Making Money with Premium Rate
Ever Wondered how to make money by Operating A Premium Rate Line Service?
What Is a Premium Rate Line?
Until a few years ago, the cost of making a call was born by the
person initiating the contact - unless a reverse charge agreement had
been made with the operator.
The cost of the call was based on the distance, which in general meant
the longer the distance the higher the cost. Today this is no longer the
case with both the cost, and who pays is subject to a multiplicity of
options.
0800 numbers were some of the earliest options, where the receiver
of the call automatically accepted the charge for the call. Later the
03XX numbers were introduced which enabled the receiver of the call to
set the (higher) rate for the call. These are the so called Premium Rate
services.
The Premium Rate Line is a telephone number which, if anyone calls they
will be charged at a fixed rate per minute chosen by the recipient of the
call - the Information Service Provider.
In the UK typical numbers begin with 0906, 0907. The rates vary depending
on the service and typical values are 25p ,50p,60p, £1, and £1.50 per minute.
The telephone company subtracts the standard rate cost of the call, and the
rest of the money is paid to you.
A Premium rate line is the same as a normal telephone line, which means
that your telephone supplier does not have to install special connections to
your home/office. Standard telephone sockets are used.
The Information Service Provider can either be collect information from a
caller - or provide information to the caller - but remember, it is always
the caller who pays for the call! The Service can be based on, automated voice
or real voice; it can be FAX on demand, or simply the caller ringing up to
record a message, such as the answer to a quiz or the position of a
rare bird! (If you run a club this is a great way of generating funds)
A Interactive Voice Response System is required at the Information Service
Provider's end to operate the service. This is simply a complex computer
system with the relevant software and hardware to enable it to communicate
with the caller over the telephone system.
The sort of things it can do are:
- Answer calls with a synthesised voice and record messages from
callers
- Answer calls with synthesised voice and using the callers telephone
key pad to select messages, or documents to be downloaded
- Fax-back specific documents from specific numbers called.
- Transfer calls to your mobile or landline by pressing different
options
- Ring or page you when a message is left
- Call you with the waiting message
- E-mail you all voice message left everytime one is recorded.
The applications are endless - even a hobby can be turned into a money
spinner. A few are examples listed below. The opportunities are endless.
Take a look at our IVR Applications page.
Application Examples
| FAX BACK |
VOICE RESPONSE |
- Joke Lines Fax-back
- Weather Fax on Demand
- Auction Lists
- Repossessions Lists
- Maps Astrology
- Sporting Results
- Last Minute Holiday Offers
- Directories
- Back Issues - linked to magazines
- Component Catalogues
- Reports
- Technical Notes
- Travel Information
|
- Mobile Content Lines
- Quiz Line
- TV or Radio Programme Response Line
- Chat Lines
- Tarot Advice Lines
- Dating Services
- Pay-for-product
- Info Lines
- Competition Lines
- Voting
- Too Many to List here!
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How do I get started?
Have a think about how you want to run the service, if you are running it
from your office or home you will need to install a few lines and have to
right specialist equipment in place in order to receive calls. When this
is in place simply call us to purchase your premium rate number and then
start you advertising.
If you don't have a big budget or a poor cash flow you might want to rent
a server from us which means we lay out all the large cost of installation
and maintenance of these computers. Off site means out of mind, your service
will run for a tenth of the price in secure alarmed and air conditioned
premises 24hrs a day 365 days a year giving you nothing to worry about.
Please click here to find out more on renting a virtual server.
Alternitivly you can use our IVR system werby you pay a setup fee, monthly
fee and you lose a few pence per miniute, however you don't need any
lines hardware , software or anything else and setup charges start
at £99.
How many Lines do I need?
This all depends on the amount of telephone traffic you expect. In a
normal 10 hour day, a single line can handle 60 x 1 minute calls
comfortably. So, four lines can handle 240 calls per day. Typical systems
range from one line to many, many thousand!. If your renting a virtual
server from us we will take care of this for you.
How much does it cost?
Taking a Four Line example with renting a virtual server :
Initial Set-up Cost |
| Virtual Server setup |
£120.00 |
| Premium rate number |
£60.00 |
| First month rental |
£45.00 |
| Total Set-up Costs |
£225.00 |
|
|
Ongoing Charges |
| Monthly Line Rental of system £45.00 |
£120.00 |
| Total Ongoing Costs |
£45.00 |
You only need, per month, 9 five minute calls at
£1 per minute to cover your Operating expenses. |
What is my Pay-back?
Your system can handle up to 240 calls per day.
| At £1.00 per minute: |
| 240 calls x 30 days (one month) £7200 per month |
| Minus outgoings @ £45.00 per month |
| Total £7155 profit per month |
What happens if I need more Lines!!?
Don't worry, if you system is getting busy we will put more lines on right away. When your callers start to get engaged tones your system sets an alarm off in our 24hr monitoring station so we can contact you to arrange more lines.
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