My pay site pricing thesis...
 

Ok you send 1500 people to each of these site. They both have the same content. Let's see what happens.

Site #1: $29.95 a month site. Converts traffic 1:500 to a trial (3 Members). (Trial Rev Share= $1.50), Converts 33% to the monthly (1 member Rev Share=$14) and that member stays 4 months. Total= $4.50 from trials and $56 from the 1 member who stayed 4 months. $60 from 3 members?

Site #2: $12.95 a month site. Converts traffic at 1:187 to a trial (8 members). (Trial Rev Share= $1.50), Converts 66% to the monthly (5.3 members X Rev Share=$5.50) and those members stay for 4 months. Total= $12 from trials and 116.60 from the 5 members who stay. Grand total= 128.6

You could even give a free trial at site #2 and make sure you get the 1:187 and still double site #1.

My numbers could be wrong, that's up for debate. Let's hear it...

can the site charging $12.95 a month compete with the site charging $29.95 per month tho? maybe so, but maybe the quality won't be as good* so it won't retain members as well.

* point is it's impossible to break it down to numbers like this. there are way too many factors, #1 (i think) the quality of the site - if it won't keep members more than a month, it's gonna have more cancelations/chargebacks, no matter what it costs the end user.

d'oh. i missed that they'd have the same content. nevermind my comment. (i'd delete it, but eh.. i dont mind if you guys know i can't read.)

Both sites have the same content. A site like this would work on sheer volume of members. Giving them value. Say for instance it would have the same content as a CEN site.

Giving the members a great value at the same cost of them only doing trials once a week and with the conveince of not having to keep signing up and giving everyone their cc#.

Yes, content cost would be higher. But a grip of money can still be made.

i heard somewhere that someone who will pay $10 is just as likely to pay $30 for the same content....

there are people who leech porn, and people who buy it. those that buy, pay up to $30 before they say no...

just a thought

well, we made $586 on the exits of both sites.. thats what matters. *G*

I've heard that "no difference from $10-30" theory also. But, I don't beleive it.

Why is it that 66% of people cancel before the trial ends. Ask around, that is the average now days. I'll tell you why. Because it's cheaper to go around getting free or cheap weekly trials.

The only way to combat this is to make it as cheap and more convenient for their asses just to stay put and forget about the $12.95 a month.

Are there any paysite owners that charge around $12.95 in here? What are you conversion %'s from trial to monthly?

i don't think people that pay are looking for a bargain. If they're horny with a dick in one hand and credit card in the other, they just want to know what it takes to get the porn NOW.

so price wouldn't be the biggest factor in conversions, it's more about is there enough new content to keep them around.

and if i were to try a marketing a low-cost site, i don't think i'd offer a trial at all.

interesting topic though shaggy :)

ahh check thsi link:

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...threadid=54309

Well, I don't run a paysite, but I can tell you what I've seen across the board from reviewing paysites..

Most times there just isn't a rule of thumb for how much a site will charge. I think most bigger sites that charge in the $15 range (model sites for example) just don't offer affiliate programs, save their money that way, and do their own promoting. The affiliate sites kinda have to charge more to fund, well, us.

I also think the sites charging $39.99 and $49.99 after the trial ends are shooting themselves in the feet. Any smart consumer won't take the gamble on the trial at this point even, and the webmasters gets the dick.

Why not go $20 or $30-$35 for 2 months? That seems like the best option to me..

You guys keep talking this price don't matter stuff. Where is the data to back this up?

Maybe it won't affect conversions that much. But after they get off they immediately start thinking about the cost. If they go in and see that they are getting a good deal. They are a lot more likely to call it home and forget about the price.

Especially if it is updated daily and has a lot of leased features. I think your right though SunTzu about the free trial. In order for a site like this to work you would have to get the best conversions possible. I think at $12.95 and a free trial you could easily get 1:200 or so.

along with Socks' line, what about a "third month is free" promotion? how have those fared?

if your charging $10-$20 a month ,dont bother giving free trials away. if your charging that much, your site wont be amazing anyway, if it was, youd be charging $20+ surely ;-)

Yeah, but once they're done beating it they'll think about how much they're paying for a monthly membership. At that point they'll be using common sense instead of hormones.

Did you miss the whole point of this topic? :/

The idea is to have a lot of great content. The amount of content that a typical big site that charges $29 would have.

So that you give them a great value. Value! Does anyone take that into consideration? Walmart has and that's why they are huge.

If you have great content charge like you have great content. If it's really that great people will sign up and retain for long periods of time no matter what.

Yeah, but has anyone considered charging what the content is worth and then taking $10 off so that people feel like they are getting a steal?

Why? You don't have to.

The only reason you would do that is because you have the same content as everyone else. If that's all you have, it's not gonna matter what you charge. You won't retain because it will be the same old shit they've seen everywhere else.

Great content that's actually new, fresh, updated regularly and what the surfers want, coupled with great service will out retain a cookie cutter mega site even if you charge $34.95 and the cookie cutter is charging $12.95.

The whole idea should be to make as much money as possible on as few people as possible. Why? For one thing, the more members you have, the more customer service you'll have to do. Just to pull some numbers out of the air, suppose your site generates 15 customer service issues per 200 subscribers each month. If you have just 200 subscribers, that 15 problems to deal with. If you have 1000 subscribers, that's 75 (2 or 3 per day). \

There's another factor that focuses on the nature of your content. As a more experienced webmaster told me when I got into the biz, "Find a fetish niche that's being underserved. If I guy can't get off without seeing a check in a veil or something else weird like that, he'll pay almost anything to get it."

Another webmaster advised me to offer unique content and to price my site high to establish it as a premium site (or "Cadillac site," as he put it).

While my own site at http://www.girlsdotcom.com may at first blush appear to be just another teen site, it does have a gals in their twenties without pretending otherwise, so it's basically a pretty girl site (you never ever see a penis on it). What's unique about it is that it features my own photography only, and so the members I retain are the ones who get hooked on my photographic style. I ask around $20/mo.

I say charge $19.95/month

I disagree. We're not charging a higher price because of our affiliate program. Our affiliates bring us money that we wouldn't have had otherwise. Our affiliate program doesn't really cost us money (although the prizes do).

It's simple, really.... Let's say a company does $10k a day in sales without affiliates. If one affiliate brings in $1k in sales that same day, we've made $11k. Out of that $1k the affiliate brought in, we pay him $500 - We're still ahead $500 and it hasn't cost us a thing to get that money.