An interesting topic came up the other day in a conversation between myself and a few of my friends about some of my applications that i have in development. The main focus was, providing a service with those products, instead of selling them outright.

Personally, I’ve taken both roads. Ive had Pyrogenius Commenter where I have sold the application outright (Or atleast “copies”). And then I’ve had Lynxlinks, where ive developed an application to do all the work, but decided instead to provide the service the application gives. So which is better?  Well, i think they definitely both have pro’s and cons.

A service, I found, is much harder to get off the ground, and you get alot less “customers”. Especially at the beginning. Alot of this is to do if there is a product, an actual piece of software, that provides the same functionality for a similar price. So for example, at lynxlinks we charge on average $30 per pack, the only real comparison product out there at the moment is Xrumer. But there is quite alot of difference between the two, and ofcourse, the biggest being the price range. However if there was a product that was say even $100, it becomes much less viable to use our service.

Alot of people will be thinking to themselves, “But your still providing a service, your charging for your time right?”. While yes that is true, Aswell as charging out our time as a service, we are charging that little bit extra almost covering the the cost of the application running in the back end (Even though i develop it).And so i cant imagine too many people still hiring us, if there is a software to do it within a cheap enough range. Although, i could be wrong because people who OWN SENuke, still pay people to do the work for them.

Another thing to remember with a service, is that you get the repeat customers. With a product, unless your doing a membership type system, they pay once, and only once. And you have to support that for the rest of your life. With a service, we do the work, and thats it. There is no ongoing commitment to a customer. And so if he wants more work done, he pays once again. This means, atleast for me, there is definitive boundaries on where our service starts and stops.

Onto the Pro’s of a Product. Take my PyrogeniusCommenter for instance. While yes, i develop new features, it is nothing like the time taken to process orders of a service. And alot of that work is done in my own time, not when a customer orders. And its more when i feel “inspired” ill lock myself away in my office and program away for 10 hours straight.

At times, i actually felt a bit sorry for the kids wanting to do a service of blog commenting. And then i come in with Pyrogenius, demolish that dream for them. While there is still a market for high quality dofollow comments, Automation software at times is demolishing the services.

If that’s all a bit confusing …

Service Pro’s

• Repeat customers
• Definitive start and end of customer support. Once the service is done, its done.

Service Con’s

• Hard to get off the ground.
• You have to spend alot of time doing work, when the customer needs it, not when it suits you.
• If someone releases a product that does essentially the same work as your service. Your stuffed.

Product Pro’s

• Initial development, then easy going
• Develop new features when you feel inspired. Not when the customer does (Or atleast, not all the time).

Product Con’s

• Ongoing support if not a membership scheme.
• One off purchase, no “repeat” customers.

Looking back on the list. I guess the simple way to fix it all would be to provide a membership scheme. That atleast carries with it a “repeat” purchase. But it comes bundled with its own set of issues.