Celebrity Paysite Pricing Points

[cj]

I would like to hear some feedback from webmasters on our pricing points on our celebrity sites ... we have a lot of theories of our own and have done quite a few tests, but we know we can do much much better.

The reason i'm asking is being that we are a 50% rev share program our pricing points effect our webmasters directly and I'd like to be able to work in a positive direction for everyone.

We started off the sites with $4.95 3 day trial recurring at $19.95 because at this price webmasters at least get a decent payout without it being overpriced for the surfer .... and we know the 3 day trial works.

HOWEVER ... we feel that because of the 'mainstream' angle of our sites, the price may be too high and is scaring off people who are looking at 1000's of other similar sites like E! online etc for free. We simply can't compete in this area (yet!) as we are a network of sites, not a media empire!

So at the end of the day, we are trying to sell something which many magazines & websites give away for free, but our difference is that we have 1000's of archive photos and they are bigger and better quality and uncensored etc but are people prepared to pay $20 per month for something that has no porn in it? We aren't sure that they will ... they don't seem to be.

Our posh & becks HEADLINE experiment was disappointing ... clickthru was rediculously high on an 'ex paysite member' mailout (about 5 or 6 times a standard porn site) but with ZERO sales on 4500 hits. I believe that although its a hot topic, when something is TOO hot, its available in too many places for free.

You never know these things for sure until you try huh LOL

So based on the above tests, we think we need to lower the pricing point dramatically to put us in the 'mainstream' world instead of hovering in between mainstream & adult.

Our ideas so far are this:

1) free 30 minute preview with $9.95 per month recurring (webmaster gets $4.90 per month for rebills - is this enough money for webmasters?)

2) 1 day paid trial cancels INSTANTLY (usually before they login!!) 1 day trials suck ass.

3) no trial .... mmmmmmaybe. we tried it to start with and it wasn't too bad but we want to increase conversions, not keep them the same.

4) optional 'join 4 free' style mini sites with registration, brief survey and flat rate $1 payout per confirmed registration.

What do you think?

As a webmaster what is the LEAST you would want us to charge keeping in mind you earn half of it?

Would you rather a site with good conversions and lower payout than high payout and lower conversions?

I really appreciate your feedback and we will definately be taking everything into consideration in our experimenting phase ... we know the product is good, we just have to find the 'trigger' to get surfers to see why the product is good.

ps, there's 2 new mini tours added over the weekend ...

http://www.privatecelebrity.com/female_cel...britney_spears/

http://www.privatecelebrity.com/female_cel...carmen_electra/