I've seen the if only we get (tiny percentage) of (huge number) to pay (seemingly small amount), we'll be rich! arguement framed about a thousand different ways. I actually cautioned an entrepreneur I was talking to last night about this.

Sales start from 0, and they continue from there. Until you have sold it a few times, who knows if .1% is incredibly easy or impossible. Sometimes any number >0 just isn't going to happen.

I didn't say rich, I said pay the $500 hosting fees.

The fact is that you guaranteeing sales are $0 if you never ask for money.

How hard could it be to get 1%?

I mean if only ask for $1, and get that dollar from only 1% of China, I'd be a millionaire!

You would be surprised at how few people would pay $5 a month...

That's the truth. I think it's better to replace any arbitrary small monetary value with 'Will Actually Open Wallet'. Once you've got the perceived value of someone willing to open their wallet then other things can start to fall into place.

Yep, indeed. We just need to train users to pay for good software. I used to be in the "I don't pay for software, ever" camp, but then I realised people are worth my support and now buy things regularly (especially Android apps, even if the pro version does nothing more than the free version, e.g. Twidroid).

“He forgot there was a number lower than one percent.”

http://sivers.org/1pct

Well, the number I used was .1%, and that number is surely always 0 if you don't even ask.

They didn't even ask anyone to pay.

Did you read Swivel's story? They had many many more users, they did ask them to pay and convinced less than 10. That's a lot less than 0.1%.