People scared of free money?

Of course people are skeptical. It's because people aren't used to being given free money. I used to work at a retail store where the customer was allowed to purchase a customer loyalty discount card.

With the card purchase, some customers would pay much less total on their order than if they hadn't bought the card, still they were skeptical and refused to buy the card, and they ended up paying more than if they had bought the card.

Lol when people hear about something thats too good to be true, they just stay away.

People are wary of the quote;'When it seems too good to be true,it probably is'.
Not to worry,when you've got few positive reviews,you can always refer to them.

Yup thats always the case.When something looks too good to be true it usually is. I know in some cases its not but you know how these things can be

One of the reason why some may not take this offer, is you are not asking for anything in return for the $10+ after they signup. Do you want them to try your package, and give you feed back on a weekly basis perhaps. It just sounds too good to be true to regular folks.

I think the OP is fighting an unimaginable uphill battle.

To me what it would be even if you offered FREE hosting for a life I would not take you up on it. The couple dollars they could save would all be wiped out if their site was down for even a couple hours.

There are huge companies that charge about the same you are charging and they have been around a long, time, have 24 hour chat service and on and on.

People have become increasingly skeptical and tend to adhere to the "if it's too good to be true" phrase. Perhaps you would get better results if you offered the hosting for $13.67 and you retain the $10. I imagine that would depend on the company with whom you are working.

^ I do not host the sites, you get the web hosting from the company that been around for years and currently ranked #1 in 2011. 24/7 customer support by phone / email / chat is provided AND freebies (adwords coupons, facebook etc.)

AH ok got you sorry I missed that.

Sometimes the whole "this deal is better than you will find anywhere else" strategy backfires. Not that the deal isn't better, but because people think there must be some catch.

For instance, I had a friend that was trying to sell a Rolex watch. It was totally legit, but he was trying to sell it for like $600. He thought people would jump all over it because the price was so low. No one called him. I told him to at least double the price because a $600 the assumption is either (1 it's stolen (2 it's broken (3 something else fishy is going on.

The point is, you are providing a great deal. But people perceive it to be a little sketchy.

Hope that helps,
James

People will always be scared of free money. Usually they think it was obtained illegally or that it was from wrong-doing.

Hi Tolyz,

Breaking this down, I would suggest the main problem is that there is no logic in paying the $23.67, then getting $35 back. In order for any sale to work, you have to get the customer on board emotionally and logically. While emotion plays a big part in getting a sale, if there is a problem with the logic part, you won't even get to the emotional stage.

A better approach I would suggest is to offer a free report on various ways to use hosting. Whether they want to create a family site, or use it for IM etc, give them a report that points them in the right direction. This would be a good introdutory report for a newbie.

For a more experienced person seeking to change hosts determine what they need the hosting for and give them a report related to that need. For IM, maybe a keyword report or similar.

Just my tuppence worth.

Regards

Nick

If I see your offer I'd probably think it's too good to be true, and I'll be looking around for the "small prints"...experience has thought us many things in life so whenever we recollect these previously bad experiences, the red light flashes that we may be walking into a trap

Totally understandable. The reason, why the person have to pay $23.67 first is simple. I'm not looking for people that only after the money. That is also why I only issue the payment after 14 days.

Just an idea.

How about they pay for the service. Then IF within 14 days they post a review of your hosting service on their facbookpage they receive 3 additional months for free.

You could play with the specifics of the deal and track the results.

The fact is -- a lot of stuff that 'is' priced to go -- really is crap.

So, when you try and price yourself in that group -- people automatically assume its exactly the same.

Have you ever seen a shark eat a guppy?

If you were a guppy, would you trust a shark holding a free piece of bait?

Are you a shark to the average guppy? Maybe not, but the skepticism remains. Free bait doesn't always work, especially when dealing with something technical like web hosting, and an array of "guppies".

:p

That's a pretty clever concept. You see, in most minds... "Something's fishy" and especially for those who haven't been round that long and never really made any cash, they're thinking, what's the catch?

I'd suggest you photocopy a sworn statement in pdf format and if you have one, corporate seal it, upload it and give/mail (snail mail) it to your new clients. They'll have more trust in you. I'd also recommend getting online trust seals (TrustE, Thaawte, VeriSign). Yeah you have to pay for them but again, would raise your credibility.

Hope this helps

People are probably hesitant because the offer doesn't make any sense. Neither does your analogy. People don't have to pay to test drive a car.

I think that is understandable, since people nowadays are sceptical about something that seems too good to be true. Although your intention of paying them money to test drive something is good since you want them to test their own abilities, you cannot blame this people since it cannot be denied that it really seems too good to be true. People will wonder why we are paid for doing such test. Is there something fishy about the test?
It's an irony since people wanted to have money, but if you provide offers something like that, they are now hesitant to test it. Probably they have something in their mind that warned them not to try simply because they themselves were scammed before or friends had already informed them about it.
I would say, you can attach some testimonials by people who had already tried your offer and were paid by doing and testing it. It will add some credibility to your name if you have something from real people to attest what you have been presenting.

People do shy away when something sounds too good to be true, I've worked in sales before where sometimes I'll have to search around for "the catch" (as in "what's the catch") just so something doesn't sound too good to be true.

Should i say "Duh"? Nothing comes free, at all. That's why people are so scared of free stuff. Look even wikipedia gets its income by "donation" they get...

If you had offered free hosting only, it would make more sense than paying them to host with you. People love money but they think they are smarter than us that's why most of them wouldn't be interested in such free offers. They evaluate quality and security based on the price.

Expensive = high quality + secure
Free = low quality + unsecure

Nobody can change their minds.

How wouldn't he get his affiliate payment if he offered free hosting.

Dear TolyZ,

I seen your offer before on other forum.

If you want people to take a test drive in a car, you should in the first place offer a free package and not the opposite.

Let us agree no website owner have a successful website, will risk to take that shot, simply because they get scared something go wrong.

So, the other option would be for beginners who are taking the risk. If I am paying you $24, why wouldn't pay just host or host gator $20 or $30 more and get it for a year.

One more thing, you do consider the offer as too good to be true. I can give you a large number of hosting company that offer hosting of fiverr clone websites. The offer goes for $15 or $20, they install a script + 1 year hosting for only that price. This include installing the script. It is too good to be true ? Could be. However, I know they giving that offer as if my website is there after 1 year and I am having a good hosting experience with them, i am not going anywhere.

All I say, check what your competitor are doing, and is your offer compare to them is good enough. After all people compare cars before they jump into a test drive.

The world is filled with cynics!

Yeah,people always think there's something hidden within the free "money".The thinking is "why should you give me free money?There must be something you're not telling me so I'll rather not have your money,thank you!"

I agree with the people who are scared of free money because we have been grown in this competitive world where people know that nothing comes for free..
So it is common if someone talks about free money people start to wonder about it...

You have to build trust with people. This is how:
Ask the people that have accepted your offer to leave a feedback
at the time of their refund. Make that clear as a condition.

Now even natural born skeptics will see that you want something
in return for that $10 gift. Most will be okay with leaving a positive
feedback because they still stand to gain from the deal.

Use those feedback as social proof to get more customers and your
business will grow as you get more and more referrals. Good luck

He hasn't gotten anyone to take him up on his offer.

Also there are so much fake feedback they are almost useless unless you have a picture, first name, last name, city and state.

if your hosting is that valuable you should'nt be giving for free. The reason is that your hosting sounds cheap and no one will risk their business on a low quality server.

Rather you should give them a free trial option for one month and give them some discount. Atleast you should be charging or giving them additional services to make your self look unique. The problem is that there's lots of free stuff floating online and as it is free people have stopped valuing many things so it is better to charge something even if you want reviews for your new hosting business.

People are funny

I offered the services of my offline business entirely free for a whole month (one use per customer) and got ZERO take up. I mean no-one replied to the offer! Blew my mind - just goes to show if people think there is a catch, or rather that there MUST be a catch that you can't see, then they wont sign up.