Seriously, though, how much do you feel would be a reasonable amount for a
user to pay per year for a nominal directory listing
Well, probably about the same as it costs for a telephone directory listing.
That is to say, some very small amount that is included in the cost of service
indexed by the directory. Similarly, use of the directory for common types
of lookups should be free or a small flat fee per unit time (I don't get
charged a penny every time I open my Bell Atlantic white pages :)).
On the other hand, charging per lookup would create an immediate secondary
market for people who walk the directories and produce a quarterly set of
CD-ROMs. I know we'd subscribe to such a service, even though the information
wouldn't be as up to date, because the cost of use would be budgetable.
There already are a number of such products on the market. My experience is
that they aren't very complete or accurate, in addition to not being current.
In most cases, the price is rather more than most consumers would be willing to
pay, but for a telemarketer they are a real steal. They are looking up specific
people's telephone numbers -- they are lookng up ALL the telephone numbers.
So for the cost of a $100 CD, only a very small fraction will actually come
back to the directory company, the telemarketers have walked off with the
entirety of your customer list. Not too smart.
I'd be happy to list customers in a directory for a small or no fee, especially
if it is an adjunct to another business I'm in. I'd also be willing to give
them a fairly large number of free directory lookups per month. But after the
point, when someone begins doing thousands of lookup per month, I have to
conclude that they are making a business of this, and I don't see why they
should get a free ride at the expense of the individual subscribers.
Bob