Free trial period prior to paid subscriptions

[CraftyLion]

Is it possible to set up a free trial period for a fortnight before members have to pay?

[Kindred]

not automated....    You COULD have two groups with the same permissions. One is free and expires after 30 days with no renewal... and then the second for (a year?) with a cost...  and have the expiring message for the free group mention/link to the paid group

[CraftyLion]

I tried to add a free subscription plan but it kept telling me I had to add a cost and length of subscription length ..

[Kindred]

ummmmmmm.....well, the length is easy. 30 days (or whatever you want).   
I THOUGHT you could use $0....  but maybe not.

[vbgamer45]

Would require modifying SMF code that passes subscription creation to PayPal.
Using trial variables found at https://developer.paypal.com/api/nvp-soap/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/Appx-websitestandard-htmlvariables/

[Sir Osis of Liver]

IIRC, minimum payment PayPal will process is $0.10.  But that was a while ago.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

You can add subscriptions manually, without payment, so you shouldn't actually have to add a separate subscription that's free. The problem comes later though, a manually added subscription can't be automatically renewed since you don't have the payment info yet - You would just be handing out free subscriptions.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Not seeing that.  You can't add a 0 cost subscription manually.  Admin can move a member into a subscription group but it's the same as moving member into any group, it doesn't expire or renew.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

As admin: Profile -> Actions -> Paid Subscriptions -> (Select your subscription) -> Add subscription -> Manually set up subscription. No payment involved.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Ok, I see that.  You'd have to use an existing subscription with a cost, and it should expire with a renewal notification so when the free trial period ends it gives the member an opportunity to renew by paying for it.  So you're not actually giving out free subscriptions, just a free trial period that paid subs cycles out as a normal subscription.  That should work for OP unless he's dealing with a lot of new subscribers.

[Kindred]

except that it won't auto-renew because -- there is no payment info in the system if the admin adds the user manually.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Why would you want to renew a free trial?  The idea is to give them a free look and an option to continue with a paid subscription.  But I see your point, they'd have to be redirected to pay for a new subscription rather than renewal, which would require modifying the expiration email.  Have to think about that.


Maybe something like this -

$txt['paid_subscription_reminder_subject'] = 'Subscription about to expire at {FORUMNAME}';
$txt['paid_subscription_reminder_body'] = '{REALNAME},

Your subscription at {FORUMNAME} is about to expire. If you have elected to auto-renew, you do not need to take action; otherwise, you may renew your subscription in Profile.  If you're just finishing a free trial, sign up for a paid subscription in Profile.  Details are below:

Subscription Name: {SUBSCRIPTION}
Expires: {END_DATE}

To edit your subscriptions visit the following URL:
{PROFILE_LINK}

{REGARDS}';

[CraftyLion]

Yes, I thinking of setting up a help desk of various softwares and platforms I use on a regular basis.

The idea is to give new members a chance to ask any questions they have for a certain duration and, if they feel the advice is sound, for them to paid a subscription for further advice.

Failing that, is there any way of limiting the number of posts for members who don't pay subscriptions?

[Kindred]

no.... limiting posts literally defeats the entire purpose of a forum

[CraftyLion]

I'm thinking one way around it is to create a new member group inherited from "Guests" for the end of the trial period.

The only issue then is creating an email to instruct the member in question about paying the subscription.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Ok, I see that.  You'd have to use an existing subscription with a cost, and it should expire with a renewal notification so when the free trial period ends it gives the member an opportunity to renew by paying for it.

Yeah, the reason I mentioned that it's a problem, is that usually when people think about free trials, they mean an actual paid subscription that is just only billed after a short trial period. And for that, this isn't really a perfect solution, involves too much manual work and does not deliver any paid members automatically.

I'm thinking one way around it is to create a new member group inherited from "Guests" for the end of the trial period.

The only issue then is creating an email to instruct the member in question about paying the subscription.

No you want to edit "regular member" group to be the default permissions ( So, close to what your guests have - but make sure they have access to profile and subscriptions), and then create a different separate membergroup for paid members, and configure the subscription to move the user to this group. This way when the subscription ends, they are automatically moved back to regular members ( The non-grouped members).

[CraftyLion]

That way would work one way. My main concern is members who start the trial period and are required to pay a subscription. If I made edited Regular Members group, would they be able to post?

The idea of creating a Guest group would be for those whose trial period has ended.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I'm not sure I understand, if you give a lot of permissions to the "regular members" group - You give them to everyone that ever registers. "regular members" = Everyone without a visible membergroup set.

[CraftyLion]

When everyone registers, they will have posting permissions as part of their trial period. However, once the period ends, the idea is to restrict what they can post. Otherwise, there's no incentive for them to pay for subscription.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Now, the regular "flow" would be like this:

1 A non-registered user appears - They are treated as "guest", most limited permissions.
2 The user likes what they see, and registers - They automatically become "regular members", with some basic permissions.
( 2½ if admin approval is in use, you can manually set permissions and subscriptions here, see below  )
3 The user pays for a subscription - They automatically become members of "Subscribed group" (You can call this whatever), with all the perks of being a paid member.
4 The subscription ends - They are automatically removed from the "Subscribed group" and become "regular members" again, unless they pay.
5 The cycle repeats between 3 and 4, until they run out of interest or money, and become "regular members" again, losing the paid permissions.
6 The user gets bored, and deletes their profile, making them a "guest" again.

If you want to create trial subscriptions, this is fine, but you can't really skip steps completely or you render the subscription completely useless.
You could however use admin approval, and manually add the subscription to every new user at first, as step 2½, but still you need to have the fall back to "regular members" available or they remain with their subscription permissions for ever.

For an example, you can check your profile here - You are a regular member here, and have the option to subscribe as a Charter Member and donate to the project. If you do this, you automatically get a nice profile badge and access to a Charter Member -only section of this site for a year.
There's no admin actions required, it's all controlled by the subscriptions in SMF, and if you don't renew next year you drop back to "regular member".