There are certain websites on the Internet that have tremendous potential. Then they have certain catches that also hold them back. One that I have noticed for years that would easily fall into this category is Classmates.com. Here is a site that wants people to join up, it will list your name, graduating year from high school (or whatever school) and you can easily see all of the people that you attended with (if they have already signed up as well).

The catch: If you don’t pay the price to be a gold member then you can’t communicate with anyone else listed, at least not to let them know who you are. No, the price isn’t that high (as low as $3 a month) but that’s not the point. If they want to build a community that keeps people coming back then make it less expensive ($1 per month, which is fair if you consider the number of users) or free, and just collect the revenues from advertising. FREE=More Traffic=Ad Revenues Increase.

Decreasing the cost of a site like that is a win-win situation – people will want to return regularly, thus increasing traffic and revenues, all while people can get in touch with those they haven’t seen in quite some time.

And that’s my 2 cents worth, minus inflation.