Brainstorm: Incentives for Upgrade Accounts

[taylor_smith]

Greetings! I am hoping to get some brainstorming help vis-a-vis potential paid account upgrades. Thus far, my list of potential incentives is as follows:

• Ad-free
• Special user image/icon/avatar
• Custom titles or adjust own title
• Increased storage (attachments, avatars, pms)
• Username color
• Access to certain forums/features
• Delete own posts
• Upload attachments
• More conversation recipients
• Blog
• Image album
• ?

Other ideas? Experience with things that did/didn't work? I covet your insight.

 

[Marcus]

Giving more is easier once you first give less. Think about that.

The more important thing is to reduce the additional options. One good argument works better than a dozen average arguments.

 

[Forsaken]

Giving more is easier once you first give less. Think about that.

The more important thing is to reduce the additional options. One good argument works better than a dozen average arguments.

Giving less options at first will also drive away new users, as they'll realize they get a better off from other similar communities.

Most users aren't dumb, they realize when you're setting things up to make money off them, and they generally do not appreciate it.

EDIT: I mean when this is taken to the extreme. There was one site I was on where the owner attempted to take away pretty much every option unless you upgraded for a monthly/yearly fee (Can't remember which).

 

[taylor_smith]

Well, they'll be more upset when we go under after 13 years of service.

We haven't moved to XF yet. Currently, we are using vBulletin 3.7. When we move, we'll have the option of resetting all of the default permissions. We don't want to commit usury against our users. We're thinking $10 or $15 annually. We want certain users who want to feel either (a) that they are helping to support us or (b) that they are special/set apart to have the option to do so.

 

[Marcus]

It is important that you don't restrict settings while coming at the same time with paying upgrades. You don't like to pay for what you got for free in the past.

So set a time frame where you set restrictions and offer no way to upgrade them. Or give your users more options than they have today.

 

[taylor_smith]

Gotcha. Well, currently our users:

• See (and complain about) ads
• Cannot have a custom title until 10,000 posts
• Have very limited avatar and signature size
• Have 1,000 pm limit
• Cannot choose username color
• Cannot delete own posts
• Have no blog
• Can only PM 5 users

Thus, in many senses, these limits have existed for the past 13 years. We offered a subscription service in the past, but the program ended when the original owner lost interest in the community a few years ago.