11

How Geni could monetize!

מנחם מנדל אלישביץ

October 05, 2011 22:59

None

Follow

I just wanted to voice my frustration at the new limits placed on adding distant relatives as profiles. For the past few months I have been collaborating with distant relatives on piecing together the descendants of my 5th great grandfather. Some of the collaborators are over 70 years old but have been working hard to decyper old records and evidence and add details to the tree. Now it must all come to a stop. It's a sad day for me. Even if sign up to Pro, it will be with a heavier heart - it will not have the thrill of collaboration but the boring feel of working alone.

All dedicated users until now have been investing alot of time into the site with certain expectations which have now been shattered. You now give the impression of a wild elephant who thinks whatever it wants without even being apologetic. The future of your terms now seems bleak and unpredictable, who knows what you will decide tomorrow? The reason so many users spent hours on your site building the tree is because of the trust that you are a responsible company. But now the trust is eroded. If you would at least provide a survey to your users asking them what would motivate them most to upgrade, you would be in a much better position, financially too.

Here's what I would suggest:

* Remove the new limitations on free accounts. Instead add nagware/ads or delays for free accounts.
* Add an iphone version for Pro users.
* Add hebrew dates & reminders for Pro users, or other special calendars that will get special groups to become interested in Pro.
* Add much more reports available for Pro (like family tree maker)

* Maybe add an option to buy premium membership for an entire family to make it easy for cousins to collaborate on ancestors without requiring everyone in the family to give their credit card info which is unrealistic even when money is not an issue.

Bottom line: The differences between Pro and Regular uses should not be withing the basic functions of the site, but only for extras and convenience. I'm sure if you do this right, anyone who could afford it will upgrade.

3 comments

• 0
  
  Coreen Coco Boothe November 19, 2011 01:14

  Thank you very much for this complaint. I rarely frequent Geni these days because it has become quite a nuisance!

• 0
  
  賈元春(一) November 20, 2011 03:26

  Agree. People who go pro are those who are enthusiastic about genealogy. It was more like a donation, but now it's ransom.

  I wanted to add that more tree viewing options could be available to Pros. I don't mean to suggest to take away the existing tree options from basic users, but I guess it would have been a better alternative than limiting adding profiles and search restrictions.

  For example, a new tree option, which I feature-requested not long ago but didn't get much attention, is that of a tree only displays paternal relations --- people with the same last name.

  The tree used to be Geni's big selling point, and you should push more in that direction. It already seems outdated (doesn't work with Mac's trackpad, not to say touch-screens).

  Timeline would also be a good feature if you can make it visual. Facebook is onto something in that regard.

• 0
  
  Zuzana Hubsch November 03, 2013 11:31

  It become quite a nuisance. I agree.