It's not as simple as you all may think. MarcDe and Kimmy Kim have valid points are are both right.
As far as those of you that are concerned about you're decrease in sales by trials going from 1.95 to 4.95 think again. We switched all of our sites to checks 2.95 and credit cards 5.95 2 years ago and noticed an INCREASE in sales. Some of the webmasters who dont run referral programs dont look at things like a sufer would. A surfer sometimes thinks what kind of site would let me in for a week for only 1.95. They must not have much to offer. Where if you're charging him 6 bucks he feels like he is paying for something. By charging more in the door you're also getting a more qualified customer is more likely to rebill down the road. You would really have to do some serious studies to find out what trial numbers work best but we have tried many methods and 5.95 works well and overall signups are just as high as 1.95.
"How do sponsors pay 35-40 bucks on trial signups" Its not easy, why do you think so many programs have gone to active recurring taking away signups if they cancel and taking away chargebacks. You're actually making $20 or less per signup on some of these programs. Its not easy at all for programs to make money paying 35-40 on trial signups! If we actually make money after paying webmasters its not much at all. We make money on upsells in our sites, links to other programs in our exits and so forth. If we didnt have exit consoles we would have to lower our payouts dramatically.
Marc had a very valid point in stating that the current model isnt very productive and paying webmasters on trials cant go on forever as the way things are progressing now but who knows. I think you'll see more companies lowering payouts or going to active models in the months to follow. I do however think the business continues to thrive and there is a promissing future but we will have to change with the times. But as things stand now Silver Cash will continue to pay $40 on trial signups. If it wasnt productive in some fashion we wouldnt be doing it
