Building a Payment Plan
In an ideal world, subscription websites would just charge an annual subscription fee in one currency.
Unfortunately, doing this will greatly limit your sign-up rates.
The payment plans you offer will depend on your audience. However, we always recommend offering at least a monthly and an annual choice. The monthly option will allow people to dip their toe in the water with little financial risk. Paying for a whole year will be perceived as a high-risk transaction by many prospects and put them off subscribing.
It is worth making the monthly fee more than 12 times the annual fee to encourage people to sign up for a year.
Therefore, an example of the minimum payment plan for a UK-only site would be:
|
|
Sterling
|
|
Monthly
|
£19.97
|
|
Annual
|
£149.97
|
The subscription rates will of course vary from site to site.
Going International – Get Paid in Any Currency
If your website intends to attract members from overseas, then we recommend that you have the facility to take payments in international currencies. Usually it is sufficient to add US dollars and the Euro.
You should also experiment with having other subscription periods. Quarterly is quite common. Sometimes the results of minor changes can produce surprising results.
A payment plan for an international website could look like this:
|
|
Sterling
|
US Dollar
|
Euro
|
|
Monthly
|
£19.97
|
$34.97
|
€34.97
|
|
Quarterly
|
£29.97
|
$59.97
|
€59.97
|
|
Annual
|
£149.97
|
$279.97
|
€279.97
|
Important Note: US citizens don’t like paying for goods or services in any other currency than their own. So if you want to attract US members, you must offer US dollars as a currency option. Other countries around the world don’t mind paying in US dollars.
Important Note 2: It is important when you sign up for your merchant service agreement that you make sure you can process international currencies and take recurring payments. You must let your bank know at the time of signing up for the service.
