Quote:
Originally posted by Greenguy
I just have to play Devil's Advocate.....and let me 1st say that I am a big supporter of ARS.
When Marc came on the radio show, he said that one of the major reasons for the changes at ARS was that the GIM sites were loosing money. A lot of money.
Now, I can see ARS getting rid of them because they were loosing money - hell, if ARS's other programs/products made $10 a day but the GIM sites were loosing $5 a day, getting rid of the GIM sites would of course increase ARS's bottom line.
But you can't tell me that whatever problems the GIM sites had are now corrected just because they are in the CHAMPS system. If the problems could have been corrected this quickly (8 weeks) then I think ARS would have & could have saved themselves a shit load of grief, controversy & pissed off webmasters by making those corrections behind the scenes & just left everything the way it was.
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The correction that had to take place was a change in the billing model. The sites as they were did not warrant a $39.99 monthly price. However, there was no way we could lower the price to reflect a proper cost and still pay as high as we were for the trials. Very low retention (low 20%) and hence very low member value combined with high chargebacks (they were over the 1% limit) tied our hands on trying to save the GIM sites. Believe me, the decision wasn't an easy one, and we continue to work through it even today.
Quote:
Originally posted by Greenguy
Everyday, I'm still finding GIM & BYOT links on pages that I built & I have to change them to something else 
Now we're all supposed to just go back to promoting these sites that ARS stated are loosing money?
Knowing this info, why would anyone promote the GIM sites? Especially using the recurring option?
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The difference between the GIM sites then and the GIM CHAMP sites that are being worked on now are the model that they are promoted under. Before, they were cookie cutter sites paying $30 on $1 trials with content that can be seen in just about any other paysite member's area. Now, they will be downloadable dvd movie sites where the member also gets access to every other site in the network. That is a drastic change. The only thing that will remain are the names and design elements.
Quote:
Originally posted by Greenguy
Plus - these sites will NOT convert like they did 3 months ago - it's much, much easier to convince a surfer to spend $0-5 on a trial than it is to convince them to drop $25-40 right off the bat.
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I disagree. With the numbers I'm looking at, the CHAMP sites are converting better than the ARS 4 Real sites. CHAMP has no trial, ARS 4 Real sites do. I have an article in the ARS CHAMPS forum on the ARS board that gives some pointers on how to sell full month subscriptions if you want to check it out
Quote:
Originally posted by Greenguy
I'll probably give the GIM CHAMPS sites a shot, but I will be using the Per Sign-up option & not pushing them as hard as I did in previous years. [/b]
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I bet when you find the sites and marketing pitch that work to convert well for you, you'll push even more than before