I wasn't sure where to post or email this, so I'm trying here in hopes that it'll get to the people it needs to get to.
The current set up for paid accounts makes sense to me. That is, you pay less the longer you commit to using Dreamwidth as a journal service. Currently, if you pay month to month and you keep your journal for a year, you'll pay $36 over that year, but if you commit to longer and longer increments, your payment price goes down - $30 over a year if you pay every 2 months, $26 over a year if you pay every 6 months, and $25 for a year if you pay it all at once.
Your payment schedule for after the first 6 months, though, is, to use an outdated term, a bit wack. You've still got the month-to-month payment at $3/month, which totals out to $36 if you continue paying every month for a year - but if someone decides to commit to a year of using your service up front, they will pay $35. This does not provide any incentive for your userbase to commit to your service for long periods of time.
To be successful, you're going to need people committing to using your service and the best way to do that is to keep a payment structure where commitment evens out to a cost-incentive over time. In your change of account structure, you won't be competitive with LJ at all - as their service will still cost $25/year when that year is paid up front and will otherwise cost $30/year if a user chooses to pay in smaller increments. I think you need to stay with the current pay structure to both provide an incentive for people who choose to commit to using your service for a year at a time and also to be competitive with LJ.
Paid account structure in 6 months
The current set up for paid accounts makes sense to me. That is, you pay less the longer you commit to using Dreamwidth as a journal service. Currently, if you pay month to month and you keep your journal for a year, you'll pay $36 over that year, but if you commit to longer and longer increments, your payment price goes down - $30 over a year if you pay every 2 months, $26 over a year if you pay every 6 months, and $25 for a year if you pay it all at once.
Your payment schedule for after the first 6 months, though, is, to use an outdated term, a bit wack. You've still got the month-to-month payment at $3/month, which totals out to $36 if you continue paying every month for a year - but if someone decides to commit to a year of using your service up front, they will pay $35. This does not provide any incentive for your userbase to commit to your service for long periods of time.
To be successful, you're going to need people committing to using your service and the best way to do that is to keep a payment structure where commitment evens out to a cost-incentive over time. In your change of account structure, you won't be competitive with LJ at all - as their service will still cost $25/year when that year is paid up front and will otherwise cost $30/year if a user chooses to pay in smaller increments. I think you need to stay with the current pay structure to both provide an incentive for people who choose to commit to using your service for a year at a time and also to be competitive with LJ.