Okay, here goes...
Grumpy - Your suggestion that chargebacks for dialers are a mere .005% is surprising. I'd like to hear some feedback on that from others. If that's true, I suppose it speaks to the viability of the product. However, I doubt that's the real figure based on my experience with other pay-per-call services.
DialerNET - Okay, so you think I'm a dipshit. You've got to be pissed about something since I think dialers present no value proposition to the US consumer and that's how you make a living, right? I wasn't suggesting that I knew the in's and out's of the dialer business. What I was saying is that I've never seen any honest reasonably prominent disclosure of what the charges per minute will be to a US customer. What I have seen is incessant automatic download sessions starting with no real honest information about what's going on. I don't like dialers for that reason... and also because I don't believe there is a decent value proposition. How much per minute do your dialers charge US customers on average? It's entirely my right to think it's a scam to charge someone $3-whatever/min to connect to adult content over a regular land line.
It's funny how I hear people saying all the time how it's great for international traffic... Yet, above it was stated by someone that 73% of their traffic is US. So, keep doing what you're doing as it's completely within your rights. It's a free market and consumers are on the hook for using your products, ultimately. I'd be suprised if you get much US repeat business month after month - that would be a true indication of how the customers perceive the value.
Hats off to you if you're honest with your marketing, that was after all my main point. Likely the largest percentage of users of dialers DON'T know what they're getting into. So, if you're coming by your revenue in a completely honest manner then I think that's great. Do I still hate dialers? Yes, because you'll never convince me that charging X dollars per minute for a modem connection at 56k (at best) is a good value.
CandidPublishing - You basically reiterated that I'm in the 900 business and what's the difference between that and dialers. Well, besides the fact that mine is live entertainment connecting two people... There is another HUGE difference. 900 calls completely inform the consumer. Customer's aren't charged immediately as some might think. My lines are setup with approximately 45 seconds of free time. The structure is as follows: 1) sales pitch for the live phone sex, 2) disclaimers about it being an adult service, 3) pricing information stating the price per minute and connection fee and 4) finally a moment where in the recording it says "Billing begins when you hear the loud tone, please hang up now if you don't wish to be charged."
EVERYONE: Sorry for starting an arguement here, I'm discovering that I really don't have the time to probably see this all the way through with as many more responses as this post is bound to generate.
What I don't like about dialers is the lack of truth in advertising. Apparently, I'm not too far off based on the FTC actions against some of the companies out there. If you own your own program and you're running it honestly, I think that's teriffic. Everything has it's place in the market. It's really just an ethical issue to me - there's not much I can say to those of you who market dishonestly and don't give a fuck... obviously we fundamentally disagree on how to run a business. I couldn't sleep at night if my revenue was from false advertising, it's just that simple.
SO, best of luck to all of you in the dialer business. May you ride the gravy train as possible. I'm going to end with props to a company that I have respect for: Platinum Bucks. PlatinumDave is in business with his dialers and I think that's great. Fuck yeah I want to see him make bank, he's a great guy. My bitch isn't you dialer company owners - it's the lack of policing on all of your terms... I shot over to his site to grab one:
"4. Any Rules I need to follow?
There are only a few rules that we at Platinum Dialers have, they are You can NOT under any circumstances use the word FREE. This dialer is not free. This includes saying free download, free software, free giveaways, etc. Use common sense."
It's all the fuckers out there that market not by the rules that I don't like. So there, it's done. What else is there to discuss? If anyone wants to argue the merits of dishonest advertising they can go fuck themselves I won't even bother to respond.
Anyone that's coming by their revenue honestly is okay in my book, that's the bottom line.
TGIF...!
Brad
------------------
Phone Sex Pays! Earn cash promoting your own unique 800/900 vanity lines from SinTalk!