Free vs. paid memberships

[charleskirkland]

I’m getting ready to roll out a new site that has a basic free membership with about 1 hour of video plus some teasers of what is in the full membership.

The full membership is going to be around $77.77 which will give you around 5 hours of step-by-step video and a lot of other stuff. Plus the full members will be on a reoccurring payment schedule where they get monthly updates.

The question I have is which domain should I use. Will JV be comfortable sending people to a site that has a basic free membership, or will they only want to send them to a paid only membership site?

If I use the free-xxxx-videos.com I will offer a basic free membership with the upgrade.

If I use the xxxxcodebreaker.com everything is going to be paid with some free samples only.

What will JVs be the most comfortable with? Since I have read the butterfly manuscript so many times I want to go with the free site with the upsell but I not sure?

Thanks
Charles

[Mike Merz]

Charles,

Hmmm ... JV partners are getting more and more wary about sending their subscribers to offers that don't have instant sales commission potential ... you'd have to show them incredibly high conversion numbers from test results on the upsell from free to have a chance, IMHO.

Have you considered a $1 trial? ... something comparable that would at least require prospects to provide payment info and toss aside the majority of the simply curious?

Do you have a list to a/b test?

If not, would you consider running test promos via newsletter ads in popular newsletters to accomplish the same?

... or have one solid JV partner that would allow you to run test sequences with their list?

[charleskirkland]

Mike

After your post and from talking to some potential JV's they all echo what you have said. I'm going to drop the free-xxxx-videos.com and go with xxxxcodebreaker.com.

I think I will have a much better chance at success with xxxxcodebreaker.com becouse people are expecting to get free content when they get there.

I'm having the Amember Software reinstalled at xxxxcodebreaker.com today.

Thanks
Charles

[Egidijus Andreika]

Charles,
Exactly! When people see 'free' word, especially in domain, they believe that they will get that information completely free. So I would also suggest to use your brand domain name without any common words like 'free'.

Have a nice day,
Egidijus