Originally Posted by jawanda

Interesting post, but I do believe that there are plenty of other options to increase profitibility.

One that I am constantly experimenting with is offering lower "full membership" rates than normal. This seems to have a double-good effect. The signup ratio is closer to that of trial memberships because the surfer is only dishing out say $7.95 - $9.95 per month. Also, because there is no need to upgrade (and you have a month to cancel before being rebilled) it is a less stressful situation for the surfer.

i.e. when a surfer joins my site, I don't want him to have to think about billing for at least a month. Thinking about billing in the sense of "I have 3 days to cancel or else I will be rebilled" creates a sense of urgency to cancel in the mind of the surfer. On the flip side, when he signs up for a month-long membership he is in no rush to cancel his account. Shit, he's got ALL MONTH to worry about that! After a month goes by, quite often he will either be hooked on the content ( ) or will have forgetten completely about this little $9.95 recurring charge that is coming up. Either way he is in no hurry to cancel and that is a good thing. Recurring numbers can be amazing with this scenario.

Again

-P

PS: I love this stuff