CROSS SALES in adult membership sites:
an extra membership sale done by the company you already bough a membership from.
can be a banner in the members area
can be a different membership proposed on cancellation
can be an instant upgrade / one click upgrade, done from the members area (instant upgrade = no need to retype your cc infos)
...
or it can be this new billing trend:
PRE CHECKED CROSS SALES
Let's say you are about to sign for a membership with a site proposing PRE CHECKED CROSS SALES:
On the signup form, you are entitled to 1, 2 or more extra sales for wich your agreement is pre checked.
As a client you have to read carefully and uncheck yourself if you do not want to buy the extra memberships / products you are "pre entitled" to buy, else you buy it.
A lot of pre checked cross sales are trials (= those are harder to track as they are discreet especially if the trials are $0):
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PRE CHECKED CROSS SALES exemple:
so let s say you sign for a trial membership called HUGEXXXPASS: a 2 days trial $1 rebilling $39.95 every month
and give your Credit Card infos in the join form.
On the signup page, 2 cross sales are prechecked: (not sure you paid attention to it but you are expected to...)
BlaBla-XXX-Pass : 2 days trial $0 rebilling $39.95 every month
Mega-BlaBla-SUPER-XXX-Pass : 2 days trial $0 rebilling $39.95 every month
So initial billing is $1 for the membership you signed for
then 3 days after you can be rebilled up to
$119.95 if you did not cancel your 3 memberships:
= there is $39.95 for the rebilling of HUGEXXXPASS
+ there is $39.95 for the rebilling of BlaBla-XXX-Pass
+ there is $39.95 for the rebilling of Mega-BlaBla-SUPER-XXX-Pass
This practice is legal if PRE CHECKED CROSS SALES are visible on the signup form
Several well known billing companies help paysites to set this up
> Visa accepts this type of transactions
> Mastercard recently took some actions against this type of practices (cf:
http://www.gfy.com/showthread.php?t=...ght=mastercard)
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+ and -:
+ enables to make a client to discover other memberships
+ more money billed by sponsors = sponsors can pay more their affiliates (like high PPS on trials such as 100 PPS, 50 PPS ...)
...
- many clients may have their credit cards overcharged (more than they really expected), some may loose their credibility with their bank, maybe be banned from CCs
- Will a customer charged $120+ total against his will, will he buy an adult membership again?
...
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Hopefully now you understand a bit better what's going on with Cross Sales and Pre Checked Cross sales
I m not judging it here, just explaining you some on how it goes.
Regards