Quote:
Originally posted by sinfulone
Could this be love at first bite? I like you!
What you're saying is true.... but
consider for sec. that we don't live
and die by any set of rules.
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LOL love is a strong word for someone that's just started posting here, give it a week or two ;)
So I read your article. It's not bad, but there are a couple flaws in it - the first one being that you overestimate the importance of content, and the second being that you underestimate the surfer (yes, I know that is hard to do but it is possible) --
everyone producing content would love to think that content is the be all, end all of the industry. It's not. I am not discounting its importance by any means, but the bottom line is that content doesn't influence the guy who's a habitual cancel on trial kind of surfer. While it may entice him to join again and cancel yet another trial, it does not make him stay. After all, why should he? If he's got a fast connection he can download what he wants -- then come back in a month, two weeks, whatever your minimum time to let him trial again is and repeat the cycle.
Once a surfer figures out that he can cancel on trial and still get his rocks off enough to make him happy, he will NOT buy a monthly membership to the typical paysite, and I don't blame him. As a matter of fact if you updated every day I still don't think it would sway surfers to recur... sites that don't have trials usually recur better than those with trials, but even if they don't a significant amount more money is made from charging 29 bucks up front than charging three bucks and trying to turn it into 39.
In any business you calculate the best return on your investment -- that would be how to get the most money out of it in a specified period of time.
And yes, I agree that this business has some bad guys, but it's not unique to this industry either.