When we launched Write.as Pro, we didn't have a “free trial” option. The assumption was that enough of the platform was free that users could get a pretty good idea of whether or not the purchase would be worth it. Then last January, we added the option for a free 2-week trial. Here's a few things learned from it:

One of my major concerns was that people would use the free trial to spam Read Write.as, which is kept spam-free largely because of the requirement to pay something. Luckily, only about 2 or 3 spammers actually did this in the past year. Their presence was obvious, and we quickly revoked their publishing access once we saw them.

A free trial made many conversations much easier. If someone was curious about a Pro feature, instead of explaining it all, we could just give the overview and say, “go try it for free.” Great timesaver. Also:

Stats for just over a year of free trials:

Thoughts? Discuss...