Getresponse Free questions..
Hi everybody,
First off, apologies if this is in the wrong place. I've been looking over these forums for a few weeks but I only subscribed today.
If you don't want to read the background info, here are the questions I have:
Now, if you want to know more, here's my situation...
I have a niche expat website with around 700 members. Access is limited to people who send in a government issued ID card, and the community is solid, with offline and online events. This year, we held an awesome business conference which 10% of members attended, and I was able to attract 100% sponsorship from the government, so my members could attend for free.
Needless to say, I have a decent brand that is trusted, and my name is fairly well known and trusted. The site has been running for 2 and a half years, and there have been no issues with personal information being used, so I'm now growing by a few new members each day. I reasonable traffic, and google analytics tells me that for every daily vist by a member, there are 500 visits from non members, who only get to see a home page and a join page. Because full membership is confined to a specific segment of society, most people who visit don't join.
The site takes up a lot of my time, and I'm trying to find ways to monetize it without charging members. I make a little money from advertising (slightly better than break-even), but I would like to do something with these 500 drive-by's each day. I'm now working on an ebook store. I'm writing a few books, and a few of my members are writing books within their field of expertise. There is limited information available to English speakers in this country, so we feel that people will pay for quality product. We have a few other goodies too - mostly (snail) mailing lists that people would find very useful.
I have also entered into an agreement with one of my members who owns a training company, and I would say 90% of the people who visit my site would have some interested in training with them. This company is allowing me to provide one of their courses for free, either as a paid ebook, or as an automatic mailing. I'm thinking of giving some of the content away for free in order to build up a list. I already know some advertisers who I could probably convince to pay me to write an article for them - legitimate established companies and financial institutions.
What I don't want to do is set this up and watch it flop, so I would like to use the getresponse free offering to begin with, and upgrade once it grows. I'm a fan of saving money, so I would rather pay 12 months in advance.
First off, apologies if this is in the wrong place. I've been looking over these forums for a few weeks but I only subscribed today.
If you don't want to read the background info, here are the questions I have:
- How do getresponse FREE emails handle the adverts? Are they obtrusive, and will they make my mailings look "cheap"?
- IF they do make it look nasty, I would happily pay for an annual sub, but I want to know what happens when I need to upgrade? How do they handle the upgrade process if I have 6 months remaining on a lower sub?
Now, if you want to know more, here's my situation...
I have a niche expat website with around 700 members. Access is limited to people who send in a government issued ID card, and the community is solid, with offline and online events. This year, we held an awesome business conference which 10% of members attended, and I was able to attract 100% sponsorship from the government, so my members could attend for free.
Needless to say, I have a decent brand that is trusted, and my name is fairly well known and trusted. The site has been running for 2 and a half years, and there have been no issues with personal information being used, so I'm now growing by a few new members each day. I reasonable traffic, and google analytics tells me that for every daily vist by a member, there are 500 visits from non members, who only get to see a home page and a join page. Because full membership is confined to a specific segment of society, most people who visit don't join.
The site takes up a lot of my time, and I'm trying to find ways to monetize it without charging members. I make a little money from advertising (slightly better than break-even), but I would like to do something with these 500 drive-by's each day. I'm now working on an ebook store. I'm writing a few books, and a few of my members are writing books within their field of expertise. There is limited information available to English speakers in this country, so we feel that people will pay for quality product. We have a few other goodies too - mostly (snail) mailing lists that people would find very useful.
I have also entered into an agreement with one of my members who owns a training company, and I would say 90% of the people who visit my site would have some interested in training with them. This company is allowing me to provide one of their courses for free, either as a paid ebook, or as an automatic mailing. I'm thinking of giving some of the content away for free in order to build up a list. I already know some advertisers who I could probably convince to pay me to write an article for them - legitimate established companies and financial institutions.
What I don't want to do is set this up and watch it flop, so I would like to use the getresponse free offering to begin with, and upgrade once it grows. I'm a fan of saving money, so I would rather pay 12 months in advance.
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