Originally Posted by
Horizon
Wei Hong - thanks for the reply. Yes I have been reading that thread in detail as well as I come to terms with how to best use packages for my use/users. I want to be careful that I never accidentally "skimp" users on time/etc so I'm most interested in featured being an additive.
Which that idea might be the trick for me too. I'd have to think about it more...
To start I think I'll use a single standard package and the "Upgrade to Featured" package which in my first limited testing seems to work well and seems to do what I'm asking.
I have not tested this extensively as I believe the only way I can test/simulate it is to set "Upgrade to Featured" expiration to 1 day and then wait a full day to see if it works as expected.
In my first test, it did revert to standard at expiration of the Upgrade to Featured rather than disappearing which is good for what I want, but I'm not sure if there are gotchas that I didn't see in my first test.
I don't want to have a featured period that is too long, and so I think my standard listings will always have expirations longer than I want to sell a featured period.
This creates a problem for me with offering multiple packages using full featured packages (rather than the upgrade-to-featured package) as I don't want to have someone pay for featured and at any point get less than standard...
I feel like if you paid and then your ad disappears sooner than if you had not paid, my users wouldn't like that.
Whereas if they get the advantage of featured plus at the end they get the same as if they had not paid (in terms of it becoming a standard when their payment is up so they never get less) it feels better. So you pay and get a bonus, but you don't ever end up getting "kicked in the chops" because you paid.
I suppose I could have flynax send out a few emails say 5, 2, and 1 day before featured expiration explaining that your featured period is almost up, and you can either renew the featured or change to the standard, or else your ad will disappear...
Have to do some though on how to use expiration dates and how to phrase/flow it so it feels to the user like a benefit rather than a nag or hitting them up for money.
I suppose the monetize plugin bump and highlight could also be used as a substitution for featured to give yet another option.
I think the Upgrade to Featured option may be what I need for now -- as it seems to be working the way I'm wanting it to work.
Edit: Second test seemed to also work for me too, reverting to standard upon expiration of the upgrade to featured.