You've got (junk) mail
I got yet another AOL CD today. I've been keeping them, thinking one day I'll send them to the guys at www.nomoreaolcds.com. At the moment I have accumulated 34 (12 for version 9.0; 13 for 8.0; 5 for 7.0; 1 for 6.0; 2 for 4.0; 1 undertermined version). I'm not sure how far back that stretches, and I know this is not all that I have recieved. (That they sometimes send them in DVD cases is pretty nice of them.)
I'm not totally sure how the PRSRT STD postage that AOL uses works, but according to the USPS website, the presorted parcel rate for a 3-ounce package (roughly the weight of one AOL CD) is $0.761. Thus, for postage alone, AOL has spent $25.87 to try to get me to use their service, which now costs $23.90 per month. This does not include any costs of actually producing the CD with the software on it or its packaging. This new one offers me three free months, and so when will they start making a profit from me signing up for their service? Is this a good business model?
In order to help balance the scales, AOL has apparently started selling advertising space on their mailers. Today's CD includes a "Free Spider-Man 2 Game Movie Preview." This does not strike me as a financially effective way to get more people who would not see it already to see Spider-Man 2.
I'm not totally sure how the PRSRT STD postage that AOL uses works, but according to the USPS website, the presorted parcel rate for a 3-ounce package (roughly the weight of one AOL CD) is $0.761. Thus, for postage alone, AOL has spent $25.87 to try to get me to use their service, which now costs $23.90 per month. This does not include any costs of actually producing the CD with the software on it or its packaging. This new one offers me three free months, and so when will they start making a profit from me signing up for their service? Is this a good business model?
In order to help balance the scales, AOL has apparently started selling advertising space on their mailers. Today's CD includes a "Free Spider-Man 2 Game Movie Preview." This does not strike me as a financially effective way to get more people who would not see it already to see Spider-Man 2.
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