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How long do people typically stay with a monthly subscription?

by NateJasper
13 replies
I'm trying to decide whether to make a product that I sell for an upfront fee or make a subscription academy where people pay monthly. After some research I think the best price-point for charging upfront is around $100. If I make it a subscription and people on average stay with the academy for 12 months (there is going to be a ton of non-downloadable content) I can charge 7.5 per month and make the same amount of money. Is this a realistic expectation? My niche is personal development. What is a good range of time to expect customers to stay?
#long #monthly #people #stay #subscription #typically
  • Profile picture of the author davidaclark
    I think you will find most members only stay 3 or 4 months. They join up, are too lazy to access the content and then finally get around to cancelling 3 or 4 months later.
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  • Profile picture of the author ADVERTHEORY
    Broad question

    But from what it seems, I would suggest selling it up front for a one time cost, then having a membership type club for the rest of the content you say they can download. cheap subsription fee, unless you can compete with places like lynda.com

    a $100 product spread out monthly, I'd guess your average would quit and ask for a refund within the first 30day period.
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  • Profile picture of the author barbling
    My experience has been 3-4 months. You can also offer a yearly fee upfront as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Millbrath
    I would not sign up to a yearly membership without first trying the product, maybe if there was a low cost one week trial membership. When I sign up to membership sites I usually stay a member for as long as the site has value, but would agree, I would say 3 to 6 months depending on the membership site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ord Allenbea
    In some cases it will be 3 - 6 months but there are some that will stay for several years. This mainly depends upon what you are selling and how it is helping them. As mentioned some do signup and forget about it and then finally cancel after 3 months or so. I have had members pay for 7 years before they changed their business model and moved on to something else.
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    I had monthly subscriptions last up to 9 months or so.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Hooper-Kelly
      Hi guys and gals,

      There are a few good membership sites where I have been a member for years. And, I have many loyal members in my own membership site who have been members for years.

      From my own experience, I think the common features for success are:
      * A reasonable monthly fee (under $20).
      * How useful the material is.
      * How easy it is to dip in and out and get good information at the precise moment you need it (rather like your neighborhood convenience store).

      Warmest regards,

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Geeked Labs
    If your product is sorta useful 2-3 months. If it's a fixed price payment system? 4-6 months. If it's something dire to their core business? 1-2 years.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    One of the affiliate products I started promoting recently has a historical average subscriber life of 31 months. That's one of the main reasons I chose it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Hooper-Kelly
      Hi Brent,

      That's very interesting.

      What features did the product have that might account for that longevity?

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    first of all its how we make $10k per month online.

    If you are not proviing recurring revenue products for your clients, you are MISSING OUT .

    Plus on average people stay for short to limited, we have over 5000 clients on our monthly program, some stay for weeks, some stay, and I will give you an example for 3 years, like one of our members.

    All this comes from creating a list, and selling them recurring product on backend. So do not say list building does not work. LOL.

    Our retension rates seems to stick around the 61-62% which is NOT GOOD, but it is NOT BAD either. :-) hope it helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxGalitsyn
    From my experience monthly subscribers can be divided into four groups: those who subscribe and unsubscribe the same day or within one month, those who sign up and stay for 2-3 months trying to decide what to do with your product, those who try to utilize your product and play with it for 6-7 months. The last group stays for an unpredictable period of time: either they find you product excellent or they simply forgot to unsubscribe and last for as soon as their credit card expired.

    I would recommend providing 2 options: monthly subscription and annual. Annual should be like 10 monthly payments so they could find it more attractive.

    And by the way, think of your refund policy. You may probably want to let them know that since it is a monthly subscription service refund is not provided.
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  • Profile picture of the author C G
    Really depends on the content and audience.

    In IM, it's typically 2-3 months.

    Got a $39 per month membership in the self help niche with 1 year+ customers

    Cheers,

    C.G.
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