Why I Sold Lifetime at $1,610: The Maths Behind the Deal (and Why It’s Gone)

Build in Public · Pricing

I sold the Aha Studio lifetime deal at $1,610 because it’s the same as keeping a $97 monthly member for about 16 months, paid on day one. And 16 to 18 months of retention is uncommon for marketing products. 32 people bought lifetime, 47 joined monthly, and now it’s closed. Here’s the maths, the payment plans, what the money up front is for, and what happened when I posted the numbers.

$1,610 is 16 months of a $97 member, paid on day one.

That’s the whole idea behind the Aha Studio lifetime deal.

Lifetime deals get a bad name in software. People think you’re selling away your future income.

Here’s the thing. 16 to 18 months of retention is uncommon for marketing products. Most monthly members leave long before that. So getting 16 months up front is the better deal for me, as well as for the buyer.

Here’s the exact logic, the payment plans, the real numbers, and what happened when I posted them in public.

The maths: lifetime vs. monthly

Monthly was $97. Lifetime was $1,610.

$1,610 divided by $97 is about 16.6 months.

So a monthly member has to stay for 16 months to be worth the same as one lifetime buyer. The lifetime buyer pays it on day one.

And how long do monthly members actually stay?

Here’s a real example from my own launches. On NicheBlasta, one affiliate’s 31 monthly buyers stayed about 2.8 months on average.

2.8 months. Against 16 up front.

That’s why I’m happy to sell lifetime at the right price.

The payment plans, and what they work out to

Not everyone can pay $1,610 in one go, so there were payment plans:

• 2 payments of $805: $1,610. Exactly the same as lifetime.
• 3 payments of $597: $1,791. That’s about 18 months of a monthly member.

One customer I’ve known for a long time, who buys a lot of my products, asked for 8 monthly payments of $268.33. We set it up for him.

And one buyer asked if he could hold the price until his next paycheck. We said yes, and honoured it when he came back to pay.

Small things like that matter. People remember them.

Money up front is marketing money

Recurring income is great, but it builds slowly. Money up front is there now, and I can put it to work straight away:

1. Ads for Aha Studio.
2. Promoting JVswaps, my marketplace for webinar promotions.
3. Maybe a new team member, if I can find the right person.

There was a personal reason too. Three weeks before the launch, I’d paid a $10,000 hospital bill, and I wanted that cash back.

The lifetime sales covered it.

What actually sold

Here’s how the early bird finished:

• 32 lifetime buyers. 17 paid in full on Zaxaa, 14 chose a payment plan, and 1 paid directly.
• 47 monthly members at $97: 40 on Zaxaa and 7 on WarriorPlus.
• 80 sales in total, $44,216 collected, and about $58,000 once the payment plans finish.

Refunds so far: 0%.

All the numbers, with the screenshots, are in the Aha Studio early bird launch report.

Why lifetime is gone, and the new floor

The early bird is over, so lifetime is off sale.

The other prices went up too. Monthly is now $127, and yearly is $1,270.

So what about affiliates?

Top affiliates want to promote lifetime. Some asked for it even at $1,997.

One of them reached out before we announced lifetime was going. So I agreed $1,997 with him, and his webinar goes first.

He’s one of my top affiliates. When he hosted a webinar for NicheBlasta, he made 23 lifetime sales at a similar price. I’m not going to let down an affiliate like that.

For every affiliate webinar after that, lifetime is $2,997. At 50% commission, the affiliate earns $1,498 per sale.

Moving early got him the better price. That’s fair, and I’m happy to honour it.

Posting the numbers brought in affiliates

I posted the sales numbers on Facebook.

That post brought in enquiries from 2 big affiliates.

One is already confirmed for a 7-day promotion. We’re agreeing the date for a live webinar to his audience, and I’m promoting his latest product this week too. That’s how a good reciprocal promotion works.

Others are waiting for details: a new one who saw the Facebook post, plus affiliates I’ve run webinars with before.

And instead of sending them a JV doc, I’m sending them a listing on JVswaps, with the offer, the commission, the payout terms and the swipes in one place.

The lesson: real numbers, posted in public, do your affiliate recruiting for you.

Frequently asked questions

How does a lifetime deal compare with monthly?

At $1,610 against $97 a month, lifetime equals about 16 months of a monthly member, paid up front.

Do payment plans cost more?

Two payments of $805 come to the same $1,610. Three payments of $597 come to $1,791, about 18 months of monthly.

Can I still buy Aha Studio lifetime?

No. It closed with the early bird. Monthly is now $127 and yearly $1,270.

[MY TAKE DRAFT: Tony to approve or redictate before publishing.]

My Take: A lifetime deal at the right price is 16 months of a member, paid on day one. In marketing products, 16 to 18 months of retention is uncommon, so I’d rather have that money now and put it to work: ads, promoting JVswaps, and maybe a new team member. I priced the payment plans so two payments came to the same $1,610, and I said yes when people asked for a little flexibility, because they remember that. And posting the numbers in public did something I didn’t plan for. It brought the affiliates to me. Lifetime is closed now. It comes back only on affiliate webinars: $1,997 on the first one, for the affiliate who asked before the change, and $2,997 after that.