Actually, those stats are not horrible.<p>If you dig around online (sorry, can't find the link right now), you'll find people reporting conversion numbers for SaaS free trials --> paid accounts at:<p><pre><code> 10% convert to a free account
15% of free accounts convert to a monthly subscription
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0.015% overal conversion rate
</code></pre>
To put it loosely in perspective with your numbers:<p><pre><code> 2,200 wait list signups
9 people signed up and used it
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0.004% conversion (a quarter of the way there)
</code></pre>
I didn't read your follow up, but my first thought would be to carve out a hyper targeted sub-niche of users.<p>For example, programmers who work at a < 10 person startup, located in San Francisco, who can be found listed on Twitter/Facebook/Etc..., have purchased monthly subscriptions for software tools in the past and wear yellow t-shirts :)<p>Market to them with a very personalized message (easy since it's a very targeted sub-niche) and see if you can get closer to that 0.015% mark with that targeted messaging.<p>But you may already have done this or something similar detailed in your follow up post :)<p>Just my two cents...
That's not a failure to me, Matt. Giving up on it was, IMHO.<p>You don't just build something and expect people to use it. You have to get feedback from them, listen carefully and adjust your product to what the users really want. You did a splendid job on getting that initial traction and people signing up, now figure out from the users why they decided not to use it.<p>Keep it up, man. People want it and you have proof :)