by: David Bell
900 numbers have been heavily advertised over the last few years as a great way to make money. Everybody from Dionne Warwick to Don Lapre are getting in on the pay per call action
In theory (theory mind you) they are a great way for people to make money. You start up a simple phone line and people start calling by the thousands (I sound like someone I know on TV).
When the numbers became popular a few years ago, sex and adult lines were a large part of the business. Psychic lines are now the rage. There are some psychic lines that are generating millions of dollars in calls per month (Although Dionne's did go bankrupt, didn't the psychics warn her?) but every single one of these lines has huge advertising budgets and the people renting out lines are not going to advertise a thing, only rent you the lines.
There are many company's that rent 900 numbers if you would like to get one. When company's first started renting lines 10 years ago, the person renting would only get a small percentage of each call, maybe 10% to 20%. But now that so many company's are renting lines (increased competition), the call per-minute amount you get is much more. You can literally find hundreds of different company's in the back of business magazines that will sell you consulting and 900 lines.
976 numbers were the first toll lines that came out. The problem was that they were local only and didn't have that many features. Large advertisers wanted one number they could advertise all over the US and get calls for, not just one small local area. 900 number's solved that problem.
There are really two big problems with 900 number's. The first is perception. 900 number's seem really idiotic to most people. If you have a great business idea or way to make money, 900 number's would probably be one of the worst places to advertise. How many friends do you have that call 900 number's each month? How many 900 number's did you call last month? These are the sorts of things you have to think of when you are going to start a business. If you would never use the services, why would anybody else? This is something that people like Don Lapre would never tell you. Don lapre just wants you to think that 900 numbers are just a big cash cow. Not the reality.
The other thing is money. You need a lot of money to really get a 900 numbers going. Starting with $500 isn't going to do it. You need a heck of a lot more than that. Most of the big company's have $500,000 monthly advertising budgets (that's even out of my league.)
You are much better off getting into direct marketing, network marketing, internet marketing or even real estate investing over dealing with 900 numbers
I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.