i decided to switch one of my ugas sites to see how it did on mansites. i figured a free join might help sales. i used the same exact tour.

results:
ugas - 933 join page hits - 14 sales
mansites - 563 join page hits - 0 sales

each join page hit represents between 5 to 7 first page hits.

so i guess that for some niches, free isn't as important as the page design of the avs and the design of the avs panel on your site.