1. On Converting Free
Users to Paid Users
Kevin Hale
Future of Web Apps · Miami · Feb 23, 2009

2. particletree.com

3. treehousemagazine.com

4. wufoo.com

5. 150,000+
1.3 million+
2 million
15 million

6. Individuals, Developers,
Designers, Non-Profits,
Teachers, Students,
Universities, Research,
Real Estate, Marketing,
Healthcare, Banks, SMBs

8. Why are you here?

10. Freeloaders

12. Overcoming the
Power of Zero

13. Interest
No Alternative
Urgency
Convenience
Peer Pressure
Novelty
Status

14. What about software?

15. When copies are free,
you need to sell things which
cannot be copied.

16. What can’t be copied?

17. Trust

18. Immediacy
Personalization
Interpretation
Authenticity
Accessibility
Embodiment
Patronage
Findability

29. Maximizers vs Satisficers

30. Best Price
Best Product
Best Overall Solution

31. Excercise 1

32. Immediacy
Personalization
Interpretation
Authenticity
Accessibility
Embodiment
Patronage
Findability

33. You make
what you measure.

35. Point
Point

36. End
Start

37. Count

38. Log = Action + Timestamp

39. Action
Timestamp
Referrer
IP Address
Cookie / Session
Server Data
Client Data

40. Views
Clicks
Submits
Keystrokes

41. Positive / Negative
Likert Scale
Ratings
Multiple Choice
Open Feedback

42. The Ultimate Question

43. Tools

44. google.com/analytics/

45. web.analytics.yahoo.com

46. omniture.com

47. haveamint.com

48. crazyegg.com

51. clicktale.com

52. wufoo.com

53. surveymonkey.com

54. formassembly.com

55. dabbledb.com

56. google.com/talk/
service/badge/New

57. Excercise 2

58. Your Economic Engine

59. Benchmarks

61. Web App
Autopsy
SXSW 2007

62. PHP
6 months to launch
Launched : July 2006
3 Employees

63. Ruby on Rails
3 months to launch
Launched : July 2005
6 Employees

64. Java
5 months to launch
Launched : February 2004
~30 Employees

65. regonline
.NET
3 years to launch
Launched : 1996
50 Employees

66. Conversion per 100 Visits
Free Paid
7.00% 1.00%
11.00% 1.00%
8.00% N/A
regonline 1.52% 1.14%

67. Shareware
0.5%

68. Dropsend
1% - 2%

69. Casual Download Games
2%

70. Other Freemium Services
Range from 1.5% to 5%
Average Overall less than 3%

71. Ning
3%

72. Flickr
5-10%

73. AdultFriendFinder
10% - 22%

74. Habbo : 10% of players
Club Penguin : 25% of uniques
Runescape : 16.6% of uniques
Puzzle Pirates : 22% of players

75. Top 10

76. TurboTax Online
70%

79. Things to Keep in Mind

80. Seasonal Effects

81. Best Worst
Mar Dec
Jan Dec
Jan/Feb Dec
regonline Sept Dec

82. Early Adopter Frugal Factor

83. 7,000 invitations sent
to potential Beta Testers.
Only 3,500 created an account.
Only 50 of them became customers
(and we o ered them half o ).

84. Moving the Needle

85. The Funnel

90. Reduce Friction

91. Number of Steps

92. Label Placement

93. Multiple Columns

94. Excercise 3

95. Increase Awareness

108. Excercise 4

109. On Promotion Codes

111. Successful Changes

112. regonline
Powered By Logo
339% increase in click through
Video Spokesperson
11% increase in registrations
Why Register Online?
6% increase in registrations

115. Customer Lifetime Value

116. Customer Referral Value

123. The Original

124. The Winner

126. Excercise 5

128. Off the Funnel

129. Best Price
Best Product
Best Overall Solution

132. Relationships
as a Metaphor

133. Intimacy Passion
Commitment

134. Nonlove
Liking
Infatuated love
Empty love
Romantic love
Companionate love
Fatuous love
Consumate Love

135. Intimacy Passion
Commitment

136. Existing Users :: Marriage

137. Dr. John Gottman

138. Everyone fights.

139. Money Cost / Billing
Kids Users’ Users
Sex Performance
Time Roadmap
Others Others

140. How it’s done.

141. When Things Go Wrong

142. Enlightened Hospitality

155. Importance of Fun

156. Keeping the Romance Alive

161. Bibliography

168. Questions?

169. Thanks!