Just in time to send digital seasons' greetings, several top sites switch to subscription service for increasingly popular cards.
Published:
19 December 2001 y., Wednesday
Slackers and tightwads accustomed to sending free, last-minute holiday e-cards may find the equivalent of coal in their in-box this year: Several major greeting card sites now charge for their wares.
AmericanGreetings.com and recent acquisition BlueMountain.com, the two most popular e-card sites on the Web, now charge for access to their holiday selection and other specialty e-cards. The introductory offer: $11.95 for a year of access that lets you send an unlimited number of cards, as well as providing an address book and a reminder service. The company continues to offer other types of e-cards--such as "thinking of you" messages, free of charge.
A dollar a month isn't exactly pricey. Still, it's likely to rub some users--accustomed to free stuff--the wrong way, even in this, the jolliest of seasons.
Tops among alternate e-card sites are FlowGo and Hallmark.com, each of which has found ways to make money from their e-card offerings without charging subscription fees.
At Hallmark the e-cards remain free, but the company hopes you'll stick around and buy some traditional cards or a gift certificate through its online store, says Kathi Mishek, a Hallmark spokesperson.
Šaltinis:
idg.net
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
INFORMATION BUILDERS NEXT month will announce products to extend enterprise data to a variety of portable devices
more »
Waltham-based Lycos Inc. hopes a global deal with the sponsors of the 2000 Summer Olympics will provide a major boost to the company's worldwide visibility.
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Japan is drawing up a five-year plan to surpass the United States as an Internet powerhouse through massive investment in high-speed infrastructure and scuttling laws that inhibit e-commerce.
more »
Traditional retailers Superquinn, Heiton Holdings and Eircom have together taken a 41 per cent stake, valued at euro 4.8 million, in a new Internet shopping venture, Buy4Now.ie.
more »
The federal government introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Bill 2000 into the senate.
more »
A 23-year-old college student was arrested Thursday and charged with staging one of the biggest financial hoaxes ever on the Internet and pocketing almost $250,000 by issuing fraudulent information on technology company Emulex Corp.
more »
At last, there's a business model for Gnutella's rough-and-tumble world of file-swapping: spam.
more »
Perhaps it is very difficult to find somebody who is absolutely indifferent to the others’ opinion. There are many ways to get known what other people think: referendums may be organized, questionnaires of different kinds may be prepared. Here we introduce another way you may do it.
more »
A new Napster-like program has sprung up online that piggybacks on America Online's popular instant messaging service, limiting swaps of music and other files to close, trusted groups of people.
more »