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When to notify a client of costs.

by Ares928
11 replies
I'm in the process of building a site whereby people will have to pay a very small price to post an ad. I'm wondering if anyone has done a study or is there empirical evidence that suggests more people will pay for the ad AFTER they have submitted the information OR will more people post and pay for the ad if they know the small price up front. I know the "right" thing to do is tell them up front but I want to know proportionally if more people will pay because they have taken the time to complete the ad or are they more likely to walk away because they didn't know. My instinctual feeling is that they will pay after they have completed all the information because they have taken the time and the cost is small. Anyone have data driven information? I appreciate your help.
#client #costs #notify
  • Profile picture of the author Reed Floren
    I'd find it misleading if it wasn't told upfront that there would be some cost. You could have free ads that don't really get seen that often and they buy an upgrade to have it shown at the top.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Why even ask this?

    Of course you need to tell them theres a cost.

    Otherwise youre going to spend hours on end in the admin section disapproving unpaid ads.
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    BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point

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    • Profile picture of the author Ares928
      You didn't read the question, they will be notified of the cost, the question is when. I'm not interested in gut feelings, I want to know if anyone has data.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
        Originally Posted by Ares928 View Post

        You didn't read the question, they will be notified of the cost, the question is when. I'm not interested in gut feelings, I want to know if anyone has data.
        Sorry, youre right. I misread the question.

        Get the details of the ad first, then redirect to the payment page. What they decide to do from there is entirely up to them. You will always have a small percentage of people that fail to make payment. This could be due to a number of reasons....a) connection dropped off b) power outage c) computer crashed d) they lost interest e) they went elsewhere for free f), g), h) ....etc etc etc

        Ive been doing exactly what you are asking since 2004, so its far from "gut feelings".
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  • Profile picture of the author AprilCT
    You are going to make people annoyed with that tactic. If it was me, I would leave. There are many free sites where you can put up ads, and then pay if you want to scale up the service on the site. Value added is where people will pay because they need it, as long as the price is right.

    This is not a gut feeling, it's what I would do as a customer, first hand. If your site didn't specify up front, and I went through posting an ad only to find out then you had to pay, it would be annoying enough to go find another site to post.
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  • Profile picture of the author FreeMeal
    I would feels tricked if i wasn't told the cost before i input my advert. I would then probably leave the site without buying the advert just out of spite.
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    There are a lot of logo design sites that allow you to create your logo for free... but if you want to download it without a big watermark, then you are hit with a price tag. It's a common strategy. I'm surprised that the people responding to this thread haven't come across it yet.
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    Founder of JVZoo. All around good guy :)

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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    I don't care if I had already filled out an advertisement, if you haven't told me about the cost upfront then I would rather leave your site and have wasted 5 minutes of my time than give you any of my money.

    You wouldn't stand in the street handing out free food and then when people start eating it tell them it actually costs X amount of dollars - would you?

    So why is it any different online?

    I think a much better strategy is to have free ads and then upgrade options. This way new content is constantly being added to your site plus you make money along the way.
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    • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post


      You wouldn't stand in the street handing out free food and then when people start eating it tell them it actually costs X amount of dollars - would you?
      That's actually in my new book, "Fun Things to do with Homeless People".
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      Founder of JVZoo. All around good guy :)

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  • Profile picture of the author Carlsbadd
    This is a matter of "show me yours and I will show you mine"

    I would never consider paying for a ad unless I know the traffic and other stats.

    maybe check out marketing experiments to see studies .
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  • Profile picture of the author omk
    I think you'll always lose if somebody is totally unaware that there will be some type of payment to pay. People must always know that there will be a fee, however small. People hate feeling duped.
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