Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

Webmaster Discussion
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#11

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

If we have to address the lowest common denominator and make everything as easy for surfers to understand as possible, we have to look at what the general understanding of what a $1.00 trial would be. An inexperienced surfer would expect that for $1.00 they would get full and complete access to a website for a specified period of time.

A trial that allows a surfer only partial access should not even be called a trial. It is a sample, essentially a preview that the surfer pays for. And it should be specified in big red letters: GIVE US A BUCK AND WE WILL LET YOU WATCH PART OF A VIDEO AND THEN IN TWO DAYS WE WILL GIVE YOU ACCESS TO A BUNCH OF OTHER CONTENT AND SITES FOR AN ADDITIONAL $85.

Surfers don’t understand which browser they are using and certainly are not going to follow the fine print or below the scroll information that makes these things work. When they get hit with the additional costs, they scream and believe we are all running some kind of scam. I don’t know how many of us have actually spent time on the phone with surfers and polled them extensively, but I can tell you that most of them believe that porn sites are run by shady characters that they are loathe to even give credit card information to.

If we put material out there which indicates that the material is worth only $1.00, why wouldn’t they think that is was so valueless that they shouldn’t bother paying at all.

But then again, I suppose if one knows their customer base, they know what works for them. I know that if you want the fewest possible chargebacks and the best possible retention, you have to avoid anything that has a whiff of ‘scam’ to it. Everything has to be very very easy to understand.

Just because something is easier to sell doesn’t make it smart in the long haul. We can look at many of the problems we have today and chalk them up to short sighted choices that were made in the past.

#12

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[quote=basschick;36618]btw, there are plenty of exclusive content sites that make tons of money using the $1 trial. some use a limited trial - trial members get access to only one full video or no full videos but only the first clip of several videos or only to the pics. they have to click a link that upgrades them to a full membership to see everything.

and there are some exclusive content sites that are very large or part of a network of sites that give a 1 day full trial for $1 that convert well.[/quote]

When the member signs up is their a TOS page so they know what they are really getting?

I came across site today, on a network of program sites we all know, and the join page had a pre checked cross sale with no TOS on the join page. When you signup and uncheck the prechecked cross sale, the confirmation page has the cross sale checked again!

I can understand why programs and affiliates take advantange of these opportunities as processesors allow it, but minimally can’t we fully notify the surfer of what they are getting without sticking it to them later… or is that bad for business?

#13

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=AlexManifestMan;36621]If we have to address the lowest common denominator and make everything as easy for surfers to understand as possible, we have to look at what the general understanding of what a $1.00 trial would be. An inexperienced surfer would expect that for $1.00 they would get full and complete access to a website for a specified period of time.

[/QUOTE]

Which is exactly what we offer. They get full access for $1 for three full days to a network of sites that offers 4 updates of exclusive content per week.

I agree that those that offer limited trials should be more transparent about it as it would most likely help our conversion rate on the $1 trial.

But, many things in this industry can “upset” a surfer, like charging $25 for a site that rarely updates or charging $30 for a site that you can’t download the videos.

We have a high percentage of recurring members that have appreciated the fact that we gave them a $1 unlimited trial and allowed them to download the videos (even during the trial).

#14

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=abostonboy;36620]
Yeah. There is actually. If someone joins Broke Straight Boys for $1, they get full access to the site for three days, two updates of exclusive content a week on Broke Straight Boys, a weekly update of exclusive content on College Boys Physicals, and a weekly update of exclusive content on Straight Boys Jerk Off. That’s four updates a week of exclusive content. .[/QUOTE]

Actually the number of updates per week is not material to the cost of the trial. It depends exactly on which day they join as to whether or not they get updated unless the stars align and their join time hit when every site was being updated on day two. I went to see exactly what you meant and I couldn’t find the $1.00 anywhere. I did find the 3 day trial for 3.96 as well as the 6 day, 11 day and 20 day trials.

But in no case is this a $1.00 trial. I do see where for an extra $1.00 on top of the $3.96 you can get access to Ass Lick Boys and 5 Bonus site that will rebill at $24.83.

So if I pay $4.96 cents and get access to all this material, I will then be billed $54.79 if I do not read the fine print or fail to cancel in a timely manner.

I have to most respectfully disagree on how good this approach is for the business overall. If I went to a gas station and they sold gas for 20 cents per gallon for the first gallon but put indicated (in 10 point type at the bottom of the pump) that should I put more than .672 gallons in my car I would be charged $6.00 per gallon, I would consider that pretty much the same thing.

Sites should be sold on quality and quantity of content. Short term success is certainly no judge of what is healthiest for the industry.

But this is a discussion that is sure to get more than one individual’s panties in a big wad.

#15

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

Alex,

Webmasters have the choice if they want to market the site using the $1 trial or not. Some do better with the $1 trial others do not. We don’t use $1 trials on type in traffic as the higher priced trial convert better for us on type in traffic. But, members get the same level of access no matter what membership option they signup for.

Re: Updates. I was just stating that there are sites with exclusive content that do have $1 trials. Not only exclusive content, but a regular update schedule of exclusive content.

Basically it appears that your issue is not with $1 trials as much as it is with trials in general and X-sells?

#16

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

My issue is with anything that doesn’t make it super clear from day one exactly how something is going to work or that relies on the lack of action or information on the part of the customer to succeed.

I believe that these sorts of trials only work because people forget to cancel. I understand that if someone can get a member on the hook for a couple months of $50+ subscriptions, that it is to their benefit in the short term. But I believe this is part of what trains surfers to join and cancel the very day that they subscribe. They have been trained to do so by the trial method of sales.

If Time Warner simply sold their cable packages at one price and one price all the time, it would be far better than charging $29 bucks for month one till three and then $79.00 with a $150 stop service fee.

I think it only works at the expense of the customer and many companies use it in an underhanded way to the detriment of all of us. If we had all thought hard about the long term effects of ‘download all you want content and keep it forever’ we would not have some of the problems that we have now. What is best in the short term is not always best for an industry overall. GM sold a huge number of very large and very expensive SUVs and I certainly bought my share of them. But had they not ‘responded to the demands of the market’ in that way, their current problems would not be so great.

#17

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

One of the reasons surfers choose to only join sites with a trial is because they have joined sites without trials and for whatever reason have not been happy. I am sure there are some that have joined sites with limited trials and will only join full price sites now. One model feeds the other.

But seriously. If one wants to be as transparent as possible on the tour do sites that don’t allow surfers to download the videos state that in big letters all over the tour?

But, then now we have three issues:

  1. Trials
  2. X-sells
  3. ‘download all you want content and keep it forever’

So, basically unless a site is full price, has no X-sells, and protects it’s content from downloaders, it’s bad for the industry?

#18

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

I have no problem with x-sells, if they are not used to get one more dollar and then hit the surfer with an additional $30 dollar charge if the member doesn’t cancel within 72 hours. I do have a problem with anyone who produces content and then sells it at a price that is artificially low.

Note that makers of the highest quality goods almost never sell them at a discount. It devalues the brand and sets expectations that waiting for a better price is better than purchasing now.

And yes, whoever started the “Golden Corral” business model in membership sites has a lot to answer for. If surfers had not been taught to believe that they own the entire contents of a site, they would not be so eager to post it all on tube sites. If an entire content library is available to download and keep, there is no way that a smart surfer would ever retain as a member. Get 100 videos for 20 cents each when you join and then pay $5.00 each for them when you retain? That makes no sense. “Take the trial, cancel even before you look at the content, download it all and go back in a year” would be my advice to every surfer in that case.

Our site retains beautifully and our chargeback ratios are .02 percent. That is not 2 percent but 2/10 of one percent. We make it as difficult as possible for someone to download out library and give it all away. We also produce a lot of Live Content that must be experienced live to be enjoyed.

Regardless of how much I may respect someone else’s experience, I know what is and isn’t effective in the long term health of an business regardless of how wide spread a practice may be. There is not a single retail store that says: Buy something today for $1.00, use it for three days but if you don’t bring it back (after giving it to all your friends to use) we will charge you $100.

Strong and successful business practices cross industry lines.

If I join a trial, download everything that interests me, there is no reason to retain since any decent content library is going to have more porn than I could watch in 100 hours. I do not have 30 minutes to watch recreational porn for 200 days in a row.

#19

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

I got a free Godiva chocolate in the mall yesterday.

#20

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

What a rip off!

You mean they didn’t charge you a dollar and give you three days to take all the unlimited chocolate you want? :wink:

#21

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=Squirt;36642]What a rip off!

You mean they didn’t charge you a dollar and give you three days to take all the unlimited chocolate you want? ;)[/QUOTE]

Nah. You just kept going back to the lady that was handing out the scratch tickets and got more. rofl

#22

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

My point exactly. That was a sample. It was not a discounted sale.

It was not a paid trial. I have no issue with free samples. But if they sold you a tiny box of candy and then told you in small text on the bottom of the receipt that unless you came back to the store and told them not to do so, they would bill you for $100 bucks and ship you 10 pounds of candy, you would not be happy. Then if it seemed that every candy maker did the same you would become pretty suspect of all candy sellers, whether they used that practice or not. Especially if you could get candy that was almost as good delivered to your home for free.

#23

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

the number of updates are, however, very relevant to the conversion ratios - a good ratio makes a trial worth doing.

and there are lots of sites with very good quality exclusive content out there that have low cost trials. i don’t see how it’s a trap or a ripoff to let someone try a product and make it both a good enough product and a plentiful enough product to make them want more of it so they’ll go for a full membership.

for that matter, there are some sites with exclusive content and limited trials that are very honest up front about the fact their trials are limited. i can’t see how that is a rip off since they are TRIALS that don’t claim to be full memberships and let people know before they join that they aren’t getting the full enchilada for their buck or three.

#24

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=basschick;36645]the number of updates are, however, very relevant to the conversion ratios - a good ratio makes a trial worth doing.

and there are lots of sites with very good quality exclusive content out there that have low cost trials. i don’t see how it’s a trap or a ripoff to let someone try a product and make it both a good enough product and a plentiful enough product to make them want more of it so they’ll go for a full membership.

for that matter, there are some sites with exclusive content and limited trials that are very honest up front about the fact their trials are limited. i can’t see how that is a rip off since they are TRIALS that don’t claim to be full memberships and let people know before they join that they aren’t getting the full enchilada for their buck or three.[/QUOTE]

We are not ‘making them want more’ with these sorts of trials. We are telling them that unless they tell us they don’t like what we sell we are going to hit them with a charge and an even bigger one if they took advantage of any other $1 trial X-sells on our join page. (Provided they read the small print and didn’t just get swept away by the preview) People seldom read the closing documents when they buy a house. Why do we believe they read the terms when they join a porn site?

If someone wanted to offer a trial that really was a trial, say two hours access for $5.00, with zero opportunity to download and no re-billing obligation I would say hurray for them. That is a trial. The surfer could then join and get the $5.00 taken off their first month’s subscription. But a tour that is clear and accurate makes that unnecessary. But I doubt that anyone would ever do that. It requires that a surfer take an additional action to make money rather than the surfer taking additional action to not make money.

#25

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=AlexManifestMan;36639] There is not a single retail store that says: Buy something today for $1.00, use it for three days but if you don’t bring it back (after giving it to all your friends to use) we will charge you $100.
[/QUOTE]

I hope you know I am playing devil’s advocate a bit?

But, there are not too many stores that say buy this for $30 and if you like it we will keep charging you $30 a month for it.

The goal of any and all websites is to get a member into a recurring membership. (Except those sites that offer the non recur option and are happy with the one monthers.)

The trial to full price membership is nothing new and it’s not just porn that does it. Despite what many may think about the surfer getting 3 days access to all that content that they can download, they still convert from trial to full member at about the same percentage as a paysite retains from month 1 to month 2. (That was that retention formula.)

I would disagree that no sites that offer good exclusive content offer trials. Quite a few do actually. I would also disagree that surfers that join the trials" forget to cancel". Those that just want the porn cancel pretty fast. I would say that those that choose longer memberships tend to forget to cancel. I was making around $200 a month from CCbill on a site that closed 18 months before. Those members forgot to cancel. Just like I did when Dish Network gave me 3 free months of some premium HD channels, then zapped me on month four.

#26

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

a friend of mine has a crappy non exclusive site that never updates. less than 10% of his members rebill (around 8% on average), and some of those actually revisit and check out the bonus content every month and appear to know they are rebilling - they sometimes email him and ask about a model, too. it appears that a max of 5% of his members don’t know they’re rebilling. no one is making the big bucks from that.

also when i read surfer boards, it looks like far more porn surfers are aware of all this stuff than webmasters are.

btw, there are some very good sites with trials that don’t have cross sales.

#27

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

We have to remind ourselves that the vast majority of buyers never visit surfer boards. The biggest majority of them are ignorant of the way that things actually work. How many times has anyone (that is a content producer) answered the phone and had a member ask to speak to a particular model (as though we kept them here in the basement). These folks are not involved in the industry and are very naive at times. The get all excited when they see something the like and “Wow it only costs $3.00”. They whip out that credit card and join. They haven’t read a thing and get hit with a bill for $60 bucks 3 days later. How can that not make us look bad as an industry and create a very wary surfer.

As a professional in my former life, I was instrumental in fighting laws ‘that protect the rights of the consumer’ by putting time limits and caps on what they can and can not sue for. I don’t believe that we fully disclose the terms of these sorts of sales if the text is not at least as large and as clear as the largest text on the join page.

By the way I also think that payday loans are evil, rent to own stores are vile and many mortgage brokers should bypass go and head directly to hell so don’t take my views personally.

#28

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=InsaneSimon;36583]Hello,
few days ago I was chatting with my epoch assistant (Cristiana, a really cool person… I love her!) and she advised me to avoid to use $1 trial cause lots of CC companies could consider the transaction as a “charging/validating test” instead of a real sale. My question is: why $1 trials are so popular?

thank you[/QUOTE]

Ok. Not to get off topic. Here is the best answer that I can give you.

They are popular because they actually do work. I think this is even more so in this economy. Even affiliates that have never marketed a PPS program in their life are jumping on the programs that offer $1 trials to filter out the surfers that are looking for a bargain.

The rep at Epoch has a good point. If I am not mistaken the big billers by default wont let someone charge less than $3 for a membership without the client having a decent monthly volume and a low CB ratio. (I could be wrong on this one). The issue that you brought up may have something to do with that rule, if it is in fact a rule.

For the most part there is not much difference in initial conversion or conversion from trial to full membership between a $1 trial or a low priced trial ($5).

So, why offer $1 trials then? Because affiliates want them as they think they can make more money. Most affiliates that use them actually do make more money, but not for the reason that they would expect. It’s not that the $1 trial converts any better than a regular trial, it’s that they get a better click thru ratio.

For example, I had one affiliate change his links and banners to the $1 trial. His conversion stayed the same, but his click thru ratio was .45% vs .25% for the next sponsor. Just swapping his banners to ones that said $1 trial made a big change in his income with the same conversion. So, think about that. Assume he was getting 5,000 uniques a day. At a .45% ctr he is pulling in 225 uniques to the program. At a 1:125 ratio he is making about 2 sales a day. At a .25% ctr he is making about 1 sale a day. Bump the traffic up to 10,000 uniques a day and it’s the difference between 4 sales a day vs. 2 sales a day. Take it to a macro level and assume other affiliates can get a better ctr on the same traffic and it’s a big increase for the program.

That is why when affiliates choose the $1 option, I try and help encourage them to use the promo tools tools that say $1. I also encourage them to stress that it’s full access, downloadable videos, etc. I really believe that affiliates get a higher click thru ratio stressing the price point than those that don’t.

HTH,
Lloyd

#29

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

[QUOTE=AlexManifestMan;36654] The get all excited when they see something the like and “Wow it only costs $3.00”. They whip out that credit card and join. They haven’t read a thing and get hit with a bill for $60 bucks 3 days later. How can that not make us look bad as an industry and create a very wary surfer.
[/QUOTE]

Alex,

I know you have a good site as I have been in the inside of it. But, not everyone that has a $30 site with no trial is as good as yours.

So, what percentage of surfers would you assume have joined a $30 site and said they will never join another paysite in their life unless they can get a trial membership because they felt the site was utter crap? That percentage is probably damn close to the percentage of members that choose an X - sell. The vast majority of surfers “uncheck” the box as they know what they are getting or most of the others know they are getting another trial and cancel right away.

Seriously. The percentage of surfers that get in a membership that they don’t know they are in is lower than many think. (Probably much lower percentage than those you have joined a site a full price and will never join a site at full price again becausee they felt they got ripped off $30).

Believe it or not, there are members that know they are getting a membership to both sites and actually stay a member to both groups of sites for a long period of time and it’s not because they “forgot” to cancel.

The reason that some PPS programs have resorted to X - Sells below the join page, two pre-checked X - Sells that are confusing as fuck, and such, is because surfers that join trial programs are smart.

#30

Re: Why lots of sponsors have $1 trial?

Not to hijack this thread, but I forgot to mentions something. The reason they joined both is because they KNEW they could cancel both at the click of a button. But, to some surfers, as you know $60 is about the price they pay for a porn DVD. So getting access to nearly 10 sites with exclusive content and another 10 with non exclusive content for $60 a month is a bargain for them. The goal of X-sell is capturing those members and NOT trying to “ripoff” other members at all. While the % that choose it is small, the potential for profit is amazing as these are high end surfers that have no problem paying $60 a month for 12 months to the paysite. These surfers are out there and are very happy with both memberships.