Although I check the checkbox for "I believe Affiliate Programs is the BEST section for this topic", I am not sure if there's a better section for my questions (If anybody thinks of a better section, let me know - and I can move this there). My service is AuctionReporting.com - presently serving up customized advertisements of eBay auction items. I introduced her last week in this post: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=504431 A couple users had PM questions about the pricing for my service. This has caused me to reconsider the pricing tiers. I need metrics on the increase to my CTR (Click-Through-Rate). While all subscriptions should not be cost-prohibitive, it is still too soon to report the proof for increased earnings from BetterWindowsSoftware.com - where I deployed (I also created BetterWindowsSoftware). I need to get a few weeks worth of results so that I can see how much the clicks ratio increased (compared to data that I have from ads that were created with the eBay Editor Toolkit I ran months ago). Based on the first few days of data, my expectations are that there will be a modest increase in clicks. The current pricing has four tiers. I hope to keep these options unless somebody has a much better plan. My brother feels that it can be a little confusing to have a subscription fee as well as a sort of "tax" on the earned commissions, but I am at a loss as to how this works any other way. Free usage - no subscription fee at all. Commission earned is only 70% Silver - $10/yr or $1/mo. Commission earned at 80% Gold - $30/yr or $3.95/mo. Commission earned at 90% Platinum - $50/yr or $6.95/mo. Commission earned is 100% ----------------------------------------- Commission earned percentages are defined as the percentage of the payout amount calculated by eBay for affiliates of their program according to their terms: eBay affiliate payouts. I am considering the following model for pricing, but it is just as complicated... The subscription rates are all lower - and the commission payout percentages are all higher... Are these the pricing tiers that I should use? Free usage - no subscription fee at all. Commission earned is 85% Silver - $5/yr or $1/mo. Commission earned at 90% Gold - $15/yr or $2.95/mo. Commission earned at 95% Platinum - $25/yr or $4.95/mo. Commission earned is 99% This service is for you to make more money -- not less. Any help to price the system service is greatly appreciated. While a free usage account is available, is the "tax" on earned commissions too great at 30%?
I actually went ahead and changed the pricing after doing some basic math. People would never sign up for a service at the previous pricing levels - so, here's the new pricing: Not only are the payouts all closer to 100% of the commissions, the subscription rates are lower. Here's the new pricing tiers: * Free usage model - no subscription fee, but you only get 90% of your commissions. * Silver membership is only 50¢/month or $5/year - 97% commissions earned. * Gold membership is only $1.50/month or $15/year - 98% commissions earned. * Platinum membership is only $2.50/month or $25/year - 99% commissions earned.