[QUOTE=Charles Patrick;309177]Regretfully, hype sells
and we haven't yet decided what the differences in versions will be, as I've described in an earlier post.[quote]
Hype sells to people who don't pay attention to what they're buying. In a technically-aware marketplace, hype gets *viewers* but not necessarily *buyers.*
Having *any* list of the different features by version, even if it's marked "current version; may not remain this way" would help.
Basic--FREE, ANONYMOUS
X# of news feeds (list, or short list of presumably popular ones
1-3 days most recent articles
output to size [kindle, sony, iliad, etc.]
Registered--FREE
Y# additional news feeds
1-7 days recent articles (or whatever)
output
Other Nifty Registered Feature (um, notice of upgrades?)
Full-Featured--PAID
Complete newsfeed list
__ days recent articles
output formats
Other Paid Features
Or whatever. Not having a feature list, and saying "try for free," sounds very much like "and it shuts off or starts demanding money in a little while." There's nothing on the site (last night; I can't check today) to indicate that this is a multi-level service, with some useful features for Basic users, a few more coming with registration, and the full pack for paid users. (It also gives no information about *how much* they'll be paying. And that's crucially important--especially if it's a subscription service rather than a one-time fee.)
If the marketing dep't hasn't yet figured out how all that works... someone needs to tell them they're losing customers through indecision, and creating bad PR by not being ready to answer standard, basic business questions.