General Discussions

**alex_m** · 07-21-2007, 12:34 PM

Hello,

I run a web service that was completely free until recently. Now while it is still free, I also added a Plus paid plan that has additional features and benefits and costs a small fee.

I want to send all users a newsletter, and politely ask them to consider upgrading to the Plus plan, I want to formulate this in such a manner to maximize the number of users who upgrade while at the same to not obset any of the users.

Any suggestions and help are very welcomed!

**ForrestCroce** · 07-21-2007, 03:03 PM

www.Photosig.com is a good example of a service that started out free and went premium. Now they have both types of membership, but obviously prefer people to pay, and give "extras" to those who do. I think photo.net works on the same model, and pbase.com either does, or did ... I haven't used them in years.

People are never happy about starting to pay for something that they've been getting for free, so tread lightly. Don't ask anyone to upgrade, instead, simply tell them about the new features that, due to server maintenance, you're unfortunately forced to charge for. Or something like that.

I publish a lot of free software, and will build "enterprise versions" of them. If you haven't worked it out by the time I make this happen, I'll let you know how it goes.

**stOx** · 07-21-2007, 03:56 PM

Word it as if you are doing them a favour. Say "by public demand" a lot to make it sound like people have asked you to do it. Don't worry if the free customers get upset, What are they going to do? take the money they aren't spending elsewhere? It's not like you are forcing anyone to pay, Just offering the option for those who want to.

A trick that shops here sometimes do is make the low cost value items unappealing. They cover them in unatractive packaging. This isn't done because nice labels cost more, It's done so that the people who are willing to pay more do pay more and only the people who wouldn't pay more buy the value product. That way they keep the customers with money away from the value products and they sell low cost value products to people who wouldn't have otherwise bought that type of product.

try to make the free plan unattractive to the people who would be willing to pay.

What i would do is focus on the limitations of the free plan, Rather than the benifits of the paid plan.