

15 Ways to Optimize your Subscription Model - scottieh
http://okdork.com/2008/11/19/15-ways-to-optimize-your-subscription-model/

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pmjordan
Some cool, non-obvious tips in there, although (9) (JavaScript countdown)
seems downright insidious. I'd _never_ buy from a site that did that.

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teej
That and (10) Intellichat are shady practices, regardless of how they affect
your subscription rate.

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pmjordan
Wow, I completely missed the intellichat thing. That sounds pretty nasty.

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crxnamja
intellichat is the best thing ever. you've got to be kidding me. you can't
talk to everyone one of your customers and this may help answer some questions
they have about why they aren't buying your product at that point. if only i
could be next to every one of my customers while they are thinking of paying!

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jme
#5 says that pricing specials for the first month have been shown to work
better than free trial. Is that from personal experience or is the auther
referring to some studies that have been conducted?

We're selling a SaaS solution to small businesses and our entire process is
built around a free 15 day trial. I imagine that if we required payment info
upfront, our sign ups would drop dramatically, our cancellation rates would go
up and I'm not sure what would happen to the customer acquisition rate. If the
net result is positive I wouldn't care about the change in our metrics.

Does anyone know of any articles written about that topic in particular?

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fredBuddemeyer
thanks, some very good thoughts here for sure but if im to understand
intellichat the idea is to hustle up a better offer for people that are
leaving. this starts to feel like att or even a car dealership.

no doubt something like this increases numbers but it produces weaker customer
relationships and less room for your company to act with integrity - which is
what people adore. you dont need to upsell when your customers are begging for
more; more fun and inspiring for you too.

engineering an immediate dollar machine has the same effects as most short
term strategies so keep "t" in mind when performing an optimization.

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trickjarrett
Noah brings useful info to the table once again. The post could have some more
meat to it, give more exposition on each point but it's also to read a short
and sweet list of tips and advice.

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crxnamja
glad you like it. i can add more meat in a future post. it was just a
sampler:)

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hopeless
definitely needs some more meat -- I'd love to hear more

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pxlpshr
good stuff, hits on a lot of important things we often overlook or push off
till later, but we could benefit from by doing now. Most of his suggestions
can apply to any startup. Every Friday I like to bring out the comb and not
worry about feature improvements... definitely added a some new things to our
list.

Glad Noah is hanging out, building cool games, and eating burritos in Austin.
:)

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callmeed
Good stuff. I'm going to audit my subscription page right now and see what I
can improve. No way I'm gonna add a js countdown, though.

I never though about a discounted first month vs. 30 days free (that's what we
do now). Why is this better? Less attrition?

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crxnamja
Austin is the place! glad you like the advice. just some tips i picked up
along the way. let me know how they work for you.

