Shannon's Journal Discussion Thread, Vol. 8

[Shannon]

Hi Shannon,

I brought up this concept a while ago, and you mentioned you might look into it. I’d like to bring it up again in the hopes that you’ll consider it.

Currently, the subscription model isn’t very attractive to customers. While I understand that the pricing reflects the fair value determined by your models, I believe there might be a middle ground where both sides benefit.

The current system has some flaws, particularly the lack of a reward mechanism for subscribers. What if each subscription tier awarded points or tokens that could later be redeemed for subliminals of our choice? You could set the points earned per month and the cost of each subliminal in points, ensuring a balanced system.

This approach would encourage more people to subscribe consistently. Personally, I’ve only subscribed twice, but if a reward system like this existed, I wouldn’t mind subscribing every month.

Additionally, I noticed that one of the subliminals I previously subscribed to (Money Magnet) remains permanently in my library, despite requesting its removal multiple times. If it’s meant to be free for me now, I appreciate it, but it also highlights that the system could be improved.

To summarize, the model could work like this:
• Subscribing to a plan earns a set amount of points.
• Each new subliminal costs either a fixed dollar amount or a certain number of points.

This would create a more sustainable subscription system, increasing retention while ensuring a steady revenue stream. I hope this suggestion is seen as constructive feedback rather than an attempt to get something for free—if that were my intent, I wouldn’t have pointed out the Money Magnet issue.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

I don't think you realize the situation we're in.  We can't do a rewards system like that.  It's not a feature of the software we use to do the subscription.  And honestly, I have always hated rewards systems, because they strike me as a ridiculous waste of time to try to trick people into buying things.  Why wouldn't I just lower the prices instead? 

The prices are the way they are because of the purpose of the subscription system.  It's not to get the most possible subscriptions, believe it or not.  It's to allow people who can;t afford or don't want to buy the titles to have access without damaging the value of the brand.

I don't see it as you trying to get something for nothing, but I also respect your intelligence and both of our time too much to play games.  Here's the price, and that's that.  Done.In the end, it will all come out the same regardless of points, but points ad layers of complexity, function and time requirements that I neither have the software to implement, nor the patience or time to do.

As for the subliminals you subscribe to remaining permanently in your library, we'll have to see about fixing that, is it still happening?