Friday, April 25, 2008 Just Give it Away... POST A COMMENT "You can always spot an amateur...here is the number one tell sign of an amateur writer," I overheard someone say the other day. "They are the folks focused on getting copyrights for their work." Thinking they had that one original idea...yeah, good luck with that. Which leads me the biggest trend on the web: the rise of "freeconomics," as suggested by the editors of Wired Magazine, which is being driven by the underlying technologies that make everybody a user. So, as technology moves more to a "google-ish" business model ...the cost of production is less and less...so, what's left? The craigslist.org model that focuses on charging for premium ads... And then you only have: Ideas...But, you say, "Writers often have the same ideas," though they will go out and develop them differently. How do we maintain our originality? You could work months on a story or even years perfecting it's and then it's rejected because a similar one was just published. Yeah, most of the really good ideas have already been used...and abused. With the web, everything is very much about: How fast can you go? And getting it: now...so, what do you do? You give it away...eek, Free? Giving it away free allows you to claim a stake on that "idea." Like a turf war of ideas....Yep, look at the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" -- it's available totally free on the web and yet it's become a number one hit on the Times best seller list. Why would people pay for something that they can get for free? In a free market you'll always get folks that want the "premium" model. Now, you just figure out how to make a premium model out that to pay your bills while doing it, and we're all good (sorta, kinda). Labels: Books, freeconomics, ideas posted by Henry Cruz at 2:19 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 .