Have you paid for genealogical content? It appears you are not the only one and Ancestry.com would like to capitalise on investor funding. As with any site, and genealogical sites are no different it seems - people are willing to pay for what they need, but no more. Using a subscriber model, Ancestry.com appears to be suffering from what businesses the world over know as "leaky bucket syndrome". For every new subscriber they gain, they are losing subscribers (about 4% a month), and are therefore constantly looking for new subscribers.

Breakingviews.com - A High Price for Ancestry.com - NYTimes.com

Ancestry.com wants to put down some roots. The genealogy Web site hopes investors will provide $100 million in an initial public offering, valuing the whole thing at $572 million. That seems too high for Ancestry to cement a happy legacy with investors.

How do you as a genealogist pay for access to vital information? Would you be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee, or would you prefer a pay as you go model? As a family history researcher myself I do find it interesting that some months I can be constantly working on my genealogical research and others - rarely find the time to climb the family tree. I can therefore see the benefit and the drawbacks of both pricing models.

I'd be interested to hear people's views on the topic.