Forced Continuity – Friend Or Foe?

It’s a debate that shows no sign of slowing down, in the red corner you have the marketer using the “Forced Continuity” method, and in the blue corner you have the customer who has been stung in the past.

And before my analogy continues, here’s just a very quick explanation of forced continuity and how it is used in Internet Marketing.

Forced continuity has been around for a very, very long time. My first experience of a forced continuity program came through a direct mailing company that offered to send me a brand new DVD for just £1, so without reading the small print I decided I’d be a fool to miss it, so I filled out the form and ordered my £1 DVD.

Little did I know that by ordering the £1 DVD, I had also agreed for them to send me 3 DVD’s each month at the normal price. It was all in the small print, but of course I didn’t take any notice of it, I just wanted my £1 DVD!

This would have been 6 or 7 years ago, but forced continuity reared it’s head again when a high profile marketer, Mike Filsaime introduced forced continuity to the online world. I know there were others using this method before Mike, but I do believe that Mike “introduced it to the masses” – he seems good at that so kudos to him!

The idea behind forced continuity is simple, you are offered something of value for peanuts, usually less than a pound/dollar. But by accepting the offer you are also enrolled into a freebie monthly agreement, that starts to cost after the first month.

The problem that a lot of customers have is with the way everything is laid out. Many feel that they are often tricked into the forced continuity and the first they know about it is when they check their credit card statement at the end of the month.

There are also a few horror stories going around about how some marketers make it impossible to cancel to monthly subscriptions. *cough* Keith Wellman *cough* credit card charge back *cough*

BUT

And yes, there’s always a BUT!

Despite all of the bad press, forced continuity can still be a good thing for marketers and customers alike.

IMHO if a marketer has a new monthly product coming out, what better way is there to gage public opinion on the product than to offer potential customers access free of charge (or virtually free) for a month to see if they like it?

Surely that’s better than charging $x per month from the start?

With the free month offer, a customer has 30 days to decide if the product is worth the $x per month it would cost after that, if they don’t like it, all they need to do is cancel. The forced continuity can actually turn out to be a good thing for both the marketer, and the customer.

Let me take a real life example. I was actually asked to promote this product around 3 weeks ago, and I came back to look at it yesterday. I didn’t want to do a regular mailing because I know a lot of you are in the “blue corner” and the last thing I want to do is piss you off, especially as it’s nearly Christmas! 😉

So I thought I would come out and show you why it’s worth taking the time to look over products with forced continuity, rather than turning your nose up at them right away.

The product in question is called Quick Fire Income and it’s been put together by Lee McIntyre. I’m not too keen on the product name but that’s by the by! (Although I guess it does sound better than “10 how to marketing videos worth more than $200+ and we’re giving away access for just $1”)

So the deal to hook you into the offer is access to 10 (TEN) of Lee’s popular “How To” videos that usually retail at over $200. But as part of this special deal you can get your hands on the videos for just $1 – even with the USD/GBP exchange rate it’s still a bargain!

But there has to be a catch right?

YES! 🙂

The almost irresistible offer is designed to get you to try out Lee’s brand new “Elite Mastermind Club”. When you purchase the videos for $1, you automatically get 30 days of free access to the mastermind club and if you choose to stay a member you pay the normal monthly price after the free 30 days are up.

So if I break it right down, here is how it all works:

Step 1: Pay $1

Step 2: Download the 10 Internet marketing videos

Step 3: Check out the Elite Mastermind Club for 30 days, free of charge

Step 4: If the club isn’t for you, then cancel. If you like it, you pay the normal fee.

SIMPLE!

I say it’s simple, but the reason forced continuity gets a bad press is down to step 4, most notably word 8 in the sentence – CANCEL.

A lot of marketers seem to take the FORCED part of forced continuity way too far and make it almost impossible to cancel. Lee doesn’t do this, he has given me his word on it and that’s good enough for me!

So if you do have any problems in canceling, let me know and I’ll personally come over and act as the spit bucket man for you in the “blue corner” 🙂

I was about to sign off, but you know what. Here’s how confident I am in the product, I’ll show you the exact steps you need to take if you do wish to cancel at any time during your 30 day free trial, and as I said, if you have any problems let me know!

How To Cancel Quick Fire Income

You can either use the LiveChat option, or the email ticket option to cancel at any time, just go here:

http://www.aimhighersupport.com/

Not too painful was it 🙂

*Brain Fart* Calling the method “Forced Continuity” doesn’t help, it makes it sound so cold and unpleasant. Why can’t we rename it to something nicer like “Free Trial….something” *Brain Fart*

So there you have it, my views on “Free Trial…..something” exposed to the world! Are you still in the same camp that you were at the start of the article?

As always your comments are welcome, nay, encouraged so comment away, and do check out Lee’s Quick Fire Income videos, it might help change your perceptions on forced continuity, how else can you get something of such value for just $1? (And please don’t say the Woolworths closing down sale!)

Thanks for reading,
Dan

P.S. I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 earlier, and one of the main differences is that we now have “Threaded Comments” on the blog. So if you are leaving a comment to a particular…comment, you can hit the “Reply” button, and, well, try it out and see what happens!