Everybody knows I’m just crazy about how easy Secure Delivery is to use for people new to selling downloads online- I can’t shut up about it. Our goal was to make it the easiest to use service out there, and I think we succeeded pretty well. However, having an easy to use service for beginners has its price- attrition.

Attrition and Noobs

Attrition in layman’s terms means “a reduction or decrease in numbers, size, or strength”. To the subscription service operator, it pretty much means “people who quit”.

Noob in Internet speak means “someone new at something”.

Because we have an easy to use service that caters to beginners we have a high rate of attrition on paid accounts. On more than one occasion I have had people send me a support ticket that said “Hey, love the service but I’ve had my product for sale for a whole month and not made one sale! I guess its not going to work out, cancel my account please.” This person was obviously new and mislead. I think most of the issue stems from the myth that “making money online is easy” or that it “requires no work to make sales”.

As someone who has sold digital products before I wanted to say “Hey buddy, take a deep breath and give it some time and promotion.” As the subscription service operator, I am obliged to say “Yes sir, your account is canceled per your request”.

While our growth is steady and we do manage to pick up more new subscriptions each month than we lose, it would be a lot better if we didn’t lose so many to discouraged noob, or new, marketers. For Secure Delivery to grow in profitability, we need to attract die hard, experienced marketers who generate sales, or at the very least, realize that a new product might take a few months to take off without an expansive marketing list or expensive advertising blitz.

How To Attract Veterans

Well, we need to provide the advanced features veterans look for of course. Secure Delivery is already an advanced system for product delivery- our delivery controls, security, and setup options are rich with features and options- but we do not market it as such because we have always thought our best asset was our great, easy to use setup.

We are working to launch some advanced and unique features over the next couple of months, mainly our product marketplace, our product affiliate system that allows individuals to run their own affiliate systems on individual products (or their whole catalog), and a couple other secret (for now) but exciting options.

These new features are going to be aimed primarily at experienced marketers that want to take their sales to the next level, or to automate complicated tasks that there previously was no easy, automatic method to complete.

What Does This Mean?

The bottom line here is this- we love helping new marketers sell their products. We encourage anyone- be it a college kid, someone who wants to make extra money on the side, or work at home mom- to sign up for a free account and give it a go. We will always make Secure Delivery easy to use for everyone, even if they know nothing about payment processors or IPN URLs or relay response codes or whatever. But we will start adding advanced features that more experienced marketers will want to utilize more than the beginners.

In a way, this is how it should be- The bread and butter of Secure Delivery should be users who consistently rely on our services to deliver their products and manage their programs, while beginners are free to sign up for the free and basic plans to test the waters. With the future availability of advanced features like affiliate programs and the like, these beginners eventually become veterans and move up. Its a sustainable model in theory- we’re going to work to make it happen in practice.