Has AWeber Shot Itself In The Foot?
Unless you’ve been away for the past week, then you should know that AWeber has recently changed their pricing plans and also implemented some new analytics tracking software. You can find out more on that by visiting the following link http://www.aweber.com/blog/new-features/email-analytics-overview.htm
Now there has been a lot of talk about the changes on various marketing forums, but I’ve only seen ones on the Warrior Forum. (Some of the comments made by certain people are quite interesting, and some are just not reading what HAS already been said!)
So knowing that John Thornhill has a massive list, I thought I’d ask him about the changes and all he said was…
Quote John Thornhill:
The pricing structure seems a little pricey. I don’t think I will be using this feature in a hurry.
…I really found this pretty interesting! But I’m sure John had a good look over the new features, and weighed up the pros and cons before making his decision!
This is were I put my spin on things, and look at it from a completely different angle. I’m going to look at it if your an existing customer and debating the upgrade.
Lets say you have 2,000 leads (subscribers) and before you had to pay $19.95 a month. You were quite happy with this, and therefore you don’t mind staying on this plan if you’d rather not upgrade.
With the new pricing plan it would cost you $29 a month instead! And if you carry out a simple calculation, then you only need to generate $0.0145 per subscriber each and every month to cover your AWeber costs! (To make things a little more easier, we could easily call that $0.02)
I do apologise now if you didn’t quite understand me there, but I would hope that you get the general idea that I’m trying to put accross.
Before I go though one of my favourite marketers (Lee McIntyre) has just produced a video explaining the reasons why he IS upgrading.
Check that video out today… Why I’m Happy About The AWeber Price Increase …And if anyone is planning to upgrade, or has already done so, then I’d love to know your reasons for doing so! 
Lee’s post is very reasonable but didn’t we know that it would be. For me, I am staying where I am for the moment — small list.
It is my understanding that I can always upgrade in the near future when my list explodes.
Carol
Yes, you got that right with regards to upgrading Carol. You can upgrade when you feel ready too.
(I think I might possibly edit my post a little, as I maybe do sound a little confusing to some people…but fine for others!)
Thanks
Mark
I think the new features look and sound ok, but not much more than that to be honest, and I don’t think they warrant such a big price increase.
If your main online occupation was as an email marketer then I can see the benefits, but for someone in my shoes it would mean having to create twice as many emails and it would mean having to send an offer at least once every 3 weeks to meet the new cost.
At present it doesn’t matter if I don’t send an offer for 6 weeks because the fee’s I’m paying can be re-couped from 1 mailing every now and then, but with the new structure it would force me into promoting products that I wasn’t 100% happy with just to cover the fees.
In Lee’s video he also states that if someone didn’t click a link, you can then target them with a different email, same thing if someone clicked the link and didn’t buy.
I think he’s missing the basic point that not everyone is going to buy everything you send them.
Think of it from the receivers POV, if they receive an email and don’t click a link, or purchase a product then there’s a reason for this.
Sending them a 2nd email either asking why they didn’t open the link or giving them a different type of sell on the product in my opinion (and it isn’t always the right one!) is just going to piss them off and lead to more unsubscribes.
I won’t be upgrading.
I’m sure if you’re really into all that deep analyzing of your subscribers, and their movements, it’s a great improvement. Not that I’m knocking all that stuff but personally it bores me to tears. I mean, I could spend forever devising several emails for each offer I send out depending on each subscriber’s scenario (what they do or don’t do with the initial email). I’d rather spend the time writing a blog post, a forum post, an article or creating a product
I really like the fact that if I send a recommendation to my subscribers some buy and some don’t and then the next time those that bought the last time might not buy this time but others who didn’t buy, do the next time – if you see what I mean. I certainly don’t expect my subscribers to buy everything I recommend, just because it’s me.
I like to think my subscribers sign up to my list because they like what I do and they trust that I will only recommend stuff that is good. If they don’t want something that I recommend, if it’s not the right product for them at that time, that’s fair enough. I certainly don’t want to hound them with further emails or `dig deeper’ to hammer them over the head with a product.
I know that’s not towing the IM line and many will say “well, you’ll never become a millionaire” or “well if you targetted your lists more you’d get more buyers”. Perhaps that’s true, but I will continue to email my subscribers only when and if I have something I consider important to say or something excellent to recommend and not because Aweber makes it easier for me to squeeze every last drop of cash out of my lists.
I can see the merits of both John Thornhill and Lee McIntyre’s views. John, from what I know of him, has never been a marketer to particularly worry about rankings and google placement and all that stuff. On the other hand, I know Lee enjoys the more analytical aspect of conversions etc.
Different strokes….. and all that
WOW Dan, thanks for the comment! You too Paula!
@ Dan: I can see were you are coming from, and you do make some strong valid points! However I do see were Lee is coming from too (Just as Paula says) regarding how he likes the aspect of conversions.
@ Paula: The points you make there are great too, and this AWeber topic seems to be causing more harm than good!
When I say that it’s regarding all the talk that’s going on. But one of the main parts is how potential customers for AWeber don’t wish to buy into the new service, but there is no other way!
Maybe I’m riding on the wrong wave here, but I look forward to any other opinons!
Thanks
Mark
Why don’t you just go with a private label version of Aweber Mark? You get the old price and the old features.
I really should just go down that road Dan after John Thornhill mentioning the same. Although once you get to know me properly, you’ll see why it’s stopping me!
I even had a crazy idea about seeing if it was possible to have my own private label AWeber, and it would only cost me a few product launches! – If I actually had enough cash, then I might have decided to do so!
Thanks
Mark
I’m with John, Dan & Paula on this one….
I won’t be upgrading….
In terms of the benefit of sending out a different email to entice subscribers – Like both Paula & Dan have said – it will only lead to annoying people!
In fact all my emails contain the text
“Only buy it if it’s going to help your online efforts”
I actually encourage my subscribers to really check if the product will help them – otherwise it’s just distracting them from their own goals.
Also – I can see how Lee would like it… but again – I’ve never been that much into al the tracking and tweaking.
I do suspect that for many bigger marketers it will make a difference – but as the majority seem to be more at the small to medium list category – I think their efforts would be better spent looking after their subscribers.
Once you get to an income of multiple tens of thousands – then possibly it may help to stabilise your income?
What it has done is brought plans forward for myself – and I will be taking on a business partner (who knows techy stuff….lol) and setting up an autoresponder service for people with smaller lists and smaller budgets….
So if anything – Aweber has helped create a niche for me to be of service in, which will be good news for newbies on a tighter budget and good news for me and my partner to be able to provide a service of value….
As the saying goes
Watch this space!
Randy
http://www.RandolfSmith.com