There is a recent online debate around "free"; mainly re-ignited by Chris Anderson's new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. We talk a lot around Compendium Blogware about free not really being free and honestly, sometimes people scoff a bit a the idea of a paid blogging software like Compendium. Social media hippies thing everything should be FREE, but I think it is important to note that there are quite a few issues with the idea of free in a broader sense (not to mention in the blog software space specifically, the numerous features and services that these services lack).
One concept that is presented in ZDNet's article is that of "freemium" --- giving away most of your product in hopes of selling the minority of your product. Even Anderson admits the idea of freemium is really more of a marketing strategy than actually giving you something for free. As a side note, Salesforce.com is a SaaS vendor I look up to, they regret ever trying the freemium model (see video link below for source), it's true -- once something is free, why would I pay for it or invest in upgrades that are integral to the product? Have you as a business nearly devalued your product in the marketplace? Outside of freemium; adversiting and syndication are the other busieness models discussed.
Phil Wainewright summarizes this "free" debate quite nicely..."The rules of arithmetic have not been subverted. Giving away stuff for free is not a business model, it's either an act of benevolence or it's a marketing ploy. If it's the latter, then you'd better make sure you've planned a sustainable means of making money once your marketing starts to being in customers --- either that or find yourself some extremely benevolent financial backers (if you believe believe such a thing exists)."
If you are really interested in all of this debate...check out the SIIA OnDemand Video as well.
One concept that is presented in ZDNet's article is that of "freemium" --- giving away most of your product in hopes of selling the minority of your product. Even Anderson admits the idea of freemium is really more of a marketing strategy than actually giving you something for free. As a side note, Salesforce.com is a SaaS vendor I look up to, they regret ever trying the freemium model (see video link below for source), it's true -- once something is free, why would I pay for it or invest in upgrades that are integral to the product? Have you as a business nearly devalued your product in the marketplace? Outside of freemium; adversiting and syndication are the other busieness models discussed.
Phil Wainewright summarizes this "free" debate quite nicely..."The rules of arithmetic have not been subverted. Giving away stuff for free is not a business model, it's either an act of benevolence or it's a marketing ploy. If it's the latter, then you'd better make sure you've planned a sustainable means of making money once your marketing starts to being in customers --- either that or find yourself some extremely benevolent financial backers (if you believe believe such a thing exists)."
If you are really interested in all of this debate...check out the SIIA OnDemand Video as well.
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