|
Posted by Jerry Stuckle on May 6, 2008, 8:18 pm
Please log in for more thread options George Sexton wrote:
> Red E. Kilowatt wrote:
>> co-dnbBsS787H73VnZ2dnUVZ_sSlnZ2d@comcast.com,
>>> So, any suggestions on what I should do to this page to make it more
>>> appealing, while keeping the appearance un-intimidating would be
>>> really appreciated.
>>
>> The sign-up page is fine. The yearly subscription for a hosted
>> calendar is way too high. There are plenty of free calendars available
>> in one form or another.
>>
>> Only the totally brain-dead would sign up for a free trial without
>> checking out what the purchase price will be. $39.95 is a lot more
>> attractive than $99.
>>
>
> Defending price is one of those pointless things that I do once in a
> while, so here goes.
>
> There are any number of free, and cheaper calendars out there. This is
> true. What sets us apart?
>
> Support. Our phone # is right on our web site. Most of our competitors
> don't list their number. It's 100% email, which can be frustrating. It
> costs money to answer the phone but we do it. If your time is worth so
> little, you can wait 2-3 days for some vendor to answer an Email, then I
> guess that works for you.
>
> Documentation. We have really extensive documentation. We've made a
> genuine effort to make our docs help web designers get on board fast.
>
> Ease of use. I had someone tell me the other day: "Yours was the first
> calendar I looked at, and I immediately knew what to do."
>
> Features. We're about the only thing out there with resource management.
> Additionally, we support RSS, CSV, iCal, Ajax, and a lot of other
> things. We have a security model that will scale from a small school to
> very large universities.
>
> Scalability. One of our hosted customers has 36,000 events in their
> calendar. On top of that they extensively use the RSS feeds to extract
> data for integration into their sites. We have had customers come to us
> from other products because their software was "running out of gas".
>
> Support again. We back up our customers data. I just helped a guy who
> was self-hosting re-install his software. He lost all of his data
> because his cheapy hosting company wasn't backing up the DB. We even
> restore data if a customer accidentally erases it. The first time is
> free. We also routinely do remote pc support with customers to help with
> installation, or trouble-shoot issues.
>
> So, from our perspective only the totally brain-dead would spend two
> hours trying to figure out how to install and use a poor quality, poorly
> documented calendar with no support when you can sign up for our service
> and have it running in 5 minutes.
>
Yes, I understand your position. But I agree - most people don't care
enough about the support, documentation, etc. to spend $99/yr.
You need to look at your customers. Most of them will be low-tech, with
no idea what a "backup" is, much less why they would want you to restore
their data (or how important that is).
You need to look at your target audience - and do a market analysis on
what they are willing to pay for such a service. I doubt many would be
willing to pay $99/yr, but many more would be willing to pay $39/yr.
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
| 
XML Sitemap