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While some observers would dispute whether sex provides the number one use for premium phone dialers, no one denies that dial-for-sex is a definite money-maker. If you use a phone in Ireland, you've probably bought some kind of information when you paid your phone bill. Nearly 100,000 callers paid RTE when answering questions to see if they could sit with Gay Bryne and win a million pounds. At IEP.58 a minute, those 100,000 calls generated more revenue than the first show segment gave away as prize money.
It's relatively straightforward to program a premium call number to ring a modem. After the modem answers the incoming call, the caller begins to pay a premium rate. Jonathan Downey, a programmer with Zenark in Dublin's
Christchurch, explains. "If you program a premium rate dialer to sit on a Windows Desktop, it's easy to encourage people to click on it and use it," he says. "The biggest design challenge is making a recognisable icon to remind people that premium content is just a click away."
The core technology is the premium content dialer. A dialer is a small file that you can download. After downloading and installing this file, you can connect to a paysite and enter the member section. If the site developer updates the content every day, customers will pay the small fee required to dial up and see (or download) the new material.
What sorts of steps are involved in premium content dialers? As expected, your Web site must have content that entices a viewer to download your dialer software. You can get a local developer to hand roll your own (perhaps to tie it into a good deal from an Irish teleco) or you can check
out UltimateDialer.com for some generic dialers.
Following a restart after downloading and installing your dialer, a customer would click on the application and a phone call starts that handles the entire Log-on process. Behind the scenes, the computer logs onto your premium call number where you start to run up a bill. Based on
how you programmed the dialer, the customer could see premium information that you've availed for authenticated visitors. The dialer contains the authentication.
Once visitors finish browsing the premium content, they simply disconnect from the dialer. Most then receive an option to automatically restore the original dial-up connection for normal Web browsing. The dialer remains on
the surfer's desktop for future use. It works as a premium rate service.
Premium rate services are charged on a different basis to ordinary telephone calls. While peak charges may vary, these dial-up services always cost more than a standard national rate.
Revenue from premium rate services splits into three piles. The telephone company whose network is used to initiate the call is paid for carrying the call. The phone company whose network terminates the call is also paid. Finally, the service provider is paid for the content. Because customers
pay for premium rate calls through their telephone bills, there is little concern for credit card fraud. In fact, premium call dialers open up an e-commerce link for those without credit cards.
Most premium rate calls in Ireland cost the customer IEP.58 per minute (including VAT) and the Service Provider, at the end of the month following that which the call was made, earns a Revenue Rebate of approximately IEP.30 per minute. Low-traffic sex sites attract 30,000 visitors each month. These sites feature heavy graphics that compel visitors to remain on site for at least five minutes at a time. Third level students who operate dial-for-porn Web sites can earn more monthly pocket money from their dialers to sex lines than the Minister for Education gives them in grants each year.
Most businesses make premium rate phone calls during telephone consultancy, accessing financial services, and voting to evict residents from the Big Brother House. The concept of paying a bit more for phone charges has become an accepted practise. It enables content creators to immediately see a trickle of revenue for their work.
Revenue from dialers comes faster than typical sponsorship deals. WebmasterCommerce.com pays approximately IEP.20 for each minute of use of their dialer. If you have compelling content that people return to see, you can sequester some of it behind secure directories. Make directory access
only through the dialer and you can view your deposits fortnightly in your current account instead of chasing advertisers for cheques.
Premium Rate Dialers have emerged from the porn industry and now are firmly entrenched in other content-rich areas of the Internet. If you travel the Warez World, you could be getting tomorrow's software through a dial-up arranged by XamoDial.com. Like WebmasterCommerce, payments come weekly at IEP.20 per minute. As expected of proper e-commerce initiatives, the commercial dialers can be accessed in more than 50 countries. The services normally offer real-time statistics on minutes generated by the dialer. Payouts are normally sent twice a month.
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