from the start? Why or why not?

 

[Nomad]

So far I have tried selling membership plans only on one forum and I had only one sales. I tried selling membership after moving to premium software and revamping the forum. Currently, I am running forums where the aren't any membership plans. Unless you offer something useful to the users, you cannot sell your memberships. I don't think timing matters, you can introduce whenever you like but the paid membership should come up with something valuable.