Monetization isn't extracting money from customers. It's weaving pricing into how you deliver value so you can afford to keep making something good. Focus on creating more value first, and the money follows.
To monetize is to create value. I talk to people who think that there's a difference between jab and the right hook, that they should be giving away stuff for free and it's increasing value and they're extracting value from the market, a separate thing. And as a result, they look at their pricing and they look at the way that they do business as a way to be getting their turn and their extraction from the market. I think this is backwards. I think that what you should be doing is making the way you do commerce part of the way that you create value and you provide things you could not frankly afford to provide for free. As part of the economic transaction. And people, by paying you for that service or for the product or whatever it is, are allowing you to keep on providing this value. And that's why it is a plus good for them and for the market. So when you're asking, how do you best monetize? How do you best create something that's going to make you money? Ask, how can you create value in the market?
