Since today is the day all of us procrastinators in the U.S. are frantically doing our taxes I thought a post about money would be appropriate. Like the "
Fixing What's Not Broken" posts the comments below are taken from
Ancestry.com's Facebook page. Some of the threads these were posted to asked, "Would you recommend Ancestry.com?" Other threads asked for an opinion of the site.
As always my (usually sarcastic) comments are in
red.
✿ The research takes a very long time and more time is needed for the trial period...I keep telling myself, when I am able to focus on it for a daily two week period, I will join for the trial. I have about 30 leaves waiting to be explored. PLEASE MAKE THE TRIAL PERIOD LONGER AND GIVE US SOME FREE DAYS EACH YEAR.
✿ Translation: I can't be bothered to become a paying customer but you should cater to my needs anyway.
✿ I'd like to join but friends say it's too expensive
✿ I haven't joined because I've heard from too many people that it is way too expensive.
✿ Translation: I'd like to join but I can't think for myself so I just believe everything other people tell me.
✿ I would like to see the money that is spent on celebrities used to lower the subscriber price.
✿ It's called advertising and it brings in more subscribers. If they quit advertising prices will go up because they won't be getting as many new subscribers. Besides, Ancestry advertises with Who Do You Think You Are? it does not produce it. It would be great if people knew the difference.
✿ I remember when you could find things on there site for free but not any more.
✿ I know someone who remembers when Ancestry didn't have any of the U.S. federal censuses. The site has evolved. Parts of it are free. Currently there are over 800 free collections. To find out which ones go to the card catalog, type FREE into the keyword box and click search.
✿ Make it possible to get world information for a month or 3 months so its not so expensive
✿ You can already subscribe a month at a time.
✿ It would be a much better value if the membership was for BOTH US AND International records. The price nearly doubles for the International Membership. $60 a MONTH may not be a lot of money to some .. but is much more difficult to budget than the $30 we sacrifice for only US Records.
✿ If Ancestry took your advice (they won't) the Facebook page would be flooded with a different whining: "I only need US records. Why can't there be a less expensive subscription so I don't have to pay for world records that I don't need yet?" Besides, the most expensive World subscription in the U.S. is $35/month not $60. If you're paying that much you must be talking about another site.
✿ I am very disappointed with Ancestry.com your fees keep going up
and now documents we used to get have to be paid for through another
company, we used to get Kentucky death certificates now if we want them
we have to fork out more money!!!!
✿ I don't know what this person is complaining about. Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1983
are still on Ancestry.com. Images are viewable if you have a
subscription. I picked a record at random. The screen shot of the index
is below. I was able to view it the new viewer (first arrow) and the
old viewer (second arrow). The last link (third arrow) is to VitalChek. It's included on every vital (birth, marriage & death) record.
The VitalChek link was in the top space for a while but apparently it
caused blindness in some people. They couldn't see the "view image"
link that was as clear as day below it. The VitalChek link does not mean
you are required to order the record. It doesn't even mean that the
record is available to order. It means that IF that record is available
to order you can do so from the link for a fee. A fee that will most likely be
more than you would pay if you went directly to the county or state
source.
✿
I don't like clicking on a hint and having to buy something to see
it. I realize you need to make money, but if I am taking the time to
put my family history in and being accurate as I can, its not fair I
have to pay a significant amount of cash if I was a year or two in my
tree.
✿ I'm going to ignore the last part
since I have no earthly idea what they are trying to say. I think the
first part is again referring to the VitalChek link. If you order a record the
money will go to VitalChek, not Ancestry.com.
✿ Lower your prices. I pay monthly & Some months I don't even use it. Thinking about canceling but don't really want to.
✿ You pay monthly, the most expensive payment option, and you're willing to pay even in months when you don't use it. They should lower their prices why?
✿ Would like a cheaper way to search international records since I have only limited need. Perhaps some form of per occasion fee. Presently not worth it to buy the whole package.
✿ So get a World subscription for a month or see if the records you want are available on ALE (Ancestry Library Edition). No one is forcing you to pay for an entire year.
✿ Reduce the cost of membership and you will make it up in the amount of new subscribers.
✿ Make it more affordable. Really, if you think about it, if you made it more affordable, more people would sign up! That could make more money and expand your database. The more connections that can be made, the happier people will be and therefore be more likely to continue and recommend it to their friends. There is a lot of information you can get out there from free sites, so you really have provide extra incentive for people to sign up.
✿ How wonderful that you two have this figured out. After all, a multimillion dollar company would never invest time and money into researching price points. They don't need to factor in the cost of server upkeep or new record acquisitions or the number of employees. I'm sure they just pulled a number out of thin air and went with it but thanks to your thorough analysis I'm sure they will lower their prices.
✿ Ya know ancestry was good til I couldn't see extra links or suggestions to family tree history the cost should be free and ancestry could still earn plenty of money by selling framed family tree information to its users. Posters of extensive trees etc could be great gifts. But I stopped researching and finding family when the free trial ran out and I could not see things that would have helped finish my tree. Hence no orders of framed trees for gifts to family members.
(same person a few minutes later)
✿ Ancestry could also earn money by charging for books of complete family history with records etc included even further items such as advertising and helping reunite lost family members. The membership fee is costing more loss of sales and users than anything since it is a very good program!
✿ Yet another solid business plan. Sigh.
✿ Give year subscription free when product is purchased ...can't afford membership fee so can't further my research
✿ TOO COSTLY!! Geneology shouldn't be just for the wealthy!
✿ And since Ancestry.com owns absolutely everything you couldn't possibly do "geneology" research without it. Ever.
After the jump: Freeloaders & Freebies
