The age of FREE

Given the title of this blog and my book is The Best Ideas are Free, my business model is built around giving stuff away for free AND the majority of my time is given away for free I believe I have a thing or two to say about it.

Free traditionally meant freedom, as in freedom to do what you want, sometimes referred to as free expression. It was from this idea came of giving something away for zero cost or free.

Clearly there is always the argument of, there is no such thing as a free lunch, the classic economist argument. I've heard it over and over again. I'm also sure someone will email or comment this post repeating it. That's fine - you're free to do so.

The flipside is that providing something free garners attention, if not for a miniscule second longer but attention that wouldn't otherwise be given.

The typical business model built around free, is to provide a mass product or service for free. That is absolutely no cost or lock in, enjoy, eat to your hearts content free. Digital products allow this as the variable cost of delivery is so low. However if you want a customised service you need to pay for it.

Typically referred to in the online world as freemium (mix of free and premium).

Economists are quick to say that it isn't free, someone incurs the cost somewhere. Yes that is true. However, as an irrational consumer do you really care? As long as that cost isn't you, right?

If you absolutely love the product and want to utilise it heavily or would like some custom attention you will pay for it. It's this minute number that pay for the rest.

From this view, free allows for greater attention, permission to talk to potential clients but most importantly a qualifying process. No longer do you have to deal with tight consumers who are going to begrudgingly spend and moan. These guys tend to stay in the free offering.

Future gazing somewhat I can see that this model is going to increase - why?

Simple. It all comes down to competition, typical game theory model companies won't engage in this downward spiral, they would rather not move and reap profits.

That changes as markets open up - when you truly compete in a global world it only takes one new entrant from a foreign market to seriously tip it in favour of free.

And once the market has swapped it is dam hard to go back.

What I'm saying is that the age of free is upon us, if you aren't embracing it now, you should at least be exploring it so you can either be the proactive company in your industry or be prepared to rapidly react.

- Ben Young