You are dealing with this in entirely the wrong way Jeff. My question
isnt about the data or the fees - its the time frame. You are (i assume)
continuously updating the base data seeing as you are asking for out-
side information from the public [me entering my VIN info for example.]
If you are locking that data away and asking for money to access (which
is perfectly acceptable) do you expect me to pay $5 every time i access
the site to see if any new information is posted? If so, that seems a
bit excessive, and $65 for two weeks is, frankly, flat out ridiculous -
thats a $1690/yr membership if i want to check in every week. Also, as
a member of your site i dont understand how it works - there is no
clear understanding as to what my $5-65 gets me, or not at least that
ive been able to find.
If youre concerned with people mass-downloading your research, why
not create a mass-file and charge $50 for it, or create a yearly membership
for $65 (though id be more in at the $30 range) and a single or X-number
of VINs for $5. You have a website that youre effectively stopping people
from visiting more than once every couple of years.
The other side of this is that once youve uploaded the info youre never
going to add to it again (again, perfectly acceptable) - but if thats the
case you have to expect people to mass-download to get as much value
for their dollar as they can - thats just human nature.
No one is criticizing your work, or your effort, just that this setup offers
no real value to the average customer who, chances are, doesnt really
care if they have the info or not. Its the raffle mentality all over again -
do you can sell 1000tix for $100 or 150tix for $500? Im just trying to
help you out man, theres a reason Carfax started failing when they
began limiting searches.