How do "Send From Addresses" fit into the pricing structure?

grantness · 1 Mar 2002, 05:59 AM

I'd like to keep a pool of about 8-15 "send from addresses" as they are currently called.

Is this possible with a "member" account?

Jeremy Howard · 1 Mar 2002, 06:03 AM

No. They're called "Personalities" on the pricing table, and members get 2.

However for Full and Enhanced accounts we'll shortly enable a feature where you can type in a different From address in for every mail that you compose. So while only an Enhanced account provides the full set of personalities you want, you could get away with a Full account if you don't mind manually typing an address for the less common ones.

lmg · 1 Mar 2002, 11:54 AM

The personalities only come into play if you use the web interface, though. If you use an email client, it may be possible to set up multiple send-only accounts each with its own From address, regardless of the service level. I know I can do that with Outlook 2000.

If you use the web interface and IE 5(?), the browser can memorize a list of values for a web form field. So after the first time you enter something in the From field with a Full or Enhanced account, you can select the entry from the browser's dropdown list.

odedp · 1 Mar 2002, 01:39 PM

Quote:

If you use the web interface and IE 5(?), the browser can memorize a list of values for a web form field. So after the first time you enter something in the From field with a Full or Enhanced account, you can select the entry from the browser's dropdown list.

Can you provide a more detailed explanation please?
Thanks,
Oded

Charlene · 3 Mar 2002, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by grantness
I'd like to keep a pool of about 8-15 "send from addresses" as they are currently called.

Is this possible with a "member" account?

... Ditto for me !! I'd LOVE an option for the Members account to up our 2 Personalities to many more entires in the From: field.

... Question: Is the 2 Personalities allowed on the Member account, in 'addition' to our (at)fastmail.fm address ? ie. 3 total, if the (at)fastmail.fm is counted

Thankyou for your time, and service,
Charlene
--------

Jeremy Howard · 3 Mar 2002, 06:36 AM

For member, there are 2 personalities, full stop. If you want one of them to be your FastMail.FM username, then that counts as one of the two.

Charlene, I'm thinking about your request for adding personalities without upgrading. At this stage I haven't thought of a structure I'm happy with. We hope that a lot of people will upgrade to get extra personalities, so any extra flexibility of pricing in this area has the potential to stuff up our cash flow projections quite badly... I'll keep thinking about it, but I can't make any promises.

drkotsius · 3 Mar 2002, 09:35 AM

trying to force people to upgrade makes sense, but other feasible
scenaria should be considered as well. i think that the current
pricing structure has an obvious gap, that for a 'custom' level of
membership which would offer nothing for free (i.e. zero
bandwith, zero storage, etc.) and everything for one-off
payments. this way: (1) fairly regular payments would flow in for
bandwith, (2) the customer would pay for and get exactly what
required, (3) the price of services would reflect their cost.

Charlene · 3 Mar 2002, 10:35 AM

[Jeremy: I'm thinking about your request for adding personalities]
Thankyou Jeremy for your reply. Hopefully you can find something you are happy with, and feasable as a one-time fee.

Best wishes, Charlene
---------------------

Jeremy Howard · 3 Mar 2002, 10:37 AM

I know what you're saying. And I'll keep thinking about this. The problem is that it hard just to charge "at cost". We already have free accounts and so we have to use other accounts to subsidise these. And the largest costs of support, maintenance, and development are hard to directly relate to individual users and features.

So the current structure tries to make sure most users at each level will provide enough revenue to cover all of our costs assuming that we achieve reasonable growth.

Possibly one day we'll add a "Premium membership" one-off fee that gives you all of the main features but does not include extra storage, bandwidth, etc... I'm not ruling that out but it'll certainly be a few months before we have enough data to know how to price that, if it's feasible at all.

mikemee · 3 Mar 2002, 12:05 PM

Jeremy, fwiw I like the current pricing structure. I think you've achieved a very useful level of features at each price level while retaining the appropriate incentives. Plus I'm always a big fan of pricing that reflects true costs (as you've said elsewhere that this does) - it tends to automatically create the right incentives for users.

drkotsius · 3 Mar 2002, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
I know what you're saying. And I'll keep thinking about this. The problem is that it hard just to charge "at cost".

say you made a 'custom' level of membership available after 6
months of membership (so that you don't lose out on many of
those who would have gone for full or enhanced), with:

monthly transfer quota at $20/GB (when needed), none free
hourly transfer quota at $1/10MB (one-off), none free
mail storage at $1/MB (one-off), none free
personalities at $4.60 (one-off), none free
etc, etc.

this would hardly be charging 'at cost', although variable costs
would definitely be covered (unlike standard membership).

Jeremy Howard · 3 Mar 2002, 01:49 PM

Yes, that kind of approach could work. We'll look at this in 6 months time once we've got some more experience with the paid service.

People looking for a custom solution may want to opt for a 6 month full membership for now.

***Edwin*** · 3 Mar 2002, 04:56 PM

It's worth noting that most hosting companies that offer both "packaged" hosting plans and "custom" hosting plans charge A LOT more for custom plans.

In other words, when you go to their pulldown option menus and you configure an identical package to one of their "plan" packages, it may well cost you 50%-200% more!

(This is from my experience of dedicated hosting providers - most virtual hosting providers don't bother to allow customization since they're serving a low-$ audience)

While the parallel with hosting isn't exact, in a way FastMail is already the email service that most closely approximates a host's way of charging... so I can see a similar system working for you too.

In other words, people should expect - and be willing - to pay extra for the priviledge (and it *is* a priviledge) of getting EXACTLY what they want: x MB of bandwidth, y personalities, z MB of storage, n POP retrieval links, m filters etc. etc.

grantness · 3 Mar 2002, 05:55 PM

Hi Jeremy, as awesome as fastmail is, $40u.s./yr is too rich for my blood... especially when all i really want is a member account + more personalities.

I understand you need to watch your bottom line though so I'll be waiting for a pricing option that can satisfy us both =)

**JeffK** · 8 Mar 2002, 07:58 PM

I gather from the forum the following with respect to From addresses.

As an full account I will have five. I will also have the ability to manually enter a from address on a one-off basis but this is not available yet. Can anyone confirm this?

Will the following be possible:- if I recieve an email at my address folder.subfolder@aliasname.eml.cc and I hit the reply button it will show the From address folder.subfolder@aliasname.eml.cc rather than the default address as it appears to do now. If I show a different address to what I have already given the sender it will confuse them or their next reply will be to the default address rather than the original one.

On a different subject can I please get confirmation that I can't buy extra aliases yet or am I just missing the method to do so?

Regards, Jeff Kogler

1 Mar 2002, 05:59 AM	#1
grantness Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: vancouver Posts: 44	How do "Send From Addresses" fit into the pricing structure? I'd like to keep a pool of about 8-15 "send from addresses" as they are currently called. Is this possible with a "member" account?

1 Mar 2002, 06:03 AM	#2
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	No. They're called "Personalities" on the pricing table, and members get 2. However for Full and Enhanced accounts we'll shortly enable a feature where you can type in a different From address in for every mail that you compose. So while only an Enhanced account provides the full set of personalities you want, you could get away with a Full account if you don't mind manually typing an address for the less common ones.

1 Mar 2002, 11:54 AM	#3
lmg Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: New York Metro Area Posts: 90	The personalities only come into play if you use the web interface, though. If you use an email client, it may be possible to set up multiple send-only accounts each with its own From address, regardless of the service level. I know I can do that with Outlook 2000. If you use the web interface and IE 5(?), the browser can memorize a list of values for a web form field. So after the first time you enter something in the From field with a Full or Enhanced account, you can select the entry from the browser's dropdown list.

3 Mar 2002, 06:36 AM	#6
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	For member, there are 2 personalities, full stop. If you want one of them to be your FastMail.FM username, then that counts as one of the two. Charlene, I'm thinking about your request for adding personalities without upgrading. At this stage I haven't thought of a structure I'm happy with. We hope that a lot of people will upgrade to get extra personalities, so any extra flexibility of pricing in this area has the potential to stuff up our cash flow projections quite badly... I'll keep thinking about it, but I can't make any promises.

3 Mar 2002, 09:35 AM	#7
drkotsius Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 37	trying to force people to upgrade makes sense, but other feasible scenaria should be considered as well. i think that the current pricing structure has an obvious gap, that for a 'custom' level of membership which would offer nothing for free (i.e. zero bandwith, zero storage, etc.) and everything for one-off payments. this way: (1) fairly regular payments would flow in for bandwith, (2) the customer would pay for and get exactly what required, (3) the price of services would reflect their cost.

3 Mar 2002, 10:35 AM	#8
Charlene Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 37	[Jeremy: I'm thinking about your request for adding personalities] Thankyou Jeremy for your reply. Hopefully you can find something you are happy with, and feasable as a one-time fee. Best wishes, Charlene ---------------------

3 Mar 2002, 10:37 AM	#9
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	I know what you're saying. And I'll keep thinking about this. The problem is that it hard just to charge "at cost". We already have free accounts and so we have to use other accounts to subsidise these. And the largest costs of support, maintenance, and development are hard to directly relate to individual users and features. So the current structure tries to make sure most users at each level will provide enough revenue to cover all of our costs assuming that we achieve reasonable growth. Possibly one day we'll add a "Premium membership" one-off fee that gives you all of the main features but does not include extra storage, bandwidth, etc... I'm not ruling that out but it'll certainly be a few months before we have enough data to know how to price that, if it's feasible at all.

3 Mar 2002, 12:05 PM	#10
mikemee Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 77	Jeremy, fwiw I like the current pricing structure. I think you've achieved a very useful level of features at each price level while retaining the appropriate incentives. Plus I'm always a big fan of pricing that reflects true costs (as you've said elsewhere that this does) - it tends to automatically create the right incentives for users.

3 Mar 2002, 01:49 PM	#12
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Yes, that kind of approach could work. We'll look at this in 6 months time once we've got some more experience with the paid service. People looking for a custom solution may want to opt for a 6 month full membership for now.

3 Mar 2002, 04:56 PM	#13
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	It's worth noting that most hosting companies that offer both "packaged" hosting plans and "custom" hosting plans charge A LOT more for custom plans. In other words, when you go to their pulldown option menus and you configure an identical package to one of their "plan" packages, it may well cost you 50%-200% more! (This is from my experience of dedicated hosting providers - most virtual hosting providers don't bother to allow customization since they're serving a low-$ audience) While the parallel with hosting isn't exact, in a way FastMail is already the email service that most closely approximates a host's way of charging... so I can see a similar system working for you too. In other words, people should expect - and be willing - to pay extra for the priviledge (and it is a priviledge) of getting EXACTLY what they want: x MB of bandwidth, y personalities, z MB of storage, n POP retrieval links, m filters etc. etc.

3 Mar 2002, 05:55 PM	#14
grantness Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: vancouver Posts: 44	Hi Jeremy, as awesome as fastmail is, $40u.s./yr is too rich for my blood... especially when all i really want is a member account + more personalities. I understand you need to watch your bottom line though so I'll be waiting for a pricing option that can satisfy us both =)

8 Mar 2002, 07:58 PM	#15
JeffK Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Kingaroy, AU Posts: 3,177	I gather from the forum the following with respect to From addresses. As an full account I will have five. I will also have the ability to manually enter a from address on a one-off basis but this is not available yet. Can anyone confirm this? Will the following be possible:- if I recieve an email at my address folder.subfolder@aliasname.eml.cc and I hit the reply button it will show the From address folder.subfolder@aliasname.eml.cc rather than the default address as it appears to do now. If I show a different address to what I have already given the sender it will confuse them or their next reply will be to the default address rather than the original one. On a different subject can I please get confirmation that I can't buy extra aliases yet or am I just missing the method to do so? Regards, Jeff Kogler