• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:15 AM

Zagat began bolstering its ranks of paying online subscribers last year with new electronic-commerce technology from a company called TrialPay. The technology lets Zagat lure new users with a tempting offer: If they accept another, unrelated marketing pitch--such as taking out a new credit card or spending $65 at Gap--they get a free subscription to the Zagat Web site.

Alex Rampell, TrialPay's 26-year-old founder and CEO, says the logic behind TrialPay isn't complicated. While people who won't pay for Zagat's online service, or premium New York Times crossword puzzles on the Web, are "bad customers" for those companies, they are "good customers for something else," he says. The trick is presenting them with the right marketing offer at the right time.

The little-known start-up has more than 800 corporate customers, including software company WinZip and online photo-and-video site Photobucket Inc. Zagat online marketing manager Ryan Charles says that about 10% of those who open TrailPay email offers from his company sign up for one.

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