As a business what is the thing that makes you sign up to either free or paid online service? Business need to promote them-selfs in one way or another and there are numerous services which can help you to achieve an exposure to a degree but what is it that makes you think "I try this". Is it the overall website design, features, easy of use, alexa ranking, PR?
I read this twice and it still made little sense. What are you asking? What is the purpose? What is the target? Why do people sign up for what service? There are millions of services.
As a business, it's ROI. How much does it cost? That's A. How much will I make from it? That's B. Subtract A from B. That's C. Divide C by A. That's D. If D is less than 5, I don't buy it.
The only services I pay for are hosting, email marketing and traffic facts. I am a big believer that I don't need all the crap that you people are trying to sell me. As far as free services, like creating account for Press Release, Article Marketing, Forums, it all comes down to the benefit. Does the site actually receive traffic from my target audience? If it doesn't getting a link from them is pretty much a waste of time.
I'll pay for a service if I can see value in it. I don't need promises of how rich it will make me. I like an online service that gets to the facts about what is being offered.