This question is one of the first to crop up whenever I describe the pricing strategy for my simple web based task timer. Business people in particular are incredulous. Giving a service away for free is readily understandable, but trying to make money by encouraging users to pay whatever they like ? No, there must be an ulterior motive.

Well no, there’s not. For starters, adderuppa has been in existence since early 2003, when the notion of web2.0 was just starting to form. Secondly, world domination and super yachts do not feature on my wish list. Thirdly, I’ve never been good at trying to second-guess the needs of a market, and building something to suit, and so would not know how to build something that google might like to buy. I’m not one of life’s natural business people, as my music will testify.

My main enjoyment is the journey, the endless experiment. I am genuinely intrigued to find out what results this approach will yield. Financially, if only a tiny percentage of the possible number of users contribute more than the £2.50 per month flat basic rate, that would be sufficient.

‘But everyone else charges a tiered fee structure, the model works, why mess with it ?’ - you might ask. Is it working ? Really ? How many of those companies charging $100 per month for a hosted service have serious long-term customers in that price bracket ? If it is working, well good for them. Like I said, I’m doing this to find out whether it’s possible to do, not to make a million.

Having said that, if Larry Page and Sergey Brin were to drop by tomorrow with a cheque, I would find it difficult to resist the temptation. My preference for the experiment is only so strong …