½ Full & ½ Empty Disclosure: Gary, Please don't take offense to my manner of posting below, as at times it seem I talk'n down or left, right, or upside inside out at times. Its who I am and I'll rather be what I am than be normal. Actually I tried to be that normal, and failed and actually pee'ed off people more.
Seems that I pee off all the people most of the time, or all of the time I pee off most all the people, and for sure pee off Paulie & Matt 110% of the time.
"Far to often people forget how they got to where they are and do as Lownumba suggested and limit those features after they've got an audience, IMO this only frustrate people and chasses them away leading them to the ultimate loss of that once successful venture..."
The Happy Hour approach is an On-Off "You gotta come and get it when it is on, and use it before it turns itself Off."
This is the opposite of how BobZ quoted another...
"Sometimes harder to take away, than effort to create and give..."
Most I have queried on the FREEs having available a 2 week Premium usage, to be started at their choosen feel its a backhanded trap since as mentioned here, they are clueless on what the Premium features are, except turn Off them $#&*$ ads, and since the offer has that clause most all free offers have (aka) an escape for the giver.
(i.e) But a new car from this dealer, and for as long as you own the car State Inspections & oil changes are FREE* *(on the back in very small print) Dealer can void this at any time.
Thus most IH FREEs automatically choose the 2 week Premium to start, or when they decide to start being an active member.
Either way they are clueless on Premium features, just like a new paying Premium member is clueless, as mentioned here, but atleast them ads are not displayed in that 2 week free-Premium period, and that they can realize as a immediate and useful feature.
So FREEs take that 2 week Premium and and...
... by the last day of the 2 weeks they FINALLY figure out whats what,
... and and...
POOF, its taken away
... leaving...
... a feeling of being ripped off by IH.
Imagine: Take a bite of a KKD for free, but just as you start to chew it will be removed from your mouth.
Along the same food similiars mentioned today, the reason KKD is much better than Dunkin Donuts is not so much KKD has a secret and proper method, but that the Dunkin Donuts of old old when it was run by a small startup team of a few folks made GREAT donuts, and then growth and a buy-out put the donut making into that place where they have lots of customers and now nameless owners causing bean-counters to "take away" features like taste & quality.
Evenually KKD's will taste like today's Dunkin Donut, and Dunkin Donuts will become very cheap & tastless, and a new donut maker called KKM (Keep Kreme'n Matt) will arrive...
As usual I now join any readers of this post and arrived at that state of "What the FUDGE is Milky saying?"
As IH gets better and better with more valued features and bells & whistles that cause more and more folks to either pay for a Premium, or view ads and create revenue for IH that way, its that simple business plan that will allow IH to keep Premium rates steady rather than an increase if the volume of ad page views increases, and the number of paying members increases to where the new hardware and software are built-up to a level that no need upgrades are needed to double or x10 new IH growth.
Something about making profits from volume rather than something else.
ok, that was muddy watered needed help in translation by Churak.
But to try and put gotmilkSpeak into what waterwisp alluded to, as interperted by me which most likely needs corrections by Churak again.
As IH gets better & better, and features available to Premiums get more advanced, the current feature set now available to Premiums should migrate down to the FREE users as their basics.
Just so long that the ad viewing by FREEs remain intack.
Let the FREEs enjoy more, not less, as IH's profits increase.
Cretinous attempt to lure FREEs into a Premium are the tools of the trade of business folks not knowing what to do, so they try tricks and carrots at the end of da stick.
Customers realize quite quick the entrance to a house of mirrors where what you initially see is out of focus, but then hear the message, "Step forward."
ok, now I gotta ask a FREE IH member if my suggestion to Matt was or is being acted upon.
Add Happy Hour days and times to the 'hey you need a...' (i.e.) The feature you tried to use is only available with a Premium Subscription! ... FREEs can try them out during IH's Happy Hours of...
Any FREE click'n on a Premium feature will either have a sense of what it does, or wants more info on what it is.
So, not only place above suggestion about Happy Hour to alert this FREE that they can try it, but add a context help message on what the feature they clicked on is all about (aka) its value to them worth buying a Premium, or as BobZ mentioned as a possible, FREEs buying Premium features a-la-cart so they still see ads buy have access to one or more Premium features.
But as many have commented, IH (aka Matt) has not exercised his extra smarts making IH into the phase of making IH user friendly once it became a success as a business.
(example) Long ago, as in years, Matt commented that IH needed a way to educate to brand new lookers what IH is, and how it's used.
Its now years after IH's success, and still Matt is fumbling and looking for answers on this false IH's Q&A board.
Sad that gotmilk's rep is sour milk to Matt et al, since I had available all these years a team of profession folks trained in people-to-people interactions that would have done me a favor and design gratuitous an interface type entrance to IH. All non-gotmilk type people.
But as I see it now, let FREEs acquire more and more, as Premiums acquire more and more, the trickle down effect, and eventually an IH FREE will have a feature set equal or better than another message board web site's paying Premium.
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