Trial Periods

[Toxictoy]

Just wondering if trial periods are worthwhile or not for paysites. I see some sites offer them but others don't. Do they attract more long term members or does it not matter in the end?

Thanks for the help!

[Cyborg]

If you have a lot of content and it updates daily and content is very good quality it worth it cause the user will see that its a good paysite and will stay for a couple of monthes...

[FrankyW]

It attracts many more members period. As far as retention, that solely depends on the quality, exclusivity, ease of access, and updates of the content inside.

Think of it like this, if you have enough content stuffed for the period of the trial, that's a better chance of recurring a member.

So, if your trial is 3 days, you better make sure that the members area contains so much content that's properly organized for a surfer to be lost for the first couple of days.

[EscortBiz]

in my case i removed the trial and im getting just as much signups but again hits went up too but no trial here

look at it another way if they really want it they will pay

[shunga]

If you're going to offer trials you should also be looking to upsells to make something from people who cancel before the end of the trial period.

I wonder what the future is for trials as broadband becomes more common. It seems to me either trials have to go completely, or you provide a specific "trial mini-site".

The alternative to that is more live shows and chat, but that's more expensive, and a lot of smaller sites would find it difficult to include a reasonable number of them.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop.

[unconnected]

5 day trial memberships is a pretty good way to go in my experience.

[xxxinnovations]

We have always dealt with trials, but are thinking of removing them to take a shot at full sales.

Although in our experience, we are satisfied, but not yet to a point where the trial is converting as well as we had hoped.

*Brad