Can you get screwed with Free Trials?

8 replies
Warriors!

Thank you for reading...


Quick question. My firm is launching a software app and we are looking to sell it via monthly subscriptions ($4.95) with a 10 day free trial.

Currently we are beta testing and we have our own affiliate base growing....


However we are considering launching the offer on larger affiliate networks like click booth and pepper jam. We would have a continuity billing model for affiliates.

Question: How can the larger networks burn us?


the payout would be around ($2.00 a month) per free trial sign-up...

Advertisers at some of these larger networks promise they can get upwards of 500 sign-ups per day on our product.

However they are looking for $10,000 retainers in order to start. Yes we are only pay per-sign-up....but we do have a 10 day free trial....


Any Help??

Cheers

Bill
#advice #free #screwed #trials
  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

    Quick question. My firm is launching a software app and we are looking to sell it via monthly subscriptions ($4.95) with a 10 day free trial.
    First off, you should be aware that CC processors and merchant account providers are really stepping on trial offers. You might run into serious processing issues down the road.


    Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

    However we are considering launching the offer on larger affiliate networks like click booth and pepper jam. We would have a continuity billing model for affiliates.

    Question: How can the larger networks burn us?


    the payout would be around ($2.00 a month) per free trial sign-up...

    Advertisers at some of these larger networks promise they can get upwards of 500 sign-ups per day on our product.

    However they are looking for $10,000 retainers in order to start. Yes we are only pay per-sign-up....but we do have a 10 day free trial....


    Any Help??

    Cheers

    Bill
    The biggest thing with these types of networks is misreporting data. You need to have good tracking on your end to see what their traffic is doing on your website. We worked with a network last year that claimed they sent us 100 signups in a 30 day period, but our own tracking systems proved they were lying to us by a significant amount. You'll probably never get 100% tracking accuracy, but if you track say 30 sales and they claim they sent you 100, then there is a big problem somewhere.
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    • Profile picture of the author goneebo
      Our product is not a scam like **** pills (although we did consider those

      Our product is an anti-spam / anti-scam tool that gives the user the power to fight back.

      We are currently in a lawsuit ourselves with one of the larger networks, they took over $40k on debt leads that were anything from debt leads...

      Paypal handles the processing, what are your thoughts on using paypal?
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      • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
        Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

        Our product is not a scam like **** pills (although we did consider those
        It doesn't really matter what the product is. The moment you say "trial offer", the merchant processor instantly gets anxious.

        Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

        We are currently in a lawsuit ourselves with one of the larger networks, they took over $40k on debt leads that were anything from debt leads...
        We had something like that happen last year with one of the biggest CPA networks lol. It's a pain.

        Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

        Paypal handles the processing, what are your thoughts on using paypal?
        We use Paypal, but we don't offer trials. There's a lot of mixed feelings about Paypal out there.

        As a Buyer, it's perfect since they protect you really well.

        As a Seller, it's a nightmare since they almost always side with the buyer in a dispute.
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        • Profile picture of the author goneebo
          Thanks for the info Mr. Little!

          Paying affiliates via paypal is cool right?
          do affiliates mind??

          what would you suggest to handle signups on our site??? and handle the free trial monthly payments?
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          • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
            Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

            Paying affiliates via paypal is cool right?
            do affiliates mind??
            We pay our affiliates via Paypal, or cheque at their request (some people can't take paypal because of where they are, India for example is blocked by Paypal - and there are a lot of super affiliates in India).

            Originally Posted by goneebo View Post

            what would you suggest to handle signups on our site??? and handle the free trial monthly payments?
            Without more details on your software product it would be hard to give specific recommendations.
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    • Profile picture of the author goneebo
      Originally Posted by RefundHost View Post

      You can either -

      - pay nothing and let affiliates on clickbank advertise it for you

      or

      - charge more for the FULL VERSION KEY and have the software terminate at 10 days if it is designed so that it can't just be reinstalled after a restore of a computer.
      Thanks!

      Yes this makes sense, however our team is making the program web based. no downloading.

      Did consider clickbank....but they handle all of the money. and they take a peice. Makes more sense to install affiliate management software on our servers and handle the repayments via paypal. We still get all the tracking and cookies with our system.

      Clickbank fees and managing $ is a deal breaker.
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  • Profile picture of the author zbox999
    We know a payment processor who specialise in merchant accounts for high risk businesses including nutra, pharma, trial offers/continuity billing. There are other ones out there but the good thing about this one is that they actually own the bank which does the acquiring for them. So that means lots of flexibility and if the volumes are high enough they will accept the merchant
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