I’ve been using the free version of mail merge since a while now to send customised bulk emails using gmail.
Today I finally decided to pay INR 1885 and subscribe to their premium plan.
After I purchased the package, I noticed this:
It appears that the founder has managed to sell 22349 premium packages. Now assuming that all these orders have been the premium package for a single user, amounting INR 1885, this simple math calculation tells us how much money this developer would have made by selling the add-on:
If we wish to avail the service next year, we should be renewing it by paying the same amount.
Now Mail Merge is basically just a google add on. A decent developer who has basic understanding of Java script will be able to create this add on in no time.
Checkout this free tutorial by google on using Apps Script to write our own simple mail merge script: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/mail_merge
I could have opted to write the script on my own but I decided to go ahead and get the premium version. Why? — Because it makes my work significantly easier in no time. This is obviously why most people pay for even simple services such as mail merge.
This is a huge huge realisation for me. That writing scripts is seriously a great way to make money.