In March I addressed this issue (see here) but I still keep coming back to the notion of having a freemium version of Trip.  As Wikipedia defines it:

“Freemium is a business model by which a product or service (typically a digital offering such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but a premium is charged for advanced features, functionality, or virtual goods.”

Freemium has many advantages, namely security (if people sign up) and of keeping the site – mainly – free. But what would it look like?

I’m currently working on a few benefits to people signing-up:

  • Discounts of various ‘evidence-based’ products (events, courses etc).
  • I’m talking with a book publisher about getting pretty reasonable discounts on their books.
  • Removal of adverts, so a subscriber would not have to see them.

While these are pretty decent, I’m not sure we’ve reached the stage where membership might be compelling!  Anyone got any other ideas?

Also, pricing would need considering.  I was thinking of £2 per month, which is relatively low (in richer parts of the globe). 

The fact that I’ve revisited the topic after 6 months shows two things:

  1. It’s still a model I’m interested in.
  2. It’s not clear-cut, otherwise I would have done it by now!