Sunday, July 4, 2010

Ancestry.com Offering 15% Savings on NEW Subscriptions

The weekly PARADE Magazine, which comes in the San Diego Union-Tribune and many other Sunday newspapers, had a spread about Ancestry.com. Included was a 15% off a membership to http://www.ancestry.com/.

The Ancestry.com "membership" deal is on this page on Ancestry.com. An annual U.S. Deluxe membership would be $132.00, and an annual World Deluxe membership would be $254.40. Similar reductions are available for a three-month or one-month subscription. However, full membership prices are in effect after the end of whatever term a subscriber chooses.

There is a restriction for this deal -- to persons that have not had an Ancestry.com subscription in the last 90 days. That lets me out.

The deal expires 10 July 2010 at Midnight (presumably, that is midnight after 9 July?).

There seem to be few, if any, other Ancestry.com subscription deals available at this time for new subscribers or for renewing subscribers.

This is pretty smart marketing by Ancestry.com. I wonder why they did it in early July instead of during or right after the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series? Perhaps the summer is a historical low period for new subscriptions.

The Parade article has a link to the article How to Build Your Family Tree, with a three-step research process, which includes this quote:

"...You can search for historical records at family history sites like Ancestry.com (in fact, your family tree at Ancestry.com will search the records for you automatically). Start with a parent or grandparent and you may discover marriage details, military records, passenger lists, census records and more. And forget about paperwork: online historic records can be viewed directly from your computer and saved in your family tree for easy access."

I almost fell off my pedestal laughing ... but would have been buried under my paper mountain, little of which was obtained, or can be obtained, from online record sources.

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of Ancestry.com, and have received no remuneration for this article. I am a fully paid US Deluxe subscriber to Ancestry.com.

10 comments:

Ravenswick said...

"Forget about paperwork"? "Your Family Tree Will Search For You"? Are they serious??? This just encourages bad data to be put out there online. A novice researcher will think every record that the Family Tree finds should be attached to their ancestor (I have come across this so many times) and they will never bother to search any further. I think that Parade article was written by someone with no genealogy experience at all.

Jim Smith said...

This is simply a corporate marketing strategy and Ancestry seems to repeat this same "pull-them-in" type tactic every so often. The 90-day previous membership seems to be a new twist this time.

Susi's Quarter said...

It seems Ancestry.com just has not changed from days of yore at all.
I was looking up to new heights to only learn it is the same old same old wheel deal down deal.
Let's all go back to making usgenweb.com work better. Those people at least are honest and it is everyones sharing to get somewhere. I am sure that there are many great people at ancestry but what a bad publicity stunt this appears to be. So misleading to newbies.

Elyse Doerflinger said...

Wow. I can't believe they really said that! They should be promoting good genealogy methods - not leading people down the wrong path with misconceptions.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti said...

Of course the comments re paperwork are just silly and the bad research data will be taken as truth by newbies.

On the other hand, it was good to see a genealogy article (and a few others) in a mainstream publication even though it was a sponsored feature.

It can spark awareness of genealogy among those who have never thought of it before, and we can only hope that some of them will catch the proper virus that encourages good, accurate research!

Re paperwork. I remember when I got my first computer. My husband said "Hooray. Now all the piles of paper will disappear. HA! HA! HA!

Like Randy, I am drowning in papers.

Schelly

Jasia said...

Don't feel too bad about being left out Randy. You're not alone. I tried to sign up (it's been more than 90 days since my Ancestry subscription expired) but it wouldn't let me do so for the discount price either. It's just another come on. Ancestry.com continues to disappoint me on a regular basis.

Jim Smith said...

Jasia,

At one point, before the most recent Ancestry.com inclusion of their "prior membership disclaimer", they were offering a discount for the Annual Deluxe Package. The very polite telephone representative tried to tell me, reading from her script, that the discount was only applicable to new subscriptions. I stated that in none of their current, at the time, advertisements or marketing documentations was there any mention of "only to new subscribers".

She, again following her script, attempted to tell me that I could not renew at the lower price. I stood fast and after speaking to a number of more senior levels, Ancestry.com finally agreed to allow me to renew at the new discounted rate.

I would tell you that if they are not delivering and attempting to uphold the announced "90-day" notification you could push the envelope, so-to-speak, to get the new membership discount.

Oh and by the way I was warned as well that I would lose everything in my Ancestry.com account, aka folders, etc., if I did drop my account and attempt to renew as a new member/subscriber. My response was that I did not keep anything saved at Ancestry.com. I only used Ancestry.com as the reference tool, which if I may also interject is a wonderful resource, but it is not my home base... nor do I ever intend to make it one.

Ancestry.com, now a publicly traded company should realize that it is key also to build a secure foundation in their elder subscription members.

(My Blog, A Genealogy Hunt - http://agenealogyhunt.blogspot.com. I do not take any political position nor sell anything on my Blog. I only conduct research.)

Jim Smith

Tamura Jones said...

Ancestry.com and good genealogy methods?
Robert Pattinson is related to Dracula, even if he is not, because their PR department has decided he is. No, despite repeated request, Ancestry PR has still not supplied anything even vaguely resembling a genealogy for Robert Pattinson, nor withdrawn its unsubstantiated claim.

Jim Smith said...

It is always a question when a PR, including Marketing and Sales Department(s) play on the "horrific" and fantasy-attributes to sell a product. Their implication is to draw on Dracula, the novel and ride the tide of the latest movie craze. It is a work of fiction. And I would tender a guess that that strategy is what the members of those departments will hope to garner their upcoming bonuses.

Vlad I, II and III Dracula of Wallachia were real. "Dracul a", I believe meant son of Dracul.

Jim

Jim Smith said...

I just received this email from Find My Past.com - "Your loyalty discount has been applied - you will save 20% on next year's subscription."