FREE Trial or Not?

Nope.
Bad idea - and you already know it.

Hi Lori,

Can you give us a little more information about what kind of product you're providing for your client?

Different situations call for different approaches, for example I allow students to sample my membership course for 5 days for $1, but if they don't cancel then they pay after the five days.

Your situation strikes me as a bit odd because your client wants to see what kind of results they will get, but who's to say they will tell you about the results or even know how to get the results. Do you have a policy in place? If you do, I wouldn't stray from it - sticking to your business policies shows that you are in charge.

I would probably offer the site access at a discounted price, maybe 50% off for the first month, but you've put time and effort into the product so simply allowing someone to try it free without any sort of commitment is risky.

And finally, anytime I've ever had a bad gut feeling or seen red flags, that's usually a pretty strong sign that something isn't right... but that's been my experience.

Wish I could give you a bit more guidance, but hopefully that is a start.

Paul

Thank Suthan and Paul.

Yes, I do know it's a bad idea. When I spoke with this woman on the telephone, I told her the price for the website and she specifically said that it was reasonable and she could afford it.

Exactly.

I do. And thanks for reminding me that I need to stick to my policy.

Thanks for the idea about offering a discount. I have put time into it but I believe I will chalk it up to gaining experience since I learned from creating her site and move on.

She's a therapist. I'm such a brat I was thinking about asking her if I could use her services for free for 30 days to see if ...

How about some compromise? May be restriction content options, reduced price, some functions to be disabled or for 2-3 times of working. First of all such things should be discussed beforehand! In order to show that you are a PRO.

Not sure what she expects to see in 30 days.

A lot of people don't understand the fact that the 'website designing' service is a custom made, take up a lot of effort and time (comparatively to other IM biz) , and also not returnable (if the site and content is indexed, you can't use it for another client)

I understand these as I have had clients like this before- and they usually are not really serious about paying for the service- and rather hardball their way through to get the (cheaper than) cheapest pricing for your work - and if possible, not pay at all.

If I have a say on the decision making, personally I won't allow it.

I would tell her NO. Realistically, she can't expect a whole lot from a site in only 30 days, and you shouldn't work for free.