We first launched a website selling subscriptions in 2007. In the five years since then, we've sold subscriptions to tens of thousands of people. During those years, we've learned a lot of tough lessons about subscriptions.
What's the most important lesson we've learned? Selling subscriptions is really, really hard.
The idea of selling subscription sites is great ... sit back and earn automatic, recurring revenue while you sleep. The truth is that this is one of the hardest ways to earn a living in e-commerce.
Dealing with customers and keeping them interested over the long haul is part of the problem, but there are also technical hurdles.
Because many of our students want to sell subscriptions, I've sat down to write the best advice I have for setting up the technical side of your subscription site.
Note: clairification for some people who were asking ... this advice only applies to renewing subscriptions. One-off subscriptions are no different from regular e-commerce and need to special treatment.
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