Below this line is the blog of Caleb, Director of SEO of ArtFire:
We've been keeping a very special promotion tightly under wraps for the last week. Some of you may have been given a few hints or a heads up from the ArtFire Maven team, who we want to thank profusely for helping us ‘focus group’ many parts of this deal and who were on hand when we needed help testing. A big thanks to our Mavens, we couldn’t have pulled this off without you.
ArtFire will be exiting beta very shortly and to celebrate we’re offering, for a limited time only, the chance for up to 50,000 members to lock-in a Pro account for $5.95/month. The initial deal does have a few conditions; mainly that we need a minimum of 20,000 people to opt in at the $5.95 rate before we can give anyone this incredible rate. We want to be very clear, by opting in you are not getting a $5.95/month Pro account right away. Your information is securely stored and will not be charged unless the deal is on. If we don’t meet the minimum threshold, nobody gets a $5.95 account, your credit card isn’t charged, and your existing account and any associated subscriptions will not be affected.
You can read the terms and conditions of this deal, along with the frequently asked questions, by visiting this page.
To begin, we are opening the offer to existing ArtFire members only (doesn’t matter if your Pro, or Basic, or if you’ve ever switched between the two, or if you signed up ten minutes ago, everyone can lock in this rate). To take us up on our offer, visit this page. We will have a more "public friendly" page that explains the offer shortly. *edit* Here's a link to the page that explains some of the deal and also encourages members to opt in. http://www.artfire.com/groupdeal
We want to make sure all of our current members have a chance to get this deal before opening the deal up to the general public. If we get to 50,000 opt-ins before the deal goes public, it will never be offered publicly.
I’m sure there will be a mountain of questions about why we’re discounting our rate such as how we can afford the discount, and the reasoning behind the decision. I don’t want to make this a mile long announcement so I’ve laid out reasoning in the first reply to this post below.
This post was edited by ArtFireSEO On: Sep 14, 2010 at 4:42pm MST Caleb, Director of SEO
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I’ve tried to include most of the questions we answered for the Mavens as well as a few questions we just want to make sure are answered.
Why are you discounting the rate so much, I though the rate was $15.95?
We know that the ArtFire account is WORTH $15.95/month but in our exit from beta we want to gain market traction and market share so we’re making an offer we don’t think anyone can refuse. We want more sellers and more items listed because the number of sellers and the number of items in a marketplace is the biggest attraction point for buyers (more people go to the mall than go to a country thrift store; similar principles are at work online). Our plans for our exit from beta include a large buyer marketing campaign (which this promotion will help fund); we want to send them to an ArtFire even larger and more full of items, diversity, and options than today. We’re willing to discount the price in order to make that happen.
I already have a Pro account and I pay more than $5.95/month what happens if I take this deal?
Opting into this deal does not immediately affect your account; you are agreeing to pay $5.95/month for a Pro level account IF WE REACH THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF MEMBERS REQUIRED. If the deal is not turned on, your credit card information will not be charged and your current subscription will remain active at your current rate. There is no risk to you.
I have a Basic account, what happens if I take this deal?
If you opt-in for this deal you are agreeing to pay $5.95/month for a Pro level account IF WE REACH THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF MEMBERS REQUIRED. Taking this deal does not immediately upgrade your account to Pro; your account will remain at the Basic level unless and until the deal is turned on. If the deal is turned on, your account will be upgraded to Pro and you will begin paying for a monthly subscription at the special $5.95/month rate.
I have more than one account that I’d like to upgrade to Pro, can I get this deal on each account?
Yes, yes you can. You will need to log on to each individual account and opt each account into the deal but there are no limits on the number of accounts you can have take this deal. Each account sign-up counts towards both the minimum threshold of accounts for the deal and the maximum account cap; however every single sign up will be treated as a commitment to paying at least the first month’s $5.95 cost no gaming or manipulation to achieve the minimum threshold will be allowed.
Why can’t I pay for this deal with PayPal, that’s how I currently pay for my Pro account?
One of the many reasons behind this deal and its pricing is to encourage as many members as possible to move to our new credit card processor. We will be working with BrainTreePaymentSolutions (BrainTree) which is a very well respected credit card processor that gives us more functionality and stability than PayPal. It will also allow us to let sellers manage their subscription payments from MyArtFire, something that paypal cannot provide. You are free to keep your PayPal subscription active at your current rate, however, the only way to get the $5.95 per month rate is by switching to our new processor.
If you don’t have an actual “Credit Card” you should still be able to get this deal with a bank debit card, PayPal depit card, or even a “gift card” (that you've properly registered) as long as it has a visa/mastercard (or other accepted card type) logo on the front and a normal looking credit card number, it should work.
Why are you doing this now?
We want to grow ArtFire and we need more resources to do so. If we reach 20,000 or even 50,000 members at the $5.95 rate, that will allow us to hire more developers and more customer service reps, and create a very real buyer-targeted marketing budget that we plan to have you, the community, tell us where you want it spent. We are doing this now so that we have those resources when we need them, the 4th quarter.
What else have you got planned?
Well, we’re exiting Beta and we don’t plan on being quiet about it. We’re going to make it rain cash, cameras, and contests. Seriously, you guys and gals have no idea.
Caleb, Director of SEO
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