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View Full Version : Paid Upgrade on Free Hosting...is it worth it?


007webpro
April 22nd, 2008, 10:42
I run a good free hosting service with forced ads and currently no upgrade options. I am doing well with forced ads and I've had a few users ask for an upgrade option to remove them. I am considering offering a cheap upgrade to Ad free/sendmail/safe mode=off, rather then send them off to hostgator or somewhere else for a quick buck.

Before I bother coding up a paypal subscription system, user management, etc....what do you think the normal conversion rate to paid would be?

Opinions?
SC-Daniel
April 22nd, 2008, 10:51
Depends on the price and your users really...

Why not take a poll and see how many of your users are interested?
felweb
April 22nd, 2008, 11:27
Yep, I agree. Make a poll first and check what your users think.
Dan
April 22nd, 2008, 11:46
If you are doing well from Ads, then what's the point? But as mentioned, see what your users think.
Dynash
April 22nd, 2008, 13:39
wouldn't hurt if you did?
the only upgrade you would really need is advertisement removal.
depending on what you are running too, LayeredPanel or cPanel or something worthless like VistaPanel.
but from the sound of it, you are using LP.
we offer payment for sendmail / safe_mode, or we allow them to post.
TSO
April 22nd, 2008, 13:51
Depends on the price, but usually anywhere from 2% to 10%. If you offer the extra stuff for just, say, $1 or $2 per month, you will be near the higher end of that range.
stonerocket
April 25th, 2008, 11:09
I`d agree with Dan on that, Im often asked why not add paid hosting, but it just brings a whole lot of new problems/issues/cost`s in the equation.

I say leave paid hosting to the professionals, sell domains or templates instead to increase revenues.
.Andy
April 25th, 2008, 23:37
You can always add a donation button :) Then give them special privilages like an sticky on a forum (for instance a marketplace forum ect) Aon servers (when they were arround) offered to change there username color on the forum that was pretty cool for a few bucks.
jakeruston
May 3rd, 2008, 04:19
With a Poll you will be able to find out what your customers want. You don't have to charge that much for the Ad Removal anyway.
.Andy
May 12th, 2008, 22:34
With a Poll you will be able to find out what your customers want. You don't have to charge that much for the Ad Removal anyway.

That is a good idea jakeruston to do a poll.