trial membership idea
 

The problem I see is people joining for a 3 day trial (for example), download the whole site in a matter of hours, then cancel.

I'm about to start a site again, and this got me thinking about how to stop people like that without eliminating "trial memberships".

I think the answer is bandwidth throttling on a per user basis. That would enable us to offer a 56k (dial-up) speed trial membership, or a broadband full membership.

What do you guys think of that? Good or bad idea?

Here's something nobody here will think of. Instead of playing games with your surfers, try quality. Try updates. Try pampering your surfers. Try giving them a REASON to stay.

OMG, what a novel idea!!!!!!!

Man seriously, if you don't already have this built into your site by the time you launch it, don't come here bitching when you get jacked.

Look at StrongBox and find someone to tweak your Apache config, that will solve your concerns.

Good content is GREAT! But not if I download your whole site in a couple hours on a trial membership.

To give an example, welivetogether.com has a $3 trial, and great content. So all 100+ hours became mine for only $3 - what a shame!

and no i don't have a site yet.. still shooting content

i don't do trials.
and you shouldn't either.

MMMMMMMMkkkkkkk, look into the BW limit in apache, problem solved. Find a tech who can set the D/L limit per 24 hr period and you have the answer to your issue.

I can write an apache mod to do it, that's not an issue. Would a 56k trial membership sink or swim, that's the real question.

I do like the idea of presenting it to your surfers as a "56K" versus "Broadband" membership. But in that case, I don't think it'd be an issue of "trials" versus "full membership". In theory if they only have a 56k connection, it would be better for them to purchase a cheaper monthly membership because they can only burn so much bandwidth. There will also of course be your wary broadband users who will start out with that (cheaper) option to checkout the content and then upgrade if they like what they see.

Interesting concept...

-Phil

Seriously, no one cares if you do or do not have trials. This is a business thread, not a spam thread. If your .02 is not warranted, put it somewhere else, like your pocket.

If you know your shit, trial periods (or DL amounts) don't matter, and don't mean much as far as conversions or overall numbers in the end-game.

If you know what you are selling, and how to sell it, trials are an added bonus.

Do you know what your end-game is?

Prove me wrong, tell me how a member that pays your full price in 33 days is worth more than one that pays your full month price + your trial cost.

If you don't have the trial to full conversions to satisfy you I can understand why you wouldn't want them, but if you do have those numbers (45%+) then you would be a fool not to offer them in this market.

If that is your real question, then you should have asked it as your "real" question. :)

That's a much better way of looking at it, I like that a lot. Thanks! :thumbsup

it wasn't that clear untill it became clear :)

lol what's the problem NB? sounds the same 2 me :2 cents:

I understand, been there, done that. :)

Unfortunately that doesn't work so well either.

ATK dropped trials because the conversions to monthly were horrible, and they update more than any other site out there.
16 new exclusive picture sets every single day (100+ pics per set) plus videos every week.
You can get lost for days in the members area, it's that fucking big, and yet they still couldn't get the trial members to stay for $30 a month.

You can either drop trials, or have limited trials, where a member only gets so much content during the trial and has to "upgrade" to a monthly membership to get it all. It's the only way to do it IMHO.

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 ( :thumbsup ) 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 :2 cents:

-P

PS: I love this stuff :)

Well that's not a new business model, but some of the big programs have had some success with the $10 a month sites.
However, you need to keep a member for 3 months on a site like that to equal 1 month average retention on a trial site that rebills at $30....so for me it wouldn't be worth it

:2 cents:

why do you need to have a 3 day trial, or similar type trial.
Do something different and make your trial membership 2 months for the price of 1.. then they dont have to worry about canceling in a day or two.

Yeah 3 day trials not worth it

Are you serious? You could charge surfers $5/mo and make a profit with the cost of BW today. The real issue is having an asshole use a download agent to fusker your site.

Get strongbox, its $100. Problem solved. Most surfers wont sit there and click for more than 1/2 hour. Some might. Worst case is a surfer gets what, 2 or 3GB in a day. Whoa, 30c of bw tops!

i would personally rather go with a DRM solution as that will keep people from doing what you describe above.. if they want to continue to see the unique quality content of the site they have to stay members...

if you are out shopping for a DRM solution check out http://www.mediakey.com - good service and easy to use etc..

Hey forgot that idea bro, just hook up a limited access membership where they join up and you give them 1 movie, they only paid $1-5 so why give them everything, that was the thinking from 98-02. Now days we only give them 1-2 movies and then easy upgrade them. works great

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so, you're going to shoot your content in Eastern Europe?
which sites do you run that would support your claim? I'd love to see the data on that....