Cheaper membership options! These are tiers of joy
Dear PainSci Members,
The membership program is now almost two years old, and I’m dropping the main price and adding two new plans, so the options are now: USD $3, 5, or 10 per month (or 30/50/100 yearly). You don’t have to lift a finger here, but you can now change your price easily, and start paying less — like a sale that never ends. Login to your account, click the “Upgrade / Manage Membership” button, and you can choose your new price in seconds.
The new plans…
Plain membership for $3/30 — Free emails + premium emails.
Main membership for $5/50 — Literally the same as what you already have: all the emails + audio versions + exclusive content on PainScience.com … just like before, just a buck/month cheaper.
Fabulous membership for $10/100 — All of the above… plus … not much else, honestly. I will dream up the occasional perk for my favourite people in the entire world. (Fancy a webinar, anyone?)
My plan names are a work in progress. 😜 (Seriously, these are just silly placeholders. I cannot decide. Naming things is the hardest thing in marketing, seriously.)
That orange salamander? That’s the real one!
Your choices in more detail…
Don’t change a darned thing!
If you don’t change prices, you will just carry on at $6/60 — same price, same benefits, for as long as you want. Change it whenever … or never.
Change only the price: pay slightly less for the same membership benefits
If you drop down to $5/50, nothing will change except you’ll save a bit of money. You will continue to get exactly the same membership benefits.
Or save 50%! But dropping down to 3/30 will sacrifice most benefits
If you’d like to pay half what you've been paying, and you’ll still get the main membership benefit: extra posts in your inbox. But only in your email inbox. All other membership privileges will go away: post archives, audio versions, the members-only RSS feed, or members-only areas around the site.
Or rise up to new highs! What is this new top tier all about anyway? It’s about being a damned saint, that’s what
You’re already buying me a monthly muffin-coffee combo, and so you’re already one of my favourite people. But why not add a sandwich? (Or a quarter percent of my rent, more to the point. Not that sandwiches aren’t great, but I only need so many.) You now have the option to pay more, and get … absolutely nothing in particular for it.
I have clearly missed my calling in sales. 😜
I am making no promises about what I will do for my top-tier members. There probably will be something… but I will not be busting a gut to “earn” that extra few bucks with yet more bonus content. I am already at maximum gut-bustage … and some of you are probably willing to pay more for what I’ve been doing the whole time. Would have you have been happy to pay 10/100 originally? Then level up to that now!
It’s going to be fascinating to see how many of you choose that. I have no idea what to expect.
These are tiers of joy
When I started this membership thing mid-2021, I bravely set my price at $6/60 because it seemed like I could not justify any more or any less… and I have been uneasy with it ever since. Two years of squirming.
Clearly many of you are fine with your price so far, and I salute you. Hell, I bless you. I would not have made it through the last two years without you, no joke: PainScience.com would already be defunct without your patronage.
But many members have not continued at $6/month, and plenty more good candidates never started. I have friends with good jobs, and a genuine interest in the subject matter who haven’t joined, nice people that politely laughed at my price: “It’s just too much for one newsletter. I have twenty of these subscriptions. It adds up!”
Meanwhile, other friends — the more entrepreneurially aggressive ones — have pushed hard the other way: “Dude, you must charge more! Value yourself! True fans will be happy to pay $20/month!” It is a weird business truth that a higher price may increase perceived value and inspire more sales, not less.
But this is a one-man shop, and I don’t have the kind of chutzpah I’d need to triple my price. Even at 6/60 I have suffered from constant neurotic pangs of doubt that I’m doing enough to earn your membership fees. I’ve been trying and failing to get comfortable with that compromise the whole time.
Tiers are the answer, and it is an immense relief to know that members who continue to pay 6/60 are happy to do so, and not because it’s the only choice. That relief is so surprisingly intense that I have started thinking of the new plans as my “tiers of joy.”
Warm Regards,
Paul Ingraham, PainScience.com Publisher
Free subscribers to the PainSci blog/newsletter get most posts, but miss out on the best ones — the premium, members-only posts. Until now, getting those cost USD $6/month or $60/year.
Maybe too much? Well, now you can get them for half that. Half! It’s like a huge sale that never ends.
Or pay $5/month to get a bunch of other perks as well.
Or pay … more?
Here are all the new plans…
Plain membership for $3/month — Free emails + premium emails. BUY NOW. It’s so cheap you can stay happily subscribed forever, or a long darned time. And that is the idea. BUY NOW!
Main membership for $5/month — All the emails + audio versions + exclusive content on PainScience.com and more … just like before, just cheaper. BUY NOW!
Fabulous membership for $10/month — All of the above… plus not much else, honestly. I will dream up the occasional perk for my favourite people in the entire world. BUY NOW!
My plan names are a work in progress. 😜 (Seriously, these are just silly placeholders. I cannot decide. Naming things is the hardest thing in marketing.)
Just like you can easily cancel or pause any time, you can also tier-hop any time. If you’ve been thinking about signing up, it just got easier!
That orange salamander? That’s the real one!
What is that pricey new top tier all about? It’s about being a damned saint, that’s what!
You can now pay double the middle-tier to get … absolutely nothing in particular. I am making no promises about what I will do for my top-tier members. Sure, probably there will be something (like the occasional webinar, say), but I will not be busting a gut to “earn” the extra few bucks.
Clearly I have missed my calling in sales.
Seriously, I cannot work any harder than I already am, so I cannot offer more than I’m already offering. What I need is to be paid better for what I’m already doing, so people who can pay more for essentially the same thing need that option. Want to buy me a modest breakfast once per month, rather than just coffee and a muffin, without expecting more in return? The top tier is there for you!
It’s going to be “fascinating” (and a little terrifying) to see how many of you choose that. I have no idea what to expect.
Free is still a very good price
$3/month is cheap, but free is even cheaper. You can, of course, carry on getting most posts for free. 🙂 Plus about a kajillion words of free content on PainScience.com.
If you’re hesitant to join even at $3/month, but you’d like to help out in another way… tell me about it. Send me a note, tell me what does or doesn’t inspire you to upgrade to a membership. Candid feedback like that is invaluable for me. I might even be inclined to give out some gift memberships in exchange.
These are tiers of joy
When I started this membership thing mid-2021, I bravely set my price at $6/60 because it seemed like I could not justify any more or any less… and I have been uneasy with it ever since. Two years of squirming.
Many people have been just fine with the price, and I salute my existing members. Hell, I bless them. I would not have made it through the last two years without them, no joke: PainScience.com would already be defunct without that patronage.
But many members have not continued at $6/month. My "churn rate" has been fine a little high by industry standards — not terrible, but not great. Many members have not stayed members for long, and there are plenty of good candidates who never started, probably because it’s just a bit on the pricey side. I have friends with good jobs, and a genuine interest in the subject matter who haven’t joined, nice people that politely laughed at my price: “It’s just too much for one newsletter. I have twenty of these subscriptions. It adds up!”
Meanwhile, other friends — the more entrepreneurially aggressive ones — have pushed me the other way hard: “Dude, you must charge more! Value yourself! True fans will be happy to pay $20/month!” It is a weird business truth that a higher price may increase perceived value and inspire more sales, not less.
But this is a one-man shop, and I don’t have the kind of chutzpah I’d need to triple my price. Even at 6/60 I have suffered from constant neurotic pangs of doubt that I am doing enough to earn your membership fees. I’ve been trying and failing to get comfortable with that compromise the whole time.
Tiers are the answer, and it is an immense relief to know that members who choose to pay 5/50 are happy to do so… not just because it’s the only choice. And that relief is so surprisingly intense that I have started thinking of the new plan as my “tiers of joy” plan.