Pushing The Free Line

February 21, 2009 · Filed Under Making Money · 1 Comment

by Hal Major

My cup runneth over with “free”. I get free and I have free. I occasionally give free. Free shows up in my inbox and RSS feed reader everyday just like the sun rises in the East. In one of my email accounts this morning and I had 31 frees. Wow! I’m scared to check the rest of my accounts. I don’t know where to put all of the free.

My hard drives are packed to the ceiling with free. Ebooks, videos, mp3s, and free graphics are collecting digital dust on my computers. I need a Swiffer™ for my computer. Whoa is me. I don’t want anymore FREE!

Free isn’t free. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” I don’t who said that and I’m not going to go look it up at free quotes.com. Just take it as gospel, okay.

No More Free

The “free line” was bad enough when the economy was good. Now that things are rougher the free line has gotten completely out of control.

Earlier this week John Jantsch at DuctTapeMarketing posted an article on using Free as a Marketing Strategy. And, as always it is an excellent article. John is at the top of my feed list. In his closing paragraph he said; “Free products, free trials, free education based information products must be part of your overall product/service mix but up the value and reposition free as something to be earned, something with exclusive rewards for playing and something that can build trust as part of your overall marketing strategy.”

John reinforces the quote about no free lunch. Free has no value unless it is earned. In a recent study and report by Trendwatching.com called “Generation G”, “G” stands for generosity, not greed, the G Generation is fed up with corporate greed and are swayed by companies that are generous in giving back to society. My kids are from the greed generation. The generation commonly referred to as the “Me” generation. However, because of excellent parenting skills coupled with the wisdom of Solomon , none of my kids turned out to self-absorbed, narcissistic or selfish. At times I think they can be a little to giving, especially of their time.

Taking into account the ever growing social media culture, I just don’t see us going back, even after the economy gets better.

GENERATION G captures the growing importance of ‘generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset. People are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy. When I hear the name Bernie Madoff, CitiGroup, AIG, and few other names of daily occurrence on the news – blood nearly shoots from my eyes. That upheaval caused by greed has folks longing more than ever for organizations and companies that give a shit about the consequences to society that their actions will create.

This desire for more generosity coincides with the ongoing development of an online culture of people who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have enriched the concept of generosity. Take for instance the college reporter, James Karl Buck, incarcerated in Egypt. He simply Twitter “arrested”. His fellow tweeters came to his rescue.

Generous Doesn’t Mean Everything is Free

The TrendWatching briefing on Generation G is quick to point out that “generous” doesn’t mean giving away the farm. But I think it’s becoming obvious to many that the “give it all away” strategy of Web 2.0 is not working, just like it didn’t work in Web 1.0.

I think we’re going to see a sharp decrease in the “blogging for bucks” crowd who thought advertising would make them rich. On the other hand, we need to see more of those with real businesses stepping up their content marketing and overall generosity. We’ll also see a shift in attitude related to free content subsidized by affiliate marketing and innovative sponsorship arrangements.

The main take-away from the TrendWatching report on Generation G is that people want to do business with companies and people who are willing to share and place generosity over greed. It’s not that they expect everything for free, because, believe it or not, when it comes to many things in life, we don’t value free all that much after all. You get what you pay for.

No More Free

If the online marketer is to survive, let alone grow, the free line needs to be pulled in a little. Hell, maybe a lot. People simply don’t value free. Anything worth having must be earned. Online marketers are shooting themselves in the foot. It’s like the blind leading the blind. The more that is given away the less that needs to be purchased. And, the backend sales will cease to deliver the desired result.

Will this all happen tomorrow? Probably not, however, if the illness of free isn’t treated the patient will die.

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