What is harder to monetise and WHY?

I asked this question a few weeks back on Twitter. But would like to know your angle of view. Feel free to open discussion and your experiences with monetising service vs. product. So... What is harder to monetise + why?

Replies

Vaibhav
This is a tough one. I believe services are hard initially because if you don't have a clientele to show, you can't just get work. In the case of product, you can build a good one and it'll help you get the initial traction easily.
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Vaibhav
@busmark_w_nika Is it so? What's your challenge, Nika?
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Andreas Sohns
In my experience, services can be harder to monetize because they often require more personalization and time investment. Products once built can scale more easily.
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Somesh Saurabh
In general, two type of product: 1. That user doesn’t need or solves their problem or give an Aha moment 2. That user needs but then switching effort is very less (WA probably) Happy to hear other opinions. Thanks!
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PRIYANKA MANDAL
In my experience, services can be harder to monetize compared to products. Services often require ongoing investment in time and expertise, which can be challenging to scale and price consistently. Products, on the other hand, have clearer value propositions and can often be sold at scale with less ongoing effort.
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Milli Sen
Interesting question. I guess service because it involves performance, execution and results. Some offer unlimited services so takes a lot of hard work. Meanwhile, products could be a one-time payment where the user does all the work.
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Robert Thomas
It really depends on the specifics, but in general I'd say services are harder to monetize than products. With a product, people pay once upfront and the revenue model is clear. But with services, you have to figure out ongoing pricing that provides value to customers while being profitable long-term. Things like churn, utilization rates, support costs etc. make the unit economics trickier for services businesses. Just my 2 cents though, interested to hear others' experiences!
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Kimberly West
I think service bcz you have to convince the clients everytime whenever you ask for the payment in service model
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Aruna Neervannan
For a company just starting out, it'd be easier to sell a product than a service. Not easy, just easier. Assuming the product and service are both good. This is because it's much harder to build trust in the quality of service than for a product. For one thing, you can test a product before you buy, usually extensively. Service, not so well. Also, the quality of service delivered by one team can differ a lot from another in the same company. Once a company is established and have lots of positive social proof, then it's hard to say which would be easier.
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lilly william
Monetizing specific types of digital content, such as news articles or creative works like product and service, can be particularly challenging. For news articles, the basic difficulty lies in the more availability of free news content online, making it hard to convince users to pay for subscriptions. Additionally, the decline in traditional advertising revenue, coupled with the need for high-quality journalism that requires significant resources, creates a tough financial landscape. Creative works like product or service face a Ions fonts different set of challenges. The niche audience for poetry and the limited commercial appeal so it is very important for the Ions fonts compared to other forms of entertainment make it difficult to generate substantial revenue. Both types of content struggle with the balance between maintaining accessibility and generating revenue, making monetization efforts complex and often less lucrative compared to other digital content.