Funding
I’m not expecting to make a whole load of cash from this site, far from it, but it would be nice if it paid for itself. One option would be to put some ads on the site. What kind of adverts would be appropriate? One product I certainly won’t be advertising is 0870 number providers - unlike (bizarrely) the saynoto0870 site seems to do.
I really don’t see the point, sure if the site was called sayyesto0870 but anyone visiting saynoto0870 or this site is likely to be against these numbers on principle, the only people likely to click the ads are perhaps those who understand that by doing so and then not buying an 0870 number, they fund the saynoto site whilst depriving the 0870 number providers of cash by depleting their google adwords budget. I suspect there probably aren’t that many people who have the time to think of and then implement that strategy. If I was a 0870 provider and I saw my ads on that site I wouldn’t be too happy either.
I personally need 0845 alternatives most when I’m moving house or changing electricity providers so perhaps adverts for utilities companies would be a good fit. Anyway I’m not sure that this is the route I should take, it does kind of mess up the site design.
I’m considering putting ads in the mobile application but only if I can do it without cluttering the interface, there’s not much screen to play with as it is. I do like the idea of targeting the ad based on the phone number searched though. Say you’re looking for a number for bt broadband, you could receive an ad for a competing company offering a special deal on broadband, right at the moment you could be looking to change provider. Plus because it’s a mobile platform, you should be able to call the advertiser with a few simple clicks (on the cheapest non premium number of course). Well we’ll see what comes out of the mobile development in a few weeks time actually I’ve had a few requests to implement an open API to the numbers database, so that’s taken priority, Java app coming in a few more weeks time ;)
One option I’ve always liked is the “donate” button. I really like services that are confident enough in their usefullness that they are able to leave it up to the user how much they want to pay, if anything. Every so often you get a restaruant that does it. It also automaticallly accounts for the different situations people find themselves in at the time (rich or poor).