This is great feedback. The magic about eight times increase in credit card capture is pretty huge. In my case, the application is very simple, and I think people need to use it before deciding to pay.
So I'm really thinking about going to a graduated payment/engagement solution. Doing up cells in the application might be the way to go for something with such a low price. In my case, I'm looking at charging $24 per year.
I looked carefully at MailChimp but I didnt see anything about being able to set up "Drip Campaigns" where people will get messaged using a predefined set of emails at given intervals after an event (such as a signup on a website). That's the secret sauce that I'm looking for - being able to add people to predefined workflows using an API and ideally push them down different paths, such as "Purchased" or "Didnt purchase after 60 days", so I can market to them more specifically and in an automatic way. This is what I meant by "Drip Campaign"
I am so concerned about all the other work that has to be done that I tend to fall on the other side of the spectrum; get the design to an 'acceptable' place and move on.
My attitude is something along the lines of 'If you're not freaking out, you're not working hard enough'
That said, I still havent launched publically, mostly because of all the 'details' of which you speak (core product works but is ugly).
I dont have a need for this day to day, but I was going to sign up to get updates, check out the tool etc.
Since I dont hvae a use for it today, I figured i wouldnt really use the 14 day trial.. What I really wanted was a free version so I could come back and use the tool when I had a need for it in my daily life.