More sites offering trials?

[gaydemon]

I've noticed recently I'm selling a very large amount of Trial memberships on Revshare, but very few rebill. I'm wondering if more sites suddenly have started testing out the whole Trial Membership thing. It's really starting to hurt profits as you get like $1.45 per sale and then nothing..

Why is it trials suddenly seem to attractive to site owners!?

[AlexManifestMan]

Trials with prechecked cross sales are pretty much the only way that the large pps payments can be made effective. But surfers are savy and if they can go in and grab as much as they want for $3.99 they are going to do it, cancel and head on to the next site. Unless a site has pretty special (read unique) content, they are easily swapped around.

Trial memberships on revshare are just goofy. IMHO

[kevinblj]

We put in a trial in an effort to push up our recurring memberships. In our case it has been extremely successful. I can't see a $3 trial being beneficial unless a site is hoping that a member forgets to cancel or they are banking that they love the site and want more. (I would hope it wouldn't be to try and dupe members out of a billing)

What is an average conversion rate of trial memberships? I wonder what pricing does to that conversion rate.

[dzinerbear]

I was looking at promoting Daddy Mugs on some of my bear sites, but when I looked at their join page they've got FOUR trials: they have a 3, 7, 11, 20-day trial. That's just over the top. And as a surfer, I'd be confused. As a webmaster, I just shake my head.

Michael

[AlexManifestMan]

I saw one the other day that amazed me. $3.99 for two days that rebills at 39.95 OR you can go standard membership for $29.95

Now THAT seems very odd to me.

We tried the trial route. Nightmare. Revenues dropped like a stone because surfers are trained. I would never join a site under a trial. There are too many that are set up in a goofy way (read shaddy). As a surfer, I just don't trust them.

[CSE-Steve]

They can pay off very well. Helps sell the product a lot better in today's economy. If you have a good product, it will usually retain.

[Squirt]

I tested a $9.95 trial for a few months then dropped it a couple months ago as CCBill shows my $24.95 recurring makes more long term and keeps members longer.

I can't help but think the crooks in our industry have trained our surfers in a negative way via cross sales on trial memberships. It's unfortunate that so many of you promote sites that used to do this, and others that still do this.

Do you really think those big PPS programs don't effect our industry in a negative way? Do you really think surfers who miss the pre checked cross sales (hidden or not) will be happy when they see unexpected charges on their card? So many are very short sited at their own demise.

[Squirt]

..when I looked at their join page they've got FOUR trials: they have a 3, 7, 11, 20-day trial. That's just over the top. And as a surfer, I'd be confused.

Michael

Intense Cash has 5 trial options when I goto one of their sites

3-Days @ $1.00
3-Days @ $3.95
7-Days @ $6.96
11-Days @ $9.96
20-Days @ $14.96

Other pricing is

$24.96 for 30 days
$29.96 for a month

As a surfer I'd be very confused and really question the pricing. Why 2 different prices for a 3 day membership, isn't 30 days and a month the same, why different monthly pricing? etc.

As a webmaster, as much as I love the people at Intense Cash, I don't currently promote them, even though they have some great sites, because of their cross sales and pricing structure.

[zbuckz_lloyd]

They can pay off very well. Helps sell the product a lot better in today's economy. If you have a good product, it will usually retain.

Agreed. In today's economy surfers are becoming more and more scared about shelling out $30 before they get to see the site. And you are right, if you have a good product it will retain.

[zbuckz_lloyd]

Intense Cash has 5 trial options when I goto one of their sites

3-Days @ $1.00
3-Days @ $3.95
7-Days @ $6.96
11-Days @ $9.96
20-Days @ $14.96

Other pricing is

$24.96 for 30 days
$29.96 for a month

As a surfer I'd be very confused and really question the pricing. Why 2 different prices for a 3 day membership, isn't 30 days and a month the same, why different monthly pricing? etc.

As a webmaster, as much as I love the people at Intense Cash, I don't currently promote them, even though they have some great sites, because of their cross sales and pricing structure.

I must by physic. I knew when I saw this thread that you would mention Intense Cash. lol

[Squirt]

I must by physic. I knew when I saw this thread that you would mention Intense Cash. lol
Not sure what you mean or why the snarky comment, this seems like an important topic for affiliates and wembasters.

[AlexManifestMan]

Again, we can not generalize. We DO have a good product and we DO retain. But trials do not work for us. Actually trials brought us a bargain shopper that we really don't want. We canvased these surfers. (Checking in CCBill it is pretty easy to see that most canceled before they ever entered the website. Often within 3 minutes of joining). The survey respondents most often sited "I can see as much as I want in a couple days". Those restless customers are not the ones we are courting. We want long term members. I know that others will say "but they come back and join again later if you have good content" but we haven't found that to be the case. We do have a lot of members that join, cancel and then rejoin later while they rotate between the big three solo muscle sites. Dynamite Studios and Manifest each have dedicated fans that belong to one or both sites. We also share a group that bounce back and forth as dictated by the surfer's economic situation.

As with almost everything, there are no hard and fast rules other than that webmasters must test and monitor the results for themselves. There are certainly good companies that offer trials but a bunch of them that do it for all the wrong reasons and in (what I see as) sneaky ways. The other thread about Haze Him (really unclear video delivery and download policy information) is a case in point. Their trial is $4.95 renewing in two days at $39.95 with a prechecked cross sale for $1.95 renewing in two days at $29.61. So if a surfer isn't pretty careful, he is going to be hit with over $76.00 in charges total by day three. And we wonder why surfers don't trust us? If the surfer doesn't remember which credit card he used or for privacy reasons gave a false email address, then he must write to the customer service department of the Haze Him site 48 hours before the renewal. So they are clearly banking on this happening.

Or the surfer can pay $29.95 and get 30 days to view the site and 30 days within which to cancel. This pricing pretty much makes the statement that they want people to try them out and forget to cancel. It is not about giving surfers a taste and hooking them long term or the trial would not rebill at a cost so much greater than a standard 30 membership. The 30 day membership doesn't indicate whether it is or isn't even a recurring membership. I don't see any information about rebills beyond the initial trial membership.

We know that most the time when folks join, they are doing so with one hand on the keyboard and the other on their cocks which they have to drop long enough to dig out their credit card. They are not closely monitoring anything. We shouldn't have to stamp BUYER BEWARE on our industry.

So, if you are going down the trial road, please at least be ethical about it. And give the member a clear and easy way to cancel. Otherwise you are just making it harder for everyone else in the industry who would like to sell something to that customer in the future.