Sound Advice About Running Your Own Pay-Per-Call 900 #

Most often, the only one who really makes any money from a pay per call service is the telephone company. Let's examine what a 900 telephone number is all about.

Technically a 900 number is a reverse 800 toll free number where inbound callers are charged a fee on their telephone bills for accessing your audio text (prerecorded information service). The charges imposed may range anywhere from $.20 cents/minute to a fixed $20.00/call. (Don't forget that you can also charge a credit card instead of using a 900#)

It sounds easy, right?  Well bear in mind that the telephone company becomes your partner and very often receives a large portion of the billing/revenues. In addition, the carrier does not actually dispense the information but simply provides the electronic path to the VoiceStamp software and hardware at your location via conventional phone lines.

You can also choose to utilize a service bureau who will host your businesses call traffic but they will charge you dearly and in fact, you may end up paying well over 50% for that convenience. A service bureau may also impose some significant restrictions on your business. Like how many times can you change the content of  your greetings, which would present a real problem on a ski or surf hotline.

As your own private information provider, you can connect VoiceStamp equipment in your garage or office and keep a higher percentage of the funds however, you need to be sure that you have enough voice channel capability (phone lines) or ports to handle the peak call call load to avoid busy signals. Some 900 service providers will not even consider installing service for you without a minimum of 8 inbound phone lines, while others require only 2. Their reasoning is that the resulting busy signals will clog up their communications networks and they cannot bill anybody for them.

Maybe a 900 # still sounds like easy money to you but there are many hidden costs. Firstly, the carrier may ask you for some significant installation and monthly fees, and perhaps even a large deposit (escrow). You may also have to maintain some steep call quotas in order to receive your funds at the rate promised. By the way, most of the revenues won't even reach you until 90 days later because they have to bill your callers thru their local phone companies. 

Marketing
An important detail often left off the 900 carrier's list of fees are the charge- backs. This occurs when the irate mother of a 10 year old reads her telephone bill and sees a thousand dollars in charges to your adult 900 chat number and refuses to pay for them. The local carrier will simply debit your bank account with no explanation or customer name - this can be an accounting 
nightmare but that's the way it works. You can thank the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington and the Public Utility Commission (PUC) in each state!

In order to entice people to call your 900 number you will have to advertise, and this is where most audio text services fall short. Most information providers assume that just because they have a great idea, callers will flock to their doors and charge up their phone bills at $20.00 a minute. Novelty 900 hotlines like apartment rentals are only successful if you maintain an expensive on-going regional advertising campaign, and ski advisory, or Santa Caller/Valentines outbound services are seasonal. The only way to really achieve profitability in this highly competitive market is to build up a following of active customers like a dial-a-joke or daily horoscope where callers have to call each day for personalized messages.

Dating services and adult oriented 900 numbers generate most of the millions of calls (and billable minutes) each month for their owners because they have a constant flow of repeat callers. Datelines provide subscribers with their own personal mail boxes to receive and author voice messages to other members. Credits will accrue for your business whether a message is left for another or retrieved by the recipient. Chat lines are the most profitable type of service because two parties are connected to each other in real-time, amassing significant sums of money with little or no work on your part. In fact, it is an ideal business because it operates during the day or night while you maybe working elsewhere or sleeping.

Here are some of the best ways to succeed as an audio text information provider:

1. Always test your 900 concept locally. In other words, setup a FREE voice mail system with the very same audio text application installed in your community or city - hopefully in a home office to keep initially overhead low. 

2. Contract for some heavy advertising in your community or regional newspaper and see what kind of local call activity you can generate after a few months of exposure. Perhaps canvass the area with car window flyers.

3. If there is some good interest in your service as seen by the number of calls your system receives, you have a better than 50-50 chance at succeeding as a profitable audio text service on a regional or national basis.