All three are kind of meh to me. I'd recommend #3 + #2 and skipping #1. I like #3 so that there is money coming into to help grow/build the website. I don't think you need to do free if you go that route, #2 makes a lot of sense.
If people are not seeing the value, maybe change up the pricing to $89 or $99 for the first year and re-evaluate your pricing for the next year if renewals don't pick up.
Or are you saying just keep charging the $20/mo like we do now? But make it invite-only?
The "problem" I'm trying to solve is there's relatively few new members joining each month. So if we were to restrict it further (making it invite-only), that just makes matter worse.
Or are you saying just keep charging the $20/mo like we do now?
I'm +1 keeping a paid plan. I'd experiment with pricing to see if that's a barrier. May factor in purchasing power parity (big mac index) since ~$200 does not scale outside of US/UK/Europe very well.
But make it invite-only?
How would #3 work without #1?
I think invite-only free accounts are a decent model to avoid SPAM. I have invited several but I think that leap from free for a month to mentally ~$20/year or $150/yr might have scared a few off.
If you have a distinct line between paid and unpaid features, then that gives people an incentive to want to pay you. I'm that way with Twitter too. I would love to pay them but not for what Twitter Blue gives me when I'd pay to never see an ad.
All three are kind of meh to me. I'd recommend #3 + #2 and skipping #1. I like #3 so that there is money coming into to help grow/build the website. I don't think you need to do free if you go that route, #2 makes a lot of sense.
If people are not seeing the value, maybe change up the pricing to $89 or $99 for the first year and re-evaluate your pricing for the next year if renewals don't pick up.
How would #3 work without #1?
Or are you saying just keep charging the $20/mo like we do now? But make it invite-only?
The "problem" I'm trying to solve is there's relatively few new members joining each month. So if we were to restrict it further (making it invite-only), that just makes matter worse.
I'm +1 keeping a paid plan. I'd experiment with pricing to see if that's a barrier. May factor in purchasing power parity (big mac index) since ~$200 does not scale outside of US/UK/Europe very well.
I think invite-only free accounts are a decent model to avoid SPAM. I have invited several but I think that leap from free for a month to mentally ~$20/year or $150/yr might have scared a few off.
If you have a distinct line between paid and unpaid features, then that gives people an incentive to want to pay you. I'm that way with Twitter too. I would love to pay them but not for what Twitter Blue gives me when I'd pay to never see an ad.
Oh nice. You just gave me a crazy idea.
What if we showed ads to free members. But instead of regular ads, they would be ads for the products of the paying members!