What to do when your free version is too good?

Discussions
#1

One of my sites https://wordtohtml.net gets great traffic, the issue is only 0.1% of visitors convert to a paid plan.

I think the main issue is the free version does most people so they have no need to go PRO. The PRO version has lots of cool features but it just does not seem to be encouraging enough people to sign up.

I know myself when a company has a free version you always try to avoid paying no matter how good it is, eg with dropbox i use it all the time but when i run out of space I just delete some files instead of paying for a plan.

Any suggestions? Should I kill the free version and just make everyone pay? Remove more features from the free version? Suck it up and just concentrate on the users who do pay?

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#2

I just saw your app. You could limit it to numbers of times?

Like I can convert into HTML after 10 to 20 times? And suggest them to use PRO? Or Ask them to refer it to someone to find it useful? Then, unlock 50 mores times each time they refer and block it to 100 to use PRO version?

You know what I mean?

#3

Nice business Brian

I looked over it, I think adding extra features to the paid plan might convince people to up their subscription ( Like SEO features, grammarly type features, direct integration with wordpress )

Maybe use HotJar to see the type of activities or industry most of the users are in so you can provide better services to them.

If you upgrade it to a more robust platform, I think trying to do some digital agency outreach would bring in some stable clients.

#4

Yeah I have a nag message after 5 conversions. I could have say a maximum conversions per hour but i think users just look for workarounds, eg open a new browser window.

#5

Thanks. I do actually use hotjar already but the user base is so vast it varies quite a bit in use.

I have a pro system for users who need more https://documentconverter.pro/

Its weird I setup https://wordtohtml.net to drive traffic to my main product site but the simple tool has become more successful! There is a lesson here that users like simple.

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#6

Without even looking, I suggest you limit the free version to Word files of (perhaps) 2 MB in size or less. Just enough to prove it works, while being annoying enough to make people pay so they don’t have to worry about size limits.

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#7

You can’t upload files at all in the free version, you can just paste text.

#8

Okay, so limit the conversion to the first MB of pasted text. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#9

I’d suggest adding an artificial delay for free users. Ie, upload…wait 60 seconds while it ‘processes’…then give result.

“Tired of waiting? Upgrade now to get instant results at the front of the queue”

People will pay for convenience/speed.

#10

I was thinking of suggestions when I realized I do not understand who are the users. Why someone needs to convert text into HTML? Are they business users or some folks looking to create a basic home page for their yard sale?

Once the usage scenario is clear, it should be also clear what those people value (size, time, number of files) and what not, and thus where to split the free and pro version.

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#11

Totally agreed with @rfctr. Who pays for the premium plan? What’s the buyer persona? What premium features are the most popular? Basic questions to take a decision.

Freemium is useful if your free users attract new users and you get a viral growth (like Dropbox). The conversion rate in freemium is usually between 1% and 3%, so you need tens of thousands of free users to have a profitable business.

If most of your free users don’t promote your tool in any way, kill the free plan. Just offer a trial version where users can only convert 2-3 paragraphs per day, make them to signup to use the tool with no limits, and focus on premium customers.

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#12

Brian, I just had to convert a word.doc to HTML and remembered your site (and it did an excellent job, well done!)
So, I write this purely from a user perspective.

I wanted to use some of the paid options and checked out the pricing. I would have happily paid $10 for 10 conversions, or even $30 for 30 conversions. - But you just offer a subscription…
The is no g*dd**m way you get me to purchase your service as a subscription. Not because it is not good, but because I use it too rarely, and do not want the hassle to terminate the subscription.

Of course, from my business owner perspective, I fully understand your intention to generate MRR, but from the user perspective, I will not buy this as an subscription.

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#13

Thanks Phil, we thought about credits but it gets a bit complex if we have two many payment options. The conversion is actually done on the client side so does not require much resources from us.

We used to have very cheap pricing, $20 a year but its odd, putting the price up did not affect the conversion rate much. I think either people are going to pay or they are not.

#14

Well, I cannot say if this will make a difference in general, but I’m resisting strongly against any type of subscription, regardless of how cheap or expensive it is.

I know, everybody tells you subscriptions are the land of milk and honey. And they are if you can get people to subscribe, but if that does not work, you might want to try something else.

#15

This. I haven’t a need to convert Word to HTML yet, but if I did, I wouldn’t want to enter into a subscription just to convert one doc. I’d be looking elsewhere for a tool that did it for a once-off cost.

It just doesn’t seem to me that there’d be a recurring need to convert Word to HTML every day for a yearly fee… is that even a thing?

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#16

We have a fixed price product https://documentconverter.pro/ but really what happens is for one off use you sign up for the monthly plan at $10 then cancel once you don’t need it.

#17

Hi Brian,

I just checked it out, very nice tool! I can see this beneficial for anyone having formatting issues on Wordpress that doesn’t know HTML.

How about keeping the tool free and using good old fashioned ADS and keep it limited to a few times you can use daily. If you want to get rid of ads and have unlimited tries, then pay the affordable yearly fee.

I also agree with the comment of highlighting some of the pain points and benefits of your most common users. Maybe asking after they complete a conversion, to tell you what they used it for. This should give you data and insight on what your most common user cases are.

again, great job! I bookmarked it :slight_smile:

#18

Hi Pablo, glad you like the site. I did try ads for a week but the revenue was very low, also I really really hate ads.

Also I do survey users using hotjar.com but to be honest it is difficult to get decent feedback, you just get vague replies like email or putting content on my website.

Sales have picked up since my original post so I will keep tweaking it :slight_smile: