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Does anyone have any resources pertaining to how people react to generous grandfathering? Like say you release a free service, then make it paid, but give every

Does anyone have any resources pertaining to how people react to generous grandfathering? Like say you release a free service, then make it paid, but give everyone who signed up while it was free a 1 year loyalty bonus, can anyone give their experiences or link to others who have successfully/unsuccessfully tried this?

davidw 14y ago
I did just that with LiberWriter.com (people who got in at an earlier set of prices got to keep them) and people were generally very happy and positive about it.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Well, of course. The question is "did you make more money with that than if you hadn't grandfathered?"
  - davidw 14y ago
    Who knows: there are too many variables at play, and it's not worth doing experiments with lest people raise a stink.
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      Yep, but that's why data would be valuable (although I don't think anyone will have any, due to the reasons you mentioned).
      - davidw 14y ago
        Due to the many variables, I think even rigorous data for one application might not apply to others. LiberWriter's customers are different from customers of other web businesses...
JohnBooty 14y ago
I gave early members free membership to my site if they completed certain beta-testing requirements. I think it was a net positive, though it's hard to measure. Statistically, these grandfathered members have outspent other members. However, it's hard to say whether or not they might have spent even more had they not been given free lifetime grandfathered access. A lot of these members have gone out of their way to buy perks for themselves and memberships for other members. I should mention my site was essentially a community site, so there was a strong connection with other members - they wanted their favorite members to remain on the site. Additionally these have been the most active members when it comes to referring new paying members to the site. To additionally complicate things, by giving grandfathered memberships to excellent community members, I think that these "anchors to the community" attract members in ways that would be completely impossible to quantify - I don't know how to measure the number of people that joined the site simply because they saw it did have a core of dedicated members. To sum it up, for a community-based site, grandfathered community members quite possibly do more than pay for their grandfathered membership status. I'm sure the returns are far less for other types of online businesses. You might join a community because you see that it has dedicated members, but I wouldn't necessarily be more likely to order a sweater from an online retailer because a bunch of people have grandfathered free shipping upgrades or something.

davidw 14y ago

I did just that with LiberWriter.com (people who got in at an earlier set of prices got to keep them) and people were generally very happy and positive about it.

StavrosK 14y ago
Well, of course. The question is "did you make more money with that than if you hadn't grandfathered?"
- davidw 14y ago
  Who knows: there are too many variables at play, and it's not worth doing experiments with lest people raise a stink.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Yep, but that's why data would be valuable (although I don't think anyone will have any, due to the reasons you mentioned).
    - davidw 14y ago
      Due to the many variables, I think even rigorous data for one application might not apply to others. LiberWriter's customers are different from customers of other web businesses...

JohnBooty 14y ago

I gave early members free membership to my site if they completed certain beta-testing requirements. I think it was a net positive, though it's hard to measure. Statistically, these grandfathered members have outspent other members. However, it's hard to say whether or not they might have spent even more had they not been given free lifetime grandfathered access. A lot of these members have gone out of their way to buy perks for themselves and memberships for other members. I should mention my site was essentially a community site, so there was a strong connection with other members - they wanted their favorite members to remain on the site. Additionally these have been the most active members when it comes to referring new paying members to the site. To additionally complicate things, by giving grandfathered memberships to excellent community members, I think that these "anchors to the community" attract members in ways that would be completely impossible to quantify - I don't know how to measure the number of people that joined the site simply because they saw it did have a core of dedicated members. To sum it up, for a community-based site, grandfathered community members quite possibly do more than pay for their grandfathered membership status. I'm sure the returns are far less for other types of online businesses. You might join a community because you see that it has dedicated members, but I wouldn't necessarily be more likely to order a sweater from an online retailer because a bunch of people have grandfathered free shipping upgrades or something.