

My Users Say "No Thanks" to Free Money? - alain94040
http://blog.foundrs.com/2011/08/17/my-users-say-no-thanks-to-free-money/

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wccrawford
Would I spam my friends for $2? No.

Would I share something useful/cool with my friends for free? Yes.

Would I bother to prove I had shared with my friends for $2? Probably not.

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jfruh
There are plenty of studies that show that people will do things for free that
they'll never do for pay, and moreover it's pretty easy to come up with
intuitive examples of this in real life. Lots of people would be more than
willing to help their buddies move, doing many hours of manual labor for free
because that's what friends do, with the only tangible reward being pizza and
beer at the end of the day. But if your buddy went on Craigslist and offered
the monetary equivalent of that pizza and beer to hire movers, nobody would
take him on it, as it would be way below minimum wage; if he tried to offer
you that money instead of the pizza, you'd be insulted.

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aklemm
This setup probably makes people feel like they're being bought. You can still
buy their clicks, but you'll probably have to figure out a way to make them
feel like it's all their idea.

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alain94040
I agree it felt a little spammy, but I'm so used to people online selling
their mothers to save a few cents (think Groupon). Discounts are pretty much
part of the American culture. Not this time, though.

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jfruh
Groupon doesn't ask you to put your personal reputation on the line to endorse
a product. You're essentially asking people to be pitchmen (or -women) for a
product -- which involves putting whatever reputation they've built up among
their social circles on the line for you -- for a measly $2. This has an
entirely different vibe to it than the Groupon model of "Hey, I love this
restaurant, sign up for this Groupon with me and we'll get half price!" The
"endorsement" here is less obviously for hire, not least because there's a
third-party service in play.

Overall, what everyone is telling you (here and in the comments on your blog
post) is that putting links and/or endorsements on a social networking service
is much more than just a fee-for-service proposition; there are other
intangible qualities that are important, primary among them what your friends
on these social networking services think of you. You want to believe that
your friends post links to things because they're _good_ , not because they're
getting a discount. In fact I'd argue that one of the main reasons people like
social media in the first place is that it's a person-to-person interaction
that's not commerical in nature.

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nlawalker
Whenever I'm presented with stuff like this (another similar situation is
being asked to apply for a loyalty card at most any store), I think of it this
way - the reason you have to _ask_ me to do something is because it's a task
that you want to make sure doesn't stand in the way of the rest of the
transaction, meaning it's probably going to be something that's going to
irritate me or something I won't want to do. Offering to bribe me a trifling
sum in return means it's probably a serious pain in the ass, so of course I'm
not going to do it.

When someone has their hard-earned money out and is about to pay, they are
cautious. They have made sure that they have gathered exactly what it is they
want to purchase. They know that virtually anything out of the cashier's mouth
or anything appearing on the checkout page that isn't "thanks, come again!" is
likely to be something that's going to take time to do, cost them money, cause
them to lose some of their privacy, receive junk mail, spam their friends,
etc.

He'd probably be better off simply putting a message on the "transaction
completed" screen simply asking them if they could do whatever it is he wants
them to do.

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pavel_lishin
That's not free money. That's a discount.

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alain94040
Hum, yes. But based on what you have to do to get it, it's pretty close, no?

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pavel_lishin
I don't understand. Are you saying that it's "free money" because the discount
is really easy to get?

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revorad
If you control the message that goes with sharing such a link, that can be a
deterrent. For example, even when I would have liked to share some Appsumo
deals on Twitter I didn't because their own tweet link always has some really
spammy annoying message, which you can't edit.

The other possibility is that you didn't have enough users to convert any.

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alain94040
There were plenty of people paying the $29 price. And not one of them chose to
pay $27 instead. I would have expected maybe half to do so. Maybe 20%. But
none?

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janfoeh
I wouldn't have either, not even if you gave the product away for free in
return.

To me, spamming people that chose to listen to me on whatever site or medium
seems like an egregious violation of trust. If I link to or recommend
something, I want that to be meaningful.

I'll do it gladly if I like your product, but not because you've bought me for
a couple cents.

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portmanteaufu
At what point in using the service is the $30 fee required? I would be even
more hesitant to spam my friends if I hadn't been using the system for a while
and been convinced of its efficacy.

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imjk
Interesting display of economics at work here. For whatever demographic your
product caters to, they seem to be saying their social media interactions are
worth more than $2. Considering absolutely none of them took the offer, I'm
assuming the average value they put on it is much higher. Regardless, I'm sure
there's a price point where you could get a decent number to take the offer.

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aderaynal
Is there anyway you can make your product more useful for your users if their
friends join too ? Easier said than done, I know... but this is maybe the only
way to generate more sharing.

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iterationx
Do I jump through hoops for $2? Nope.

