It sure has been a crazy passed few weeks all around the world. With social distancing, lock downs, closed schools and everything else going on, staying productive has been more difficult than ever.

With that said, to help productivity, I’ve decided to make Thought Train pay-what-you-want until the end of April.

My own primary use for Thought Train in the last month has been to take notes while on Zoom, Skype or Hangout calls, so I thought that since almost everyone is going to be working from home, I want you to have the same option to streamline your workflow.

Thought Train is a small app with a small audience of loyal users, so it’s really the best I can do in this climate to help in a small way.

I’ve read a few posts like this one but none which start from the absolute bottom like this, thanks Kyle!

Pricing is hard.

I thought I'd bring this to Hacker News because I know that many users on this platform build apps or market apps for a living.

My journey in the world of apps came after a career selling WordPress themes. I was tentative to launch my app, but when I finally did, the response blew my mind, the reason? The pricing. It was a pay what you want app!

So many users enjoyed the app, so I thought I'd release a new version, and this time I'd add cloud syncing, better features, a new interface, and... a recurring pricing model.

I was happy with this decision, so in May I launched the app to my 15,000 strong email database and to Product Hunt. It went relatively well, but as the months went on the over-arching feedback was... users are growing tired of the subscription model.

Dang!

I knew I had to make a switch, but changing your pricing is difficult, I was already working on some cool new features. So I thought I'd just take the dive, and update my pricing at the same time.

I settled on a once-off $19.

Well, a few days into it and I'm pretty happy with the result. I sucked it up and mailed my users, many of them happy with the change, and some have even converted.

The moral of the story is: it's never too soon to change pricing and go in a new direction.

I my post another update here on the long-tail affect, but for now, pretty keen to chat about pricing in general.

Very nice implementation Emkaka. I built a sticky notes replacement app too called Thought Train, but I really like your implementation :)

Hey ya'll

A few months ago I posted a preview of my app built to replace your sticky notes, after loads of work by myself and co-developer, I'm pretty happy to say it's finally live and ready to download.

The app has a subscription pricing model, however there's a trial period to get going, and if you are arriving from HN and you want to activate after trial just mail me if you want a coupon, I'll gladly work out what you need.

I really just want people to use the app and enjoy it the same way I do.

Thanks!

In what use cases would you think users would prefer paying for this rather than using Apple's notes app, which also syncs to my phone, ipad, etc?

The users of the app like the ease of access on their Mac, ie. no tabbing around, always in your menubar.

Many users also use it as a quick way to compile to-do lists.

Lastly, the carousel in the menubar, which is the original idea, is a novel way to keep your notes in a just-obtrusive-enough manner.

Ditto. The best notes are the ones you have with you.

Makes sense to me, I've build a mobile version of Thought Train but it's really just for myself to test out the mobile UX right now.

Appreciate the comments

If you had an Android mobile app, I would consider using this. I currently use OneNote's "quick note" function (launched via Win+N on Windows) for this purpose, synced to my phone. But it's not quite as organized or handy as this looks.

Really appreciate the comment thanks!

That's interesting thinking, definitely something I'm going to take on and see how I can implement.

Hey fam!

A few months ago I linked a preview to the second version of the app I've been working on.

Thought Train originated by me losing my train of thought while busy at work, and morphed neatly into a way for myself and others to replace the plethora of sticky notes lying around our desks.

The app sits neatly in your Mac menubar or Windows taskbar and is quick to access with a useful short cut on both OS's.

The features are lightweight, focussed on productivity.

Cloud syncing with full note encryption. Drag & drop re-ordering. Edit, copy and paste functionality for quick use. A full markdown editor for more in-depth note taking. Cross-device compatibility. A shortcut key for quick app access. Windows and Mac support

Let me know what you think!

It's funny this thread exists.

I actually created a to-do/note app that works for loads of users, I called it Thought Train because I kept losing my train of thought as I tabbed through Slack/Skype/Email all day.

It's not "The answer" but it's helped me daily since I built it.

The trick to creating something like this in a crowded space is not to compete against the others, but compliment them.

I haven't had a great experience with co-working at all, I wish there was something like Breather where I live.

Has anyone here had experience with Breather.com?

I work from home but would really like to tap into that "private space" vibe now and then. Regus is available here but it feels like going to the "PC room" in 1999.

I love this, while the rest of the industry is focussing on coupling admin interfaces with the front end, Ghost's focus on decoupling is a no-brainer.

Incredible work!