We’re just days away from introducing the new ad free version of Prime (Prime AF). If you had already expressed interest in upgrading to Prime AF when it’s released I sent you an email last week with details about the new service, how to upgrade, why and a special discount for signing up early. If you haven’t, the details are below the fold. If you’re a current subscriber and care about the future of this site I’d ask you to take a moment to read through the post below. And thank you for doing so.
This is a slightly edited version of the email we sent out last week to Prime members who’d expressed an interest in upgrading to Prime AF.
Let’s start with this, what is Prime AF and how and why would I upgrade?
You get everything that comes with Prime plus a version of the site that contains zero ads. That means zero display ads and also none of those annoying “around the web” ads that show up under the articles. (Believe me, we hate those too. But they’re a critical source of revenue.) No ads means no ads.
Why subscribe?
Well, the best reason is to read TPM without any ads. We have Ad Free now on our staff accounts and it’s pretty nice. It’s not just not having ads. There are lots of scripts and beacons and code that we have to put in the site to run the ads. All that gets stripped out. So the site gets faster and a lot easier on your computer’s CPU. Basically, it’s awesome.
Another great reason to upgrade to Prime AF is to support TPM. Building our Prime AF subscription base is an absolutely critical part of our future viability as a company. So it’s a critical goal to build this part of our business in 2019, another key part of filling out the business model that will keep TPM vital into the future. So think of it as important upgrade to your membership. If you’re a Prime subscriber you have already honored us, given us a great vote of confidence by signing up for Prime. You’ve made our continued operation possible. If more than $50 a year is a stretch on your budget, I don’t want you to give Prime AF a second thought. But if your budget is such that $9.99 a bunch really isn’t that much different from $4.99, please consider upgrading.
A Prime subscription is $50 a year or $4.99 a month. A Prime AF subscription is $100 a year or $9.99 a month.
How does that work if you already have an existing Prime membership? We take the pro-rated value of your remaining Prime subscription and credit it against the value of your new Prime AF subscription. So, for example, if you’re currently half way through an annual Prime membership, you’ll be charged $75 for an annual Prime Ad Free subscription rather than $100.
Our team is currently putting the finishing touches on Prime AF and the new sign up system. We’re just days away from launch. When it’s ready we’ll send out an email to everyone who has expressed an interest in upgrading with a link to sign up with a special discount if you sign up for a new annual Prime AF membership before the end of January.
If you didn’t get that earlier email but would like to add your name to the list to be notified, just click on the thumbs up icon below this post.
