Practical insights on building, launching, and monetizing indie products.

Based on real iOS and web apps — what worked, what failed, and why.

Monetization Is a Product Decision, Not a Pricing Page

When I first added monetization to my product, I treated it as a pricing problem. Monthly or yearly? $4.99 or $9.99? A clean paywall, a polished Pro page, and a subscribe button. Everything worked exactly as designed — except the revenue. Users were active. Engagement was fine. But conversion was consistently low. Nothing was “broken,” yet something was clearly wrong. It took me a while to realize the mistake: I didn’t have a monetization problem. I had a product decision problem.