Tiral Membership Conversions

[Dzinerbear]

Just wondering how trial memberships convert for everyone.

I signed up with the Workin Men Movies site last week and I've sold three full recurring memberships and four trials (three of which have already cancelled).

In my ccbill stats so far this month, I've sold 9 trials for various other programs, 6 have already cancelled, and three are still active. I've sold a lot more single and recurring memberships.

Seems like trials aren't really worth the trouble. If your a sponsor and you sell 5,000 of them over the course of a year it's great. I dumped one program because all I ever seem to sell was trials.

How are trial conversions working for you?

Dzinerbear

[Xstr8guy]

Imo, trials are only a good option when the sponsor is paying $35 for a trial join, .

Seriously, trials generally suck for me. I think most surfers that join by trial are just leaching as much content as possible in 3 days and not renewing. They might join again in a few months and suck everything they missed the first time plus all of the new stuff.

D-bear, I've had a little better luck converting trials with Working Men Movies, but I would actually like to see them go away. I joined before they had the affiliate program. They have a lot of movies, but not so many that a determined surfer couldn't download them all in 3 days... I know, I tried

[gaybucks_chip]

We used to offer trials ($8 for 5 days), but found the cancel rate was really high. We bit the bullet and, on advice of several regulars here, dropped our trial (and raised our membership price at the same time) and discovered that it actually increased our bottom line... we got a few less signups in the beginning, but they were for more than twice the trial fee, so it all worked out.

We've also for quite some time had the $40 signup (75 days) as the first option on our join page, and that seems to work remarkably well... a *lot* of people sign up at that level.

[Lee]

Interesting topic Michael

Ive never been a big fan of trials myself although, that doesnt negate their uses in the industry.

However, i do see more and more companies staying away from the trial business model as of late so perhaps they are begining to realize trials perhaps arent the most profitable business model.

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

some sites convert really well from trial to monthly, but unfortunately most don't. a limited trial - when used wisely - can help conversions out, but most companies don't use it wisely at all.

the popular wisdom is you will sell a LOT more trials than full month memberships. my experience is different.

[Chilihost]

we used to have trials but dropped them a long time ago, when we dropped them there was a small dip in sales but a huge increase in overall profits for both us and our webmasters.

cheers,
Luke

[BDBionic]

AWOLMarines.com had a 4.95/3 day trial awhile back but I wasn't too fond of it. Although it did convert to full membership fairly well, I still felt it was a waste. I thought the prices were too low, affiliates would be better served with higher membership fees and lack of a trial, and the bottom line would increase sans trials a small trial.

We took it out, and conversion inevitably dropped a bit. But that was to be expected. Conversion by no means became poor and net revenue increased substantially after it was removed.

We've held prices pretty high on the site. But with 10 original and exclusive video updates per week (1 per day, then 3 bonus ones each week) and a year's worth of videos (close to 400) in the members area archives, I felt $30/month was more than reasonable.

We've kept a trial - a 14day, $20 trial - on. Figure if someone's a bit scared off by $30 from the get go, they have a cheaper option that isn't as much of a commitment but still generates a decent enough sum of money for us and affiliates to make it worthwhile. And since over 60% of those convert in to full rebills, that's $50 in the first month off that surfer. So it works out quite nicely.

[Dzinerbear]

Originally posted by basschick
the popular wisdom is you will sell a LOT more trials than full month memberships. my experience is different.

Well basschick, I think that's probably true: I think a sponsor probably does sell more trials. But as your and mine experience bears out, it's not so profitable for the individual webmaster.

One of the MANcheck guys met this guy at Internext in Florida, and he worked for a straight program. His job was to push as much traffic as he could, however he could, to sell their $4.95 trial. When asked about conversion rate, he said something like: Oh that's not my department, I don't care about conversions, that's Bob's department. All I care about is selling as many $4.95's as I can.

So if a program has 1,000 webmasters selling one trial a month and the sponsor gives away half the money and a buck to the processor, they still have made $2,000; if each webmaster has sold five trials a month, the sponsor has pulled in $10,000.

I hope we see the death of these things soon because I don't see them as a very good way for webmasters to make money.

It seems to me the porn industry has done a pretty good job of shooting itself in the head what with free sites, TGP free porn, and discounted membership fees. It would be nice to see the industry take back their product and start charging a reasonable fee for it.

Dzinerbear

[Lee]

Michael,

Now you've done it hehe...

We have been having a couple of discussions on a similar topic to the 'how many trials' can you get over on Oprano for the last few days..

http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/index...howtopic=15194

There is actually some VERY good business info in that thread and im sure it will open your [and everyones] eyes as to just how profitable a single paysite with an affiliate program attached actually can be.

Its not to much but, 1 paysite, pulling in 50 trial signups a month [which is realistic] can make in the region of $15-$30k a year.

Now, consider the fact that very few affiliate programs these days have just 1 paysites and well.. :$$$: :$$$: :$$$:

Regards,

Lee

[Matt 26z]

Look how many sites are opening up 100% of their members area for $5 for 3 days or whatever. More often than not, the entire thing can be looked at from top to bottom before the trial even expires. Then there's no motive to keep the trial alive.

[Lee]

Originally posted by Matt 26z
Look how many sites are opening up 100% of their members area for $5 for 3 days or whatever. More often than not, the entire thing can be looked at from top to bottom before the trial even expires. Then there's no motive to keep the trial alive.

Matt you are forgetting the most important aspect of running an affiliate program using the PPS model though.. consoles.

For every 100 hits you send to a sponsor programs tours, anywhere between 15-25% of those hits make a sale for the program off a console link.

The PPS business model is nothing more than a traffic numbers game, you offer the webmaster as much as possible in order to get their traffic to make money for yourself [the program].

Why do you think so many sponsors have multiple consoles on their tours and very few of those programs have links to their OWN site on the same consoles

Regards,

Lee

[Takemytaco]

What will PPS sponsors do?

More people avoiding consoles.
- Service pack 2
- surfer using firefox
- installing google toolbars.

will they have to change their payouts to affiliates?

[Lee]

Originally posted by Takemytaco
What will PPS sponsors do?

More people avoiding consoles.
- Service pack 2
- surfer using firefox
- installing google toolbars.

will they have to change their payouts to affiliates?

They are already starting to change thier payout model.

A large sponsor just recently cut the trial option down from a $40 payout to a $25 payout i beleive.

They are also only paying out $25 on a $30 full join.

Its the way of the future if affiliate programs want to maintain their profits.

Regards,

Lee

[Xstr8guy]

*Bump*

Anyone from Workin Men Movies around? We need to talk

I've had 17 trials this month and only 4 trial conversions. Granted, some of these were in the last few days so they haven't had a chance to convert but... maybe you could try not having trials for a while... PLEASE!

[IntenseCash.com]

Great stuff here. I will take the advice I always see about trials. Sometime after Internext I will pull the trials and see how it goes. See everyone in Vegas.

Thanks,
Mark