Growing SAAS product "Pomodoro by Increaser"

[geekrodion]

Hi Everybody!

One year and a half ago, I found that there are no decent web apps for personal productivity improvement. That was strange because there are millions of mobile apps, but most of the time people work on their computer. Right away, I started development of increaser.org. One year after I built a decent software, but the problem was that I was the only user. My fault was not showing the app to potential users during the development and that lead to the product nobody understood how to use, and how they may benefit from it.

A few months later, I started again with pomodoro.increaser.org. This time I decided to build an app with the least amount of features and add new functionality based on users feedback.

Now it is a good productivity app with more than 1300 registered users. Three months ago, I added a subscription to the app for 3$/month, only 5 peoples bought it. App receives good feedbacks, but users don't stick for too long and not buying a subscription. Users can find app only in two places - google search ads and referrals from a few Wikipedia pages and my Medium.


I would love to hear your advice and insight on how to make this product profitable. If somebody wants to check the app - the first week of members version is free, you can always message me so that I can make you a member.

 

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[Kid]

Free users are just that. And some statistics doesn't seem enough of value to pay even $3/m.

There are number of Pomodoro timers one could choose from.

Personally i used Pomodoro for maybe one day and then stopped.

So you are fighting tough battle here.

 

[geekrodion]

Free users are just that. And some statistics doesn't seem enough of value to pay even $3/m.

There are number of Pomodoro timers one could choose from.

Personally i used Pomodoro for maybe one day and then stopped.

So you are fighting tough battle here.

Hey Man, thanks for replying! Let me speak my thoughts about your points.

I can agree with you that there are not many features in Membership version in comparison to a free one. But when you have used the paid version for a while, you start to understand the value of statistics, especially, the daily timeline.

This app is for people who are doing deep work most of the time and want to reduce distractions and context switching between tasks that negatively affects their results. These peoples may be students, programmers, engineers, mathematicians, researches, writers, and so on. Also, these peoples should be in a grind mode to gain in productivity while using the app.

Regarding options - you are right, but it applies only to mobile apps, there are not much web apps to compete with.

Maybe I should focus on marketing the app to the peoples that need it(deep workers in grind mode)? What do you think?

 

[Kid]

there are not much web apps to compete with

I didn't know that.
So it can be a differentiator for your webapp.

Maybe I should focus on marketing the app to the peoples that need it(deep workers in grind mode)? What do you think?

That would be better. If you can find them, like in facebook groups or via facebook ads maybe they'll respond better.

One more thing. Your app has only 7 days trial.

That might be too short for people realize the usefulness of membership.
As you said, using it for a while shows its real potential to users.

The suggestion would be to A/B test different length of trials.
3 weeks, 1 month, 3 months etc.

 

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[Kid]

Few moments ago, one fastlaner referred to app related to your niche - RescueTime - Get RescueTime Premium and take your productivity to the next level

They seem to get good advertising angle .
(save something users might lose instead gaining something)

You can learn what they do and replicate/improve on that.

 

[lowtek]

What makes this better than kanban flow, which is free?

 

[geekrodion]

What makes this better than kanban flow, which is free?

Oh, KanbanFlow is a different type of app. Pomodoro by Increaser is specific for productivity improvement.

 

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[geekrodion]

The suggestion would be to A/B test different length of trials.
3 weeks, 1 month, 3 months etc.

Thanks. Yes, it makes sense, I will try it.

 

[Leeroy Savage]

Maybe you can build in a questionnaire so you have more data about your user. Then you can place adds for each specific user profile. For example, tech stuff for programmers, schoolsupplies for students, online courses,... Important to build an excellent questionnaire, that means with the least amount of questions acquiring enough data about your user.

 

[James Fake]

I know this may not help much, but just giving an insight I wish I had/have.

I wish there was something like an app/website blocker + pomodoro, etc.
Meaning, even though I can focus in for 30mins spurts, I need like a whitelist of websites and apps that can even open and run for those 30 mins. Vice versa during breaks, app and websites that whitelist during breaks and blacklist those same used during sessions.

 

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[geekrodion]

Meaning, even though I can focus in for 30mins spurts, I need like a whitelist of websites and apps that can even open and run for those 30 mins. Vice versa during breaks, app and websites that whitelist during breaks and blacklist those same used during sessions.

Yes, it would be cool if Pomodoro by Increaser could do that, but it can't be implemented technically in the app. I think there are browser extensions out there that do exactly that, for example, Block Site.