Ah, the free trial. We see those enticing words, ‘free trial,’ plastered across various mediums in our everyday lives, from medication commercials to pop-up ads to highway billboards. The concept of the free trial is simple. A customer gains free access to a company’s product or service for a specific amount of time, and during this time they are exposed to the possibility of paying for continued use.

In theory, the free trial makes perfect sense for both buyer and seller. The buyer has a chance to try out a product without making a monetary commitment. The seller is given the opportunity to ‘showcase’ their product and demonstrate why the customer could simply not live without it. Unfortunately, there are a mixture of good free trials and bad free trials out there. Some trials are simply there to ‘net as many fish in the sea’ as possible and depend on a small percentage of people who forget to click ‘unsubscribe.’ Some trials are built on the placebo effect, leaving customers unsure of whether the product actually is working or not. There are good ones out there too though. Some trials efficiently and effectively allow a customer to try out a product and provide the tools to evaluate performance. These are the businesses that have confidence in their product winning over users.

The following is a list of both bad and good, with a concentration on (but not limited to) software technology trials. Feel free to add your own free trial experience to the list, as I’m sure everyone has attempted the art of the free trial.

The Bad

Jeff Paul’s Shortcut to Internet Millions: I’m sure we’ve all seen Jeff Paul’s stupefyingly horrendous infomercial, narrated by two bikini clad women and wrought with accounts of how users instantly became millionaires . It’s almost mesmerizing to watch the stuff, although after a few minutes it becomes difficult to stifle your gag reflex. The product claims to generate huge profits for its users in a matter of weeks. In reality, you simply will be given the ability creates several link-farm websites and then be placed on a call list so the company can attempt to scam you out of more money.

Worlds of Warcraft: The current king of massive multi-player online role playing games, Worlds of Warcraft (WoW), offers a 10 day free trial to experience an immersive online fantasy world. This is certainly a great opportunity to play WoW for free and have a incredible amount of fun. The problem with this one is WoW’s level of addictiveness – once you try it out for ten days straight, you may experience depression, fatigue, and mild nausea upon quitting. I recommend this one only for the strong willed (or those willing to give up their girlfriend/job).

Enzyte: The ‘once a day tablet for natural male enhancement’ is by no means a piece of software, but I thought I’d place it on the list anyways as a prime example of a bad free trial. Enzyte gives men the free chance to ‘enhance’ themselves with a thirty day trial. The clear goal of this is to take advantage of the placebo effect among men with low self esteem. The founder of Enzyte, Steve Warshak, got what was coming to him in 2008, convicted to 25 years in prison for conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. Unfortunately, the product still exists and seems to be advertising more than ever.

The Good

GoToMeeting.com Go to Meeting is an online web conferencing tools that allows a business to easily organize and attend online meetings. The 30 day free trial provides real exposure to the product, with most the of the main features available for use right away. Using this trial will let you know whether GoToMeeting is something your business could viably use as an ongoing conference tool.

Adobe Software Trials Adobe allows all of it’s cutting edge software to be trialed before purchase. Whether you are looking to design, edit, cut or clip, Adobe’s various software has long stood as the industry standard. Because the software can run pretty high in price, it’s a great policy to try it out before making the purchase.

NewtonSoftware.com Newton provides smart online software for a business’s hiring, recruiting, applicant management and applicant tracking needs. They provide a 30 day free trial for a company to immediately get started with announcing job openings, reviewing resumes as well as tracking and analyzing hiring programs. This is a great opportunity for a business to test out a no-hassle recruiting software solution and gain an edge in talent acquisition.

Salesforce.com CRM Saleforce’s customer relationship management software (CRM) is a reliable and proven technology that lets a business manage their customer information, activities and conversations. The company offers a 30 day free trial that offers full access to the software’s many features. This free trial is a perfect way for a business to test drive the most popular CRM out there.

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It’s a question I’ve been asked by clients, seen on LinkedIn and other online forums, and a problem I had to help solve while working in the marketing/PR department of multiple software companies. Since free trial offers are a main source of lead generation for many B2B software companies, it’s imperitive that these leads are converted if sales revenue goals are to be met.

Free Trials Alone Won’t Sell Software

I believe the root of this problem comes from the mentality of many software marketers that once a prospective customer uses their software they’ll love it, and once they love it they’ll eagerly pay money to have it. The prospect will convert from lead (free trial user) to paying customer without much influence from marketing or sales because the software will basically sell itself.

Unfortunately this way of thinking doesn’t take into account:

Prospects are probably not only using your free trial, they are also using other vendor’s trials for comparison Prospects are busy and may only spend a few minutes with your software then not use it again Prospects may not understand how to use your software correctly and therefore not experience its full value Most B2B software sales involve several people making the purchase decision, so unless all of them are using your free trial, you’re not influencing everyone you need to in order to close the sale

Focus on Lead Nurturing

Having a lead nurturing program specifically for free trial users is the most effective method I’ve found for converting them into sales. It’s important to note that free trial users are usually further along in the sales cycle than most leads, meaning they’re usually past the ‘information gathering’ stage and into the ‘evaluation’ stage. Follow-up contact with free trial users needs to focus on providing information that makes it clear:

How your software is different from and better than competitors How using your software is better than trying to solve their problem themselves

Lead Nurturing Tactics

There are many ways to nurture leads, but here are a few that I’ve found to be successful. If at all possible, invest in marketing automation software (such as Genoo) and a solid CRM system (like Salesforce.com) to ensure timely follow-up and the ability to track the success of your lead nurturing program and optimize it for even better results as time goes on.

Email

When prospects submit their personal information to register for your free trial, offer a simple way to opt-in to receiving emails from your company. To encourage prospects to opt-in, offer a valuable ‘how to’ guide or other marketing asset that they immediately receive.

Send a confirmation email to all prospects thanking them for registering for the free trial, and include a link to brief instructional materials or FAQ document that they can download to ensure they use your software trial correctly. If you offer customer support to free trial users, make sure to explain how to get help. Ask the prospect if there are other people in their organization who are evaluating your software who would like to participate in the free trial, and provide an easy, fast way for them to send the trial info to colleagues. If possible, send the email from the salesperson that is assigned to the lead, and provide that salesperson’s contact information.

If free trial users haven’t converted into buyers by a certain time period (whatever is appropriate for your particular software) and have opted-in to receiving emails, send them a link to a document, video, podcast, or other marketing asset directly comparing your software to competitors. You might also send a link to a case study describing the success of a customer that is similar to the prospect. One client I worked with had great success with a case study we did on a customer that had switched to their software from a competitor.

If it’s possible, send prospects a link to an ROI calculator or some method for prospects to calculate how much money or time they can expect to save or amount of revenue they can expect to generate, etc. by using your software.

Direct Mail

Use direct mail to send marketing materials discussed above to prospects who don’t opt-in to emails. You can send the materials themselves, or send postcards with links to get the materials online.

Phone

The salesperson assigned to the lead should call the free trial user 2-3 days after they register, simply introducing themselves and inquiring as to the user’s experience with the trial so far, if they have any questions, etc. Ask prospects what problem(s) they’re having that drove them to evaluate your software, which is a good way to break the ice and engage the prospect in a conversation about their needs and how your software can help solve them.

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In earlier days, the internet was known to bring excellent offers from companies who started to explore their possibilities by extending their business to virtual locations on web servers. As time went by, the Internet would be used more and more not only to purchase goods but to exchange information, this is why when many hear the word “internet” they are immediately reminded of “conversation rooms”. That is actually how the internet started to gain ground and popularity. People liked the way this emerging a new technology let them connect with they didn’t know, with friends, family, etc.

Most web users at some point or another thought “Email and chat rooms are OK but it doesn’t beat verbal communication”. This fact remained true for quite some time until application developers created software applications which allowed users to communicate verbally with each other through the net just like if they were sending data packets. In fact, voice as well as text can be transformed into computer data and sent over fiber optic cables or phone lines. This is how most people think of VOIP, and that’s in-fact very close to the way VOIP enabled devices work.

The only problem at the time was that such programs were unable to place actual phone calls but rather all communication was conducted through a PC to PC interface which is still used today by may applications. Phone companies became aware of the possibility clients would turn their backs on their service and started offering Voice Over IP communications as an alternative choice.

Other companies emerged such as Vonage, Packet8, VOIP, BBtelsys, Cordia, etc. These companies used this technology to offer alternatives to consumers. Many people have decided to use their Voice over IP solutions because their cost is a lot lower compared to regular phone services, which sounds good but since it is a new concept many people are not sure if this kind of technology is for them.

That’s why finding VOIP companies which offer free trials is very useful. Some of them provide the service for free, as a second line which can be tested side by sides against the user’s existing phone service and after thirty days the user can decide which way he/she wants to go. As you can see this is very convenient because if the service turns out to be not what you expected, you can just cancel and owe nothing.

This technology is also used by businesses because it reduces their communication expenses by a significant amount. But aside from being a financially smart decision, voice over IP solutions have all the features we use every day such as: caller ID, call waiting, conference calling, call forwarding, redial, call transfer and logs, message waiting, hold and speed dial. So as you see it is not that different from our current service which makes voice over IP easy to understand and use.

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The Reality Behind The Free Acai Berry Diet

I do not blame people for not reading terms and conditions. Most people see the big public figures like Oprah and Rachel and sign up with even being bothered to read the details. Although the Acai berry supplement is good for health and also helps in weight loss, it does not come for free. There are several genuine Acai berry supplements being sold online and offline.

Most of the Acai berry diets being sold online sign you on their auto ship program. This means if you do not cancel, your card will be charged and you will be shipped the product every month.

So if you are really serious about weight loss and have money to spend, then I would recommend its usage. Try the diet by paying only shipping and handling and if you are not satisfied with the results, just cancel the subscription. I have used the Acai berry supplement and have lost 34 pounds in 10 weeks. But I would like you to know that I had to pay for the supplement as I knew there is no free lunch in this world.

Why Should You Try Acai Berry Supplement

Acai berry is called super food because of its contents and its positive effect on health. It contains Vitamin A, B1 and D. It helps control appetite and metabolism which in turn helps in weight loss. If you are overweight and would like to shed off those extra pounds from your body without going through a lot of pain, you should go ahead and order the free trial of this wonder product. Make sure to cancel within the trial period if you are not satisfied.

I have used this diet personally and have only the positive experience. However, the results vary from person to person. I used the diet and made sure I walked in open air for 10 minutes each day after dinner. It helped me lose weight at a warp speed.

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For years, Photoshop has been the gold standard in the image editing software department. The new CS4 version contains many significant upgrades from the former CS3. It’s easier to use and more versatile than ever. Photoshop Extended now provides extensive three-dimensional tools for those working in film and graphics.

The full version of Photoshop can retail for as much as $1000. That’s quite a bit of money for students and young professionals just starting out. Fortunately, Adobe offers a free download for a thirty day trial period. To do this you must first create an Adobe account. Registration is required for activation. After that, the software download is fairly effortless. After thirty days you must either purchase the full version of Photoshop or your copy will no longer work correctly.

If your interested in other Adobe products, Adobe offers free trials of complete suites. These include the CS4 Design Premium or CS4 Master Collection. These software bundles contain many top programs, such as Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and more. These packages are different in that they are not available for free downloads. You must purchase a low-cost DVD set, usually ten to fifteen dollars, and install the programs manually. After thirty days the same conditions apply. The advantage to this system is that the DVDs can act as backup files after you fully purchase the software.

Aside from the Photoshop free download, there are other options to save you money. Adobe offers steep discounts to educators and students. But be careful, these editions are often hard to upgrade in the future. So if you’re interested in Adobe, but you’re just not sure, check out the free trial. What do you have to lose?

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With the increase in popularity of these products has come a surge in the number of con artists looking to exploit the situation. Scammers set up websites offering “risk-free” trial period of acai berry products, but rather than finding themselves a great deal, thousands of people have ended up out of pocket after being stung for products they didn’t order.

“The number of scammers out there has certainly made it harder for legitimate businesses like ours, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t still want to get their hands on acai products. Although some people have been ripped off, the companies people should avoid have now been widely publicised,” said Bryan Nettles of Pure Acai Products, which markets acai berry supplements in America.

Celebs such as Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray have featured acai berries on their talkshows. However, with many people turning to the Internet to order these wonder-berries, many shoppers have fallen victim to the scammers.

“People who want acai products need only do a bit of research to find out that there are companies out there that aren’t going to rip them off,” said Nettles.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about acai free trial offer scams on January 6. Online fraudsters tempt Web surfers with offers of free trials, but when people try to cancel their orders, they find themselves having inadvertently signed up for more acai products than they bargained for.

The dodgy dealers put up and take down new websites every day, making it virtually impossible to keep track of them. Shoppers who sign up for these free trials have within an allotted period to cancel or else they end up with monthly deliveries of bottles and credit card bills of $85.90 each time. The trial period typically lasts only 10 to 14 days from the date the order is placed.

Canceling an order isn’t as simple as it sounds, however. Try phoning one of the companies involved and you will find yourself on hold indefinitely, if not cut off altogether. How can you cancel an order if you can’t get through to the company?

“These companies are simply abusing general acai berry endorsements from well-known, trusted celebrities by using it as a tacit endorsement of their company and products specifically,” said a BBB spokesman.

Acai berries are big business. Last year, sales of acai berry products were close to $15 million, while in November, Google recorded more than 1.5 million acai-related searches.

Acai products are sold in health-food stores and many regular grocery chains. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that drinks giants Coco-Cola and Pepsi are planning to launch a range of sodas containing acai.

Acai products come in various forms – juices, powders, capsules, jams and so on – and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing, despite the presence of fraudsters.

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If you’ve never worn them before, they can take some getting used to with having the lens actually on your eye, which is why I stated looking for suppliers of retailers who would let me have some free contact lenses before parting with my money.

There’s quite a few retailers who will now let you have a free contact trial, but this isn’t always ideal as they will usually expect you sign up for a contact of some form, as their trial is simply allowing you to find which lenses suit you best. But if you decide that contact lenses aren’t for you, then you don’t really wanted to be tied into anything. So you need to check that the free trial contact lenses really are free, and not some marketing gimmick.

Fortunately the major retailers in the market, like Acuvue and 1800 Contacts have listened to a lot of customer feedback in the market, and started to offer free contact samples to anybody who wants to try them out. This isn’t so that you can try out various lenses to see which suit you best, but rather to see if you can actually get used to wearing contacts instead of glasses.

Generally the company offering the free contact lenses will want something in return, though it will usually be your contact details or email address so that they can follow up with you to see how you’re getting on with the lenses. They won’t ask for any money nor for you to sign up to any kind of contract or commitment.

The main benefit to the contact lens company is that by offering you the free contact trial, they are simply building their list of potential customers, which usually works out considerably cheaper than their normal advertising channels. The benefit to you is that you’re able to try several different suppliers and brands of contact lenses to see if you can find something you can live with. You still need your contact lens prescription, which will be based on the quality of your vision, but it does mean that you can try some free contact lenses before making the decision to move away from regular glasses.

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There are 2 main problems with signing up for free Acai berry pills online…

UNPURE ACAI BERRY

Because Acai berry works so well, it has become extremely popular, and because of it’s popularity, a lot of companies have started selling it. The problem with this is that a lot of these companies are diluting these pills until they are nothing more than about 25% low grade Acai pulp. The end result is the consumer does not lose any weight or get any increase in energy and so decides to cancel the free trial. But had they worked, the consumer would have gladly kept them and been billed $49.95 for every bottle they were sent after the first month.

CANCELLING ORDERS

This is where the scam side of things come into it. Most of the companies offering this free acai berry pills trial offer have made it next to almost impossible when it comes to cancelling a free trial offer. In most cases, you the consumer at your own expense, will need to make a non free calling, long distance call in order to cancel your free trial. One lady reportedly waited 72 minutes on hold before her cancellation was handled by an operator. And there are many more cases just like this occurring more and more every day.

HOW TO BUY ACAI WITHOUT GETTING SCAMMED

The most important thing is to buy from a reputable or recommended source. Also cancellation should be as easy as possible and should not require expense on your behalf in any way. The genuine companies will allow you to email your cancellation and it will be stopped immediately.

Since their rapid rise in popularity, free acai berry pills are being offered as a 14 day free trial everywhere you look these days. Given the fact that most Acai berry pills do actually work for most people, suppliers offering these free trials count on the fact that you will lose a decent amount of weight within those first 14 days and decide not to cancel your orders. But whilst the thought of a bottle of free Acai berry pills is appealing, trying to cancel an order through some of these suppliers can be anything but.

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“Hundreds of thousands of people have been ripped off by companies who claim to offer free trials, tarnishing the good name of what is still a wonderful health food. As a general rule, people should stay away from any company offering free trials. We see these scammers putting up dozens of new websites everyday offering the free trial offers. Of the hundreds we have looked at, we have yet to find a single one that is a legitimate business,” said Nettles.

Although Pure Acai Products has never offered free acai trial, the company receives dozens of emails every day from people who have been scammed by tricksters. Many of these emails are mistakenly directed at Pure Acai Products because buyers have been unable to contact the companies they originally made orders with.

“These people email us thinking that we are the ones who stole their money because there’s no way to contact the con artists,” added Nettles.

One bemused customer wrote, “I was charged $89.31 for renewal on the acai berry vitamins and I never even received the sample of vitamins I had requested. I want my account refunded and I want nothing else to do with your company.”

The acai berry is touted as being the world’s newest superfood. Native of Brazil, the berries are said to contain high levels of fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. The popularity of acai berry products is partly due to stars such as Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey featuring acai on their shows. Interest levels spike after each mention on television, but unfortunately the scammers are always aware of this.

On January 6, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about acai free trial offer scams. Tricksters tempt customers with offers of free trials, but problems ensue when people find out they are signed up for all sorts of products and subscriptions they don’t want.

Steve Cox, spokesman for BBB, said, “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their acai products: they lure customers in with celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more acai products every month.”

There are hundreds of company names that people have filed complaints about. One of the most common is FX Supplements, which supposedly offers risk-free trials that involve buyers paying for nothing but shipping.

Customers have until the end of their trail to cancel their subscription or else find themselves lumbered with monthly charges of $85.90. What most people miss is that the trial begins from the day of the order.

Another company in the firing line is Central Coast Nutraceuticals, which again offers free acai trials of everything from acai supplements to acai tea. Buyers who don’t act quickly enough to cancel their subscriptions are then charged $40 a month.

So why don’t people just cancel their subscriptions? Likely they would – if they could ever get hold of the companies they ordered from. Customers who phone the hotlines are put on hold for anything up to 75 minutes – and even then there is no guarantee that they won’t be disconnected.

Dozens of new acai websites are unleashed on the Internet daily. Scammers move from one domain to the next, using pay-per-click advertisements to generate traffic. In November 2008 Google recorded more than 1.5 million searches for acai products. Sales of acai products were more than $15 million last year.

Nettles continued, “Sales of acai berry products are still growing. People haven’t been dissuaded from the actual products, but now they understand they have to be a bit more careful where they order from.”

Any offer of a free trial of acai products is likely to be a scam and hundreds of thousands of people have already fallen victim. Acai products come in various forms – juices, powders, capsules, jams and so on – and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing, despite the presence of fraudsters.

If you want to order acai products, find a reputable source that doesn’t push any too-good-to-be-true offers on shoppers.

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As you may know many companies producing acai berry capsules offer a free trial. It’s a pretty good deal, you pay for shipping and handling and then send you a month worth of capsules to try. However, unless you still believe in Santa you already know that there is nothing free in this world. So the question here is two fold: What’s the catch? And, do you care about that catch? There are many reasons for a company to give their product for free, but being nice or wanting you to get a free product is not one of them.

In this case the catch is that when you order your trial you are signed up for an auto shipment program, you will be sent a bottle every month and your credit card will be charged. Some companies will even do it as 3 month in advance, that is you are charged for 3 months worth and send 3 months worth of capsules, and you would be charged once ever 3 months obviously. The reason for this is because it’s fairly hard to return unused bottles for a refund, so i assume a lot of people don’t do it (kind of like mail in rebates)

Also, many companies will also sign you up for one or several additional, lower cost programs – weight loss newsletter or some such, sometimes they are listed on your order page as “free bonuses” but in reality they are just trials for those products, again, if you fail to cancel by a date specified, you will get charged. Last but not least, the trial period in most cases will start when you order, not when you get the product.

Now, all of these terms are clearly laid out in the “Term of Use” section of a web site that you buy from (ie. the site that will be asking you for credit card number) and is also often displayed on the page where you input your credit card numbers. And while hiding important details like this in terms of use section may be a bit shady, and probably isn’t the highlight of honest business practice, it isn’t much different than a cable ad I just got in my mail. In large letters it says “get cable for 29$ a month” than in smaller letter it says “for the first 3 months” than in even smaller letters it says “after that 60$” Advertising is advertising, it’s main purpose is to sell product, it’s up to the customers to make sure they understand all the conditions.

So, what you do to protect yourself from getting charged when you order a free trial of acai berry? It’s actually pretty simple. First read the terms of use section and note how many add on products you’ll be signed up for, and the time given to cancel those (some will only have a 7 day trial ) Look at the capsules themselves, how long do you have to cancel them? Are the phone numbers provided (they should be) for you to call to cancel?

Ok, now go ahead and order your trial. Wait a few hours (or you could try to do it right away, but I am not sure if their processing is that fast.) So, wait a few hours and call all the add on products you were signed up for and cancel them. This may result in you never getting those add on products though, to somewhat fix that you can wait a few days and cancel then. Now for the main product itself, as soon as your bottle of capsules arrives, call and cancel your trial. Don’t wait till 14th day of a 15 day trial, do it right away.

If you like the product (it’s pretty good) you can order it once more, cancel add ons but keep the main product’s auto shipment program. If you don’t like it, well, everything is canceled and your credit card is safe. Get your free trial of acai by following this link. You may also want to read this post on how to protect yourself from acai berry scams.

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