Mediaboss Marketing

2 hours ago Jan. 28, 2014 - 11:16 AM PST

Yowza: When LogMeIn announced that it was ending the free version of its remote access software after ten years, it probably expected blowback but Im not sure it anticipated the vitriol spewed in comments on that move both on our story and on Twitter.

First, let me say this: the LogMeIn people are very nice.As are, Im sure, the folks atSugarSync,which pulled its free storage and file sync product in December;Droplr, which followed suitin January.

The user reactions expressed ranged from white-hot outrage to peeved annoyance to resignation. Many of the enraged or irritated users felt that a: they werent given enough notice and/or b: theyd be happy to pay but that the new price plan was too damn high for what they needed. Many of that cohort said they were hitting the highway for some still-free alternative. It is, of course, impossible to tell if they ended up doing so or sucked it up and got out their credit cards.

Synthesizing the comments, here are a few things vendors thinking about taking an ax to their free services should consider before wielding it.

First off, if you plan to introduce a free product, its best not to label it as forever free even if that is your intention. Nothing lasts forever and you can bet that a super-irked and vocal set of your users will hold you to those words and hurl them back at you in a very public forum. If youve already used the Forever Free mantra for the freebie youre about to nuke, gird yourself. But for most vendors, its too late for this discussion.

You may not think of users of your free product as customers customers pay for something, right? but many of those users would disagree. Vociferously. So go easy. Dont poke the bear.

Its gonna be a tough sell (cough) to end a free product, but if you do it, give people time to figure their plan of action. A week is too short a period. A month or two, much better.

An unscientific poll of friends and family turned up several who willingly upgraded for a paid version of a freebie. One colleague pays for Google Drive to get more space you get up to 15GB free. Another went from free to paid Spotify to lose the ads and to be able to download songs for offline listening. For this self-described poor 20-something, going from zero to $9.99 a month was not something she did lightly, but shes glad she did. Another used AwardWallet to track frequent flier and hotel miles accumulated for the free six-month intro and was so pleased that he signed on the bottom line to continue on the paid service.

Go here to see the original:
5 painful lessons startups are learning from the slow death of free cloud services