If you have Plesk with Presence Builder and Business Manager, you can tune your system to offer Presence Builder in the Try and Buy (or trial) mode. This mode lets everyone evaluate the editor and create websites for free. However, to acquire such websites, a site owner will need to subscribe to your hosting plan or purchase a plan add-on.

Note: If you use some other billing solution instead of Business Manager, you can use the Try and Buy mode as well. Learn more in the section Offering the Try and Buy with Alternative Billing Solutions.

How the Try and Buy Mode Works

The Try and Buy mode is aimed at customers who wish to create their own sites but have little or no programming skill. Plesk helps such customers by giving them full access to Presence Builder functions to create sites at no charge. To claim the created sites the customers subscribe to a hosting plan in Plesk or upgrade the existing one. The more people you attract by this promotion, the more hosting subscriptions with Presence Builder you will have.

The Try and Buy mode targets two different groups:

  • Existing customers who want to have a website but are unable to launch Presence Builder due to various limitations. For example, their hosting plan does not provide this option, or they have exceeded the number of sites to publish. By using the Try and Buy, you can upsell Presence Builder to these customers. Learn more in the section Configuring the Try and Buy for Existing Customers.
  • New customers who have created a trial site and now want to claim it with a new hosting plan. Learn how to configure the Try and Buy mode for such customers in the section Configuring the Try and Buy for Potential Customers.

The scenario for upselling to existing customers works this way:

  1. Links to launch Presence Builder become available to such customers on a number of pages in Customer Panel. The customers see the links and click them.

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  2. Plesk forwards these customers to Presence Builder where they create trial sites.

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  3. When the site is ready and the customers click Publish, they are prompted to upgrade their subscription.

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  4. If the upgrade is successfully completed, the site can be published to the upgraded hosting account.

The scenario for selling hosting with Presence Builder to potential customers is as follows:

  1. You enable public access to the Presence Builder trial mode in Plesk by selecting the corresponding checkbox in the Server Administration Panel > Tools & Settings > Try and Buy Mode Settings. If this mode is activated, everyone who follows a special promotional link is able to create a trial site.

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  2. You obtain the promotional link from the Plesk GUI and put this link on your website so that potential customers can access it.

  3. When the customers click the link, they are forwarded to Presence Builder where they create trial sites. The editor interface is identical to the one that appears in step 2.

  4. As soon as the site is ready, the customers click Publish, and Plesk requests them to buy a hosting plan.

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  5. The customers subscribe to a new plan and are free to publish the site.

Note: All notifications that customers receive while using the Try and Buy mode can be customized. Learn more in the section Customizing Trial Mode Notifications.