How to charge people to use my online tool?

You can still make payments thru Clickbank. Personally, I'd use Paypal, because so many people use it these days.

Ray.

 

You could let them buy credits at $10 each....for 10 days of using it. Then have it set up that they can't use it again until they top up their credits! Just a thought!

 

I hate to say it but it will be tough to get people to pay $1 for each time that they use your tool. A 1% or 2% conversion rate is good for most paying sites. If you only get 100 people per day, you would only be making $1 to $2 per day at that rate. That is $30 to $60 per month. If you charged $10 for 1 month's access and just 1 person per day signed up, by the end of the month your site would be making $300 per month plus residual for people that like the site and come back month after month. If it were me I think that I'd take this approach but it's just my opinion.

 

Thank you all. Very nice ideas.
Either way I guess I better brush up my PHP & JavaScript skills.

 

Could you tell us what service does your site serve?

 

A monthly subscription may work better for you.
Or you can provide the service at a cheaper rate, e.g $0.20/usage

 

If you are going the route of charging small payments and decide to go with paypal, have a look at their special account, Paypal MicroPayments. You will save on Paypal fees as long as your average transaction is below $5 or if it was $10, don't remember. Basically they charge you a higher percentage fee on the transaction but in return no fixed fee, like the usual $0.30 per transaction. Just note that you need a special Paypal MicroPayments account, so all your small payments go to that account while larger payments, above $10 go to your normal account.

Doing many small transactions the normal fees will become such a large part of your costs. Just for fun, calculate how much is left for yourself on a $1 transaction with the normal fees:
Customer pays with his credit card: $1.00
Paypal takes 3.9% on the transaction amount: 1.00 * 0.039 = $0.039
Plus the fixed per transaction fee: $0.30 = 0.339 ~ $0.34
You receive: $1.00 - $0.34 = $0.66
Paypal taking a third of all your earnings.

 

That would be great, like making people click on Adsense ad to use the service.

My site allows people to create a product of their uploaded videos. Its totally free and is becoming a hot item with certain niche groups, growing by the week. I could add a lot to the site, expanding templates and adding functions, but now am thinking about ways to monetize, though will keep it free for another 6 months. In the meantime I will learn how to program and be able to create my paid subscription app

 

First tell us what is your site about? Hope I can help you..