The case for “Free” (again)
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 03 Jan 2010, 12:10 AM – 2 Comments
A few months ago, I wrote on the topic – “The Business Case for Giving Away Your Best Work For Free” at TomPeters.com.
My fascination with free started in early 2000s when I was leading an open source company. I continue to be amazed at the power of free.
I was checking the bestsellers on Kindle. Can you guess the price of each of the top ten books?
Zero. Zilch. Nothing.
The top selling book “The Crossroads Cafe” by Deborah Smith has been in the top 100 books for last 9 days. There are 40 customer reviews almost everyone of them have given a 5-Star rating for the book. Deborah has another book “Mossy Creek” on #3.
If that’s not enough, note that book #11 is Alex, I Cross by bestselling author James Patterson priced at $9.99.
Free an unfair competitive advantage on price. How can you compete with something that costs nothing?
By giving something even higher quality for nothing.
By giving your best work for free.
Think about how you can incorporate “Free” into your offerings.
Related Articles:- The Business Case for Giving Away Your Best Work for FREE!
- The “Free” Dilemma – Bits vs Atoms
- Beyond Code featured in InBubbleWrap – 20 FREE copies to be given away on July 7, 2006
- 10 reasons why you may not ask for help
Posted in the Business Models category.
RSS
2 Comments so far, Add Yours
Rajesh Setty on January 3rd, 2010
Ha Ha… Good one Dave.
Honestly, it is the bits vs atoms problem.
Incremental cost of delivering additional bits is close to zero. That’s simply not the case with atoms.
If you would be satisfied with a virtual home on the web, I am sure your landlord will be more understanding 
Best,
Rajesh
Leave a Comment
Dave Doolin on January 3rd, 2010
I get it, I really do. But my landlord doesn’t.
And that’s a huge conundrum for me.