To Free or not to Free - Help Needed

[Vincent]

Over the last few days I've been toying with the idea of allowing people to download any document from my website for free, except my books. I want to and need to change my whole strategy and mindset regarding the webpage.

My question is should I do it or not?

As I don't want to influence anyone's thinking, I would like to leave this as open as possible. I would prefer a Q & A and from the Q & A develop a strategy.

Your comments, viewpoints, suggestions and question would be greatly appreciated.

[Dave A]

This could turn into quite a long thread if a few people participate, because it cuts to the core of the value (and saleability) of information in the internet era.

I know Paul Jacobson was contemplating the same dilemma not too long ago. Should he just make a substantial collection of legal documents available free, and then live off the inquiries of people needing or wanting personal attention? I tried to visit his site to get a link to the actual blog post, but he seems to have server problems just at the moment.

Obviously I've gone the free route with this site, so it might seem I've got a predisposed bias here. But that particular decision was more Gung Ho than carefully structured reason. So I'm quite interested in trying to analyse the issue in a more structured way.

I'm tempted to hare off down a particular line of thinking, but I suppose the first thing is to ask a few questions. Off the top of my head, the first two are:

What is the environment?
What is the objective?

[QUINN]

This could turn into quite a long thread if a few people participate, because it cuts to the core of the value (and saleability) of information in the internet era.

I know Paul Jacobson was contemplating the same dilemma not too long ago. Should he just make a substantial collection of legal documents available free, and then live off the inquiries of people needing or wanting personal attention? I tried to visit his site to get a link to the actual blog post, but he seems to have server problems just at the moment.

Obviously I've gone the free route with this site, so it might seem I've got a predisposed bias here. But that particular decision was more Gung Ho than carefully structured reason. So I'm quite interested in trying to analyse the issue in a more structured way.

I'm tempted to hare off down a particular line of thinking, but I suppose the first thing is to ask a few questions. Off the top of my head, the first two are:

What is the environment?
What is the objective?

Dave I would have gone with the Business Warrior model, small fee access to a lot of free advice.
But thats me......... always ready to make a bob.

[Vincent]

Dave I would have gone with the Business Warrior model, small fee access to a lot of free advice.
But thats me......... always ready to make a bob.

QUINN:
I would agree with you, but it's not what my business is about. I'm not there to sell documents, but rather build a client base to whom I can sell my services. The documents are all freely available on the net, if you take the time to search.

[QUINN]

QUINN:
I would agree with you, but it's not what my business is about. I'm not there to sell documents, but rather build a client base to whom I can sell my services. The documents are all freely available on the net, if you take the time to search.

I am thinking along the same line but I have found you end up giving a lot of free advice and people take up much of my time and then just DIY the issue.

[Debbiedle]

It has been my experience that you can give it for free and sell it and you will still have sales! People are bone idle and or stuck for time and learn in different ways. In the past it was said never sell anything on the net that can be found for free, I believe that the net has become so big that there is little you cannot find for free. So I would look at it from a different angle. What do I want to sell, what is easy to deliver once paid for and then give the rest away if necessary?

[Karenwhe]

This is a very interesting thread with lots of good ideas.

IMHO is not about free or not free but more like what you want to give free why and what you get in return.

There is no free lunch. So question: what do you want in return for your ebooks? (e.g. leads? lists? etc). I can't remember who said this, but someone called it Moving the Free Line. Entering the arena of lists and newsletters is very much "permission marketing". Personally, I would never suggest to anyone to start anything in permission marketing unless it is their primary business, as it is time consuming, long term and most give up before they see the rewards of permission marketing. I also hear of a new term to this with a twist called "education marketing". Still long, time consuming, very rewarding but only for those that have a good business model behind it and the time and resources to execute.

I think that one needs to think through strategy before deciding to sell or give something free. In that strategy one should work out what is the return for the free stuff, how much does it cost you to get a qualified lead, what is life value of a customer and then how much is the data worth?

In general imho, one should have both.

I also recommend reading the book by Jay Abraham: “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition� (it is on amazon)

It is full of ideas.

On a different note, I also do not think that people DIY on advise, that is of course from my personal experience, you tell people what to do and they still want you to do it for them.

Also imho the pay for subscription model is not out of date at all. Finding valuable paid subscriptions that have absolute and undisputable value to the customer are few and far between. As Trout says, there are too many "me too" products that is why the old model seem so outdated, because there are no new distinctive or innovative products and services with true value to customer/consumer so the model seems outdated. Wherever there is TRUE value people pay, how many will pay and how much they will pay and how much can the owner of the site make will depend on many things, but one of course is the size of the market.

[Dave A]

Dave I would have gone with the Business Warrior model, small fee access to a lot of free advice.

This site certainly was not based on the BW model

Pete's site is well worth the subscription by old style value systems - no doubt. But the low cost/high volume nature of the internet has turned those old style value systems on their head. Not to mention the idea of building closed information resources.

One big change I'd have made if I had gone that route would be to carve off a slice to go back to the major contributors. It's something I have back of mind if ever we get huge here too.

A different path.

[Vincent]

Thanks Dave. First off I'm not a lawyer, but I do have access to people who can provide legal advice. Secondly the environment that I work in is that of Business rescue, business turnaround, change management etc., and also do comprehensive business valuations.

The objectives are simple:
1) grow my customer base via people registering - offering something of value
2) grow my customer base by presenting seminars of two and a half hours for R100.00 - have my books and CDs with a variety of documents and open source programs for sale.
3) Use the open source concept - the documents are free but my services are billed.

One of my strengths - good at presenting seminar/workshop

PS - will be away from my computer most of the day - will answer any other questions when I get back.

[Dave A]

I consider various aspects of internet culture are big factors in this discussion.

• Most internet savvy folks expect stuff for free. Particularly the younger age groups. They have a totally different value perspective to folks conditioned to doing info business pre-internet.
• Information that is charged for on one site is often available free elsewhere (or at least something similar, but still useable) - you just need to know how to use the search engines.
• Many of the commercial online information models I've seen give some information for free, but have an added value option for those who are looking for more.

What else is there that we need to consider on the "internet culture" side?