throw_your_boat

Thanks. You're right.

Thanks (for both replies)! I do have a lab plan as well (6 transferable accounts at $2460 per year) but as you've pointed out, that isn't a one off cost. The problem I have with the one-time purchase is recurring costs for storage, hosting, etc. as it's a web based SaaS. Nevertheless, excellent advice... I'm going to have to start researching my options on one-time pricing. Thankyou!

Thankyou. Plenty of good advice there.

Thankyou. 1. My target is researchers in psychology, sociology, and similar fields.

2. I've tried to price the product so that the individual could make a discretionary purchase (have discussed the pricing with quite a few people with positive responses). The simplest plan is $480 per year and the next plan up is $780 and comes with a second account for an RA or student. I only need a couple of hundred users to be quite comfortable and successful do from done number crunching at the beginning I was pretty confident that that was a small % of TAM.

So far the software been used for both research and teaching but the teaching part was an unexpected bonus.

Thanks very much for the thoughtful reply. Excuse my terse response as I'm typing on a phone.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think it's appropriate right now.

Thanks. You're probably right. Academics are probably not a good target market.

Thanks very much. I agree.

Thanks. I do need to market hard. I think I need a break and then do as you suggest. Thanks.

I've done that somewhat with this venture. Sure there's plenty of tech involved but it's also made me a domain expert in this (non-tech) niche (to the point of writing journal articles).

Perhaps I need to turn my career now to marketing as another commenter has suggested.

Thanks.

That's what I thought I was doing. Seriously. I talked to so many people that had the same problem. Over and over again, throughout the entire process. I've talked prices, solutions, everything with both people I know and people I don't from students to RA's to professors.

The SV cliche of "get cash from them before building" wouldn't wash in this niche and I wouldn't have been comfortable taking money for such an extended period of time whilst creating the product.

Having said that, there are competitors (who I think I have a competitive advantage over) and many OS/free/self-hosted alternatives (still missing the competitive advantage).

I don't know if I just need to get well known (most people in the niche probably don't know we exist) before I can even make a sale or what. Perhaps I need my content to mature?

I just don't know any more.

Thanks for the advice!

Thankyou.

Perhaps I am a bit burnt out. It's practically dominated my waking life for the past 3.5 years. Maybe I should have a break.

Thanks. I'll be doing some interviews. Good advice, thanks.

Thanks.

I'm now buried so deep in this domain it feels like it's supposed to be a long term career. I enjoy my work and it's the best and most valuable (IMO) work I've ever produced.

We don't _need_ the money as we live a very simple life, but not being able to earn a living is having an effect on my self-esteem.