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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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True: It's Not for Everyone
Some people even whine when I say maybe they wouldn't like to upgrade. Really.
Here's what I said last week:
Weekly Weird News
It's not for everybody. Now and then I'll give an extra push here for the Premium edition. This free edition is about half of what I write each week -- four stories; the full column generally has eight. The most common response from people who have "finally" upgraded is "I should have done this sooner!" when they realize that they truly do get double the pleasure from the Premium edition.But who shouldn't bother upgrading? If you think True is only "funny stories" that don't speak to the human condition, you might be content with the half dose of the free edition. If you enjoy being on the left side of the bell curve (or don't know what that means), maybe you should skip it.
But if you enjoy True, if it makes you think and appreciate life more, then the Premium edition is for you. No time? You might think that Premium takes much longer to read, but it's about the same length as the free edition. How's that possible when it has double the content? Because there are no outside ads, and there are no pitches for you to upgrade, etc. In other words, it's more "concentrated" with stories, and has less fluff. Of course you still get the Honorary Unsubscribe, the Bonzer Site of the Week, and you get first dibs on the special items that I make available, not to mention a significant discount on True book publications. And of course, it's fine to stay on the free distribution too -- many Premium subscribers do.
Once you weed out the people I spoke of -- plus those who don't ever read this section of the newsletter (they lose out on a lot of great material!) -- who's left? Frankly, a minority! But it's an important minority: the "cream of the crop" that does understand what True is really about. And that describes the Premium subscribers. Once they "get it", they really get it: the first Premium subscriber is still on Premium, from January 1997. And most of those who upgrade renew, usually for two years, adding notes to their renewals like "I wouldn't THINK of not renewing!" and "I'll be a subscriber for life -- yours or mine, whichever comes first." What causes such dedication? Well, you won't really know unless you are one of the select few who decide to give it a try.
Sure enough: hundreds of people unsubscribed in anger, and I got plenty of whining complaints.
Mark in Virginia was one who didn't whine, but he was quick to write:
- "There is one [other] small class of people who won't upgrade to your premium edition: The poor. I would love to upgrade but I can't. Due to my wife's disability and me being her caregiver we can't afford it. For us free -- newsletters, computer programs, etc. -- is the way to go. Since I can't pay, even though I would like to, I try to pay for these freebies by spotlighting them in [own] my free newsletter. BTW this is not a gripe. I just want to remind you that some people online wouldn't be online at all if it wasn't for free newsletters, free programs, used computers, libraries and free ISPs."
Thanks for not griping, Mark. Mark has been getting True at his current (free access) address for two-and-a-half years. So he knows I have several times in the recent past made it clear that I know not everyone can afford an extra $24 per year. "Just $2/month" sounds like a pittance to most of you, I know, but I also know that even many people who do have Internet access can't afford that because I've been there myself at various times in my life. Like the time I bought my first new car ever, and then was laid off from my job. Two weeks of unemployment insurance covered the car payment; the next check covered everything else for the rest of the month. Would "just" $24 make a difference? You bet: between making it to the end of the month with enough food -- or not.
And I've acknowledged this in this space again, and again, and again over the years. Yet plenty of readers chose to be offended by my editorial last week. By the next day 180 people had unsubscribed. By Monday 267 more. By this morning 70 more. Sure, there are always people dropping off the list -- every day. Some just move on, more are switching to a new address (and there's a corresponding new subscription). But those 517 people were double the usual weekly dropoff -- 250+ more than usual.
If I had the time or inclination to read books on marketing and paid attention to never making anyone unhappy, maybe people wouldn't choose to take offense and would stay. But you know what? If I wrote like that True would be a very boring publication. As I've also said many times in this space, I want readers who can think; I don't want readers who can be led by the nose to open their wallet to me whether they can afford it or not. That's not making the world a better place, and I wouldn't want to be that sort of publisher.
But when I said the Premium edition "isn't for everyone" I meant it. Those who would stomp away mad because I don't address them specifically every time Just Don't Get It, and I'd rather they move on rather than upgrade; life's too short to deal with that kind of person. Here's another example e-mail that I got this week, from Jude (who didn't say where he was):
- "Why I am never going to subscribe for premium and why I am dropping the free subscription: Because there are a few people who just plain can't afford a paid subscription to anything, and don't enjoy being ridiculed and insulted in your free publication. No I am not to [sic] stupid to get it, no I am not a moron, I am broke."
Here's why I think Jude is too stupid to "get it", and why I do think he's a moron: no, not even because he consciously chose to be insulted; that doesn't make someone stupid. Rather, it's one word he used: "never". He's "never" going to upgrade because he's "broke". With that attitude, he'll always be broke; he's not even trying to get out of the hole he's in. (Unlike Mark, btw, he isn't using a free Internet access service.) He'd rather whine and stomp his feet than do something about his situation. And that's exactly the kind of person I was talking about last week that shouldn't upgrade.
Yeah, the marketing books would have me take a different tack here, but I don't care, even though I know that some segment will be offended by what I'm saying now, and will unsubscribe in trembling rage over it. I'm not here to make every last buck possible, I'm here to make an honest buck by saying what I really think, just like this. I'm coming up on my 12th year of doing that as my full-time job, so clearly I'm doing something right. Can't afford to upgrade? No problem: stay on the free distribution for as long as you'd like. Want to help in other ways? Spread the word, like Mark does: invite others to check True out; it's written by a guy who refuses to be bought, preferring a business model of letting his "cream of the crop" readers support his work by upgrading their subscriptions to get more of that hard work. Have a web site? A link would be lovely, and thanks. I even have a cool free service for you that allows you to put a True story on your site that automatically changes every day: True-a-Day.
Does this make sense to you? If you "get it" and can afford it, I'd appreciate your support too, making you 100 times more useful in this world than people like Jude who can only whine -- and refuse to read something he enjoyed for many months (for free!) because (wahhhh!) it reminded him of how freaking lazy he is. I make upgrading as painless as humanly possible, taking credit cards, Paypal (with "one-click" access and automatic Paypal renewals available), even mail order. If you can't afford it, no problem: maybe you'll be able to later. Either way, I thank you for reading.
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6 Comments on This Entry
All comments in this blog are reviewed prior to being published. Spammers: don't waste your time. The posting criteria are simple: if a comment is worth visitors' time to read, it's approved. If not, it's not.
Posted by Ginny, Myrtle Beach, SC on June 2, 2008:
I'm handicapped, too. And I know how a site like This is True can truly brighten your day. Hell, some days it's the ONLY bright spot. If it's possible, I would like to buy Mark and his wife an upgrade. Just let me know what I have to do!!
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Thanks, but some other readers already did back in 2006, when this was first published. -rc
Posted by Mike from Dallas on June 5, 2008:
Dammit, Randy, you beat me to it. As I was reading about Jude, I'm thinking that he's a Professional Victim, one of those people who NEEDS problems to complain about in order to give his life validation. (You never hear successful people stomping their feet and complaining; they just go elsewhere if they don't like it.) But then you summed it up: Attitude. They won't release their only claim to self-validation.
But while those books about marketing may give some helpful ideas, they still won't solve such problems. Even the Fortune 100 companies constantly try to outpace lost customers with new ones. Short-term customers are lured in by hype and gimmicks, but long-term customers are kept by consistency and integrity. No, I'm not a marketing expert, but I do get paid by companies to improve their customer service. And if I don't succeed for improving customer retention, I don't get paid.
So, just like the joke about the guy trying to buy Polish sausage in a hardware store, some customers you don't need. If they aren't actively bringing in revenue, at least they're not hanging around to provide negative advertising.
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Interesting extension of what I said. And you're right: we rarely hear whining from successful people. Want to be successful? Stop whining! Start appreciating your gifts, or move on if you're not getting what you want. Whining doesn't help, it hinders. Successful people understand that, and don't waste time with it. -rc
Posted by Zoe, Ottawa Canada on July 13, 2008:
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. True is a fun, intelligent read once a week. But it's not the be all and end all of literature.
I don't upgrade because as much fun as the free edition is, I don't think the Premium would be worth it to me. I, like many, try to reduce unessential costs like subscriptions (each of those small monthly fees add up), and there are more vital things for me to spend my money on.
I don't look for things to be offended by, and get a kick out of people who do. But to see:
"If you think True is only "funny stories" that don't speak to the human condition, you might be content with the half dose of the free edition. If you enjoy being on the left side of the bell curve (or don't know what that means), maybe you should skip it."
Is mildly offensive. I'm not upset; Randy makes many references to his greatness, so it's not surprising to see him say that sort of thing to people who aren't "smart" enough to "get" the insightful genius of anything he's ever written.
If I'm lucky, Randy'll take offense to one word of what I've written and go on a whiny tangent about it.
In the meantime, I'll keep reading the free True, because I enjoy it, but I won't be upgrading anytime soon - and it has nothing to do with the above quote.
Oh - everything speaks to the human condition, by virtue of having been written / said by man. It's nothing special.
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I disagree with your conclusion, and I think people understand what I meant, so it's not worth the bother to argue it.
I don't mind if you take offense at the section you quoted; it was meant to challenge people. That's part of what I do, and I've never made a secret of that function (though NO ONE has EVER suggested it was the "be all and end all of literature"!) It appears to me that you see that function, and understand it fully -- which pretty much means the comment wasn't directed at you. -rc
Posted by Darrell, Idaho on April 25, 2009:
I'm "barely surviving" poor (moneywise), and have been for about 10 years. I would like to say (A) money isn't everything, (B) Value isn't only in money or goods and (C) do something about being poor. I went back to school. Attitude, as noted before, is the biggest problem of most people. Thank you, Randy, for such a thought provoking and entertaining part of my life.
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Awesome, Darrell. And you even got everything in the right order! I've met a lot of people with money who were very poor (and many people who didn't have much money, but were very rich), and it's in part because they also figured out "B". -rc
Posted by Shane, New Zealand on April 26, 2009:
I must admit that 24 dollars a year is not much BUT for people in different countries ( New Zealand ) your 24 dollars equal out to 44 of our dollars...which is a lot more than 2 bucks a week...but saying that I pay as I love to hear about the idiots that Randy gets to hear of.
Thanks Randy and keep up the very funny stories
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As of this moment, US$24 is 18 euros, 16 pounds sterling,1,200 Indian rupees, 2,325 yen, and 35,700 Singapore dollars. Therefore, it's really cheap in Europe, extremely cheap in the UK, fifty times the price in India, and almost 1,500 times the price in Singapore? Of course not. It's the same price everywhere. $24 is about 3 hours of work (before taxes) for someone who works at McDonald's here, and even for the federal minimum wage is less than 4 hours of work. I doubt you're suggesting that someone in Singapore earns about $7/hr also and thus has to work 5,100 hours to earn enough to pay for a subscription. -rc
Posted by Diana, Annapolis, MD on April 29, 2009:
I do understand the "bell curve" and am in the upper 90 percent of it. I'm still pretty broke like the rest of a lot of your customers, but I am grateful that you are such a generous person for giving us as much as you do. Thank you so very much for all of your hard work. I was also laughing at some of the responses you received. It is a shame that so many of these people jump to conclusions simply because they either have no understanding of what you are trying to convey, or have been so influenced by our "me-me, my-my, and I-want-it now - ALL of it - for free" society, that they can't see what you are talking about. (Perhaps they should read what they THINK they see the first time, twice or three times before they leap to any conclusions!)
Keep up the amazing work. I will continue to be grateful and thankful for your publications and what we still have in this country of ours. It may not be long before this right may be taken away from ALL of us. Perhaps even you for speaking your mind. I am one of those that had a "Premium This Is True" subscription at one time, but because I had circumstances in my life that prevented me from re-subscribing the next year, I have been grateful for what I HAVE received. Also, as soon as I am able, I will re-up to the 2-year subscription. Thank you for your efforts.