Comments on: “You’re not free? You’re gonna die!” http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/ Thought stream from SmugMug's CEO & Chief Geek Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:21:22 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9-rare hourly 1 By: Directory http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/comment-page-1/#comment-104064 Directory Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:37:11 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/#comment-104064 Very informative article, which I found quite useful. Cheers ,Jay Very informative article, which I found quite useful. Cheers ,Jay

]]> By: Markjay http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/comment-page-1/#comment-103737 Markjay Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:59:27 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/#comment-103737 I once worked for a company with vast resources of capital from investors. How did they choose to use that capitol? They created an online directory / yellow pages (like the web needs another one?) and began buy advertising FREE ADS to businesses. They assumed that FREE would be jumped all over by the business hungry community.... and it did not work. Then they decided if they just charge a "little" for the listings, they could bulldoze giants like Yellowpages.com and the like by simply charging only a fraction of what the long established yellow pages charged.... that didn't work either. See, they forgot that just because you offer a FREE ad, doesn't mean consumers will accidentally find their way to your website to SEE those ads. And so reluctant business owners asked: how will the consumers FIND your site to see my ad? So then the brilliant minds decided we'll just post dozens of billboards all over our local area and push the business owners into "seeing" our brand and they'll come flocking to us for our cheap ads. Well..... that didn't work either. They forgot that if you are going to create a directory you need consumers to USE the directory first, then your directory has an actual value to be marketed. So.... FREE didn't work and even CHEAP didn't work. Because if you don't do it right, cheap and free have ZERO value!! Thank you for your blog regarding these notions and your linked article was fascinating. Markjay I once worked for a company with vast resources of capital from investors. How did they choose to use that capitol? They created an online directory / yellow pages (like the web needs another one?) and began buy advertising FREE ADS to businesses. They assumed that FREE would be jumped all over by the business hungry community…. and it did not work. Then they decided if they just charge a "little" for the listings, they could bulldoze giants like Yellowpages.com and the like by simply charging only a fraction of what the long established yellow pages charged…. that didn't work either. See, they forgot that just because you offer a FREE ad, doesn't mean consumers will accidentally find their way to your website to SEE those ads. And so reluctant business owners asked: how will the consumers FIND your site to see my ad? So then the brilliant minds decided we'll just post dozens of billboards all over our local area and push the business owners into "seeing" our brand and they'll come flocking to us for our cheap ads. Well….. that didn't work either. They forgot that if you are going to create a directory you need consumers to USE the directory first, then your directory has an actual value to be marketed. So…. FREE didn't work and even CHEAP didn't work. Because if you don't do it right, cheap and free have ZERO value!!

Thank you for your blog regarding these notions and your linked article was fascinating.

Markjay

]]> By: Agoracom http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/comment-page-1/#comment-42386 Agoracom Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:24:02 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/#comment-42386 Don, glad to see the GigaOm article has brought out people like you and I that chose to go the business route vs. free/adwords. For too long, I've heard we were too small even though we make more of a profit than most Web 2.0 companies combined. Apart from being disappointing, it was also clearly a recipe for disaster. You knew it, we knew it, now the blogosphere is finally getting it. Perhaps we'll start getting a little more attention for our ability to incorporate W20 tools that businesses are willing to pay for. Best, George Don, glad to see the GigaOm article has brought out people like you and I that chose to go the business route vs. free/adwords. For too long, I’ve heard we were too small even though we make more of a profit than most Web 2.0 companies combined.

Apart from being disappointing, it was also clearly a recipe for disaster. You knew it, we knew it, now the blogosphere is finally getting it. Perhaps we’ll start getting a little more attention for our ability to incorporate W20 tools that businesses are willing to pay for.

Best,
George

]]> By: soxiam http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/comment-page-1/#comment-41214 soxiam Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:51:26 +0000 http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2007/03/13/youre-not-free-youre-gonna-die/#comment-41214 I don't think people are unaware of the risks involved in going with the free model. I think what's more likely happening is "free is easy. paid is hard." Your offering doesn't have to be refined or remarkable if you're going free to gain some traction. The mad dash to "so now how do we monetize it?" is the business cycle that most of these free businesses seem to be stuck in and most perish in. I don’t think people are unaware of the risks involved in going with the free model. I think what’s more likely happening is “free is easy. paid is hard.” Your offering doesn’t have to be refined or remarkable if you’re going free to gain some traction. The mad dash to “so now how do we monetize it?” is the business cycle that most of these free businesses seem to be stuck in and most perish in.

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