The concept of "free" isn't exactly a new one, but it is taking on a sort of new life in the digital age as major publishers (slowly) warm up to the concept – except the recording industry, of course, where the "free" is usually coupled with "to help make us a lot more money."
Radiohead and New York Times is one of the latest to remove the monetary barriers to its online content. You'll have to register instead, though, to give the advertisers the demographic information they crave – even if there have been entire (if unsuccessful) petitions in the past to drop those registration pages. London-based Financial Times was less generous, allowing 30 free pageviews a month with registration.
Two Laws of Online Content
1. People don't want to pay for it.
2. People don't want to tell you their life story to get it, either.
That's because Internet users, like humans as biological beings, are inherently selfish and lazy. That's not a swipe at humanity, just the reality. People want their content free with a certain immediacy – damn the advertisers.
The NYT was making about
The Law of Gimme-Gimme
People will take anything as long as it's free, whether or not they need it or want it*.
The latest speculation is that News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch is looking to loose the content bonds on the Wall Street Journal. Some
Again, this depends on that which you've based your business. Radiohead has a new CD and it can be obtained for free. It's more of a donation model, but they have larger packages for sale that includes artwork, lyrics, and even vinyl records. They're banking on the up-sell, as well as concert ticket sales.
But you can also use free content as a promotional vehicle, so long as it's not obvious search spam that will get you penalized or dropped from search results altogether.
Blender company Blendtec is probably the best at utilizing the new media to generate sales. The "
Or maybe you sell vacuum cleaners and parts. You can build a content structure around that without giving away your product, of course. People are always looking for cleaning tips, or maybe they don't know how to repair a snapped belt. You can be their source for that while avoiding being labeled as spam, and promoting your product at the same time.
Whatever you're doing online, it will require certain things. Be creative, be open, be necessary, be useful. But above all, be free.
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