In the wake of Chris Anderson’s article about freeconomics in the latest issue of Wired – and a good post by ReadWriteWeb about the dangers of free – it got me thinking about what online services people would actually pay even a few dollars to use.
If you’re a blogger, would you pay to buy WordPress or access to special upgrades, themes or widgets?
How do you feeling about Web hosting? Do you think it’s worth it to a pay a bit more for 99.99999% reliability has opposed to using some cheap, fly-by-night or free host?
Would you pay even a $1/month to access online services that became key parts of your work/personal life.
How about Twitter? What if Twitter decided the business was charging $1/month if you wanted to do more than 10 posts a month?
Would you willing to pay for premium services than provide more features than than a basic version – the so-called freemium model that has to compete against competitors willing to offer the same services at no costs.
So, are you willing to pay for anything? If so, what?
Disclosure: In terms of my own online spending, I pay for hosting (A Small Orange) and for statistics (Performancing.com)
Technorati Tags: FreeconomiFreeconomics
It all depends on how much I’m making. I use Blogger now because its free. I use Google Analytics and Feedburner becasue they are free. If I wa making more than golf money I would consider paying for premium services.
That’s a fascinating question of consumer choice, as I doubt we’ve seen the kind of purchasing psychology throughout history as we have online today. I almost get irritated thinking about paying for things online, like it’s ‘owed’ to me for some reason. When I see something being charged for, I get really skeptical… but then when I think about my own offerings, that’s a convenient oversight.
I think the web will become a ‘new media’ platform like everyone envisions, with other people paying for ‘attention’. But we’re not quite there yet, and we’re in a very awkward middle ground.
Here’s a decent rule of thumb: perhaps the distinction lies in the intended audience. I find that products intended for ‘everybody’ (webmail, online documents, etc) should be free to make it up on volume. Products with an inherent specialty audience (vertical software by industry) probably should charge, because there’s no way they can scale up enough to sell ads sustainably…
I don’t particularly like the idea of ads. This probably means that, in todays’ world, I’m doomed to failure.
I usually rather pay than have to spend my time looking at ads. There are not many people like me, though.
Do you have commercials in cable TV at the US? Why do they show commecials if you paid for the tv? Would you be willing to pay more in order to spend your time watching your shows rather than show/ad/show? And would you be willing to pay less in order to watch more commercials?
I think the same reasoning applies to the internet. Except that there are some companies which can offer things for free in order to geta hold of other kinds of values (like engagement) rather than the intention of making money on ads.
All in all, I’d rather pay. I think some people, specially the ones with a bit more money than average, will rather pay than look at ads when given the choice to, while the ones with less money than average won’t mind what is the price as long as it doesn’t cost money, just like they do in the “real” word.
I pay for hosting, and I actually purchased NetNewsWire. I bought my Mac, so I was willing to pay more for a better computer.
But things like Twitter catch on because they are free. No I wouldn’t pay for it.
And as for paying for 99.99999% reliability, if such a thing were even possible, why would I pay to have great access to one piece of the net while the rest of it has no reliability guarantee.
As you’ve noted, we’re being forced to pay more for ISP service, even though there is no reliability guarantee at all.
It is pretty much an accepted fact that the only viable business model for content is ad supported…which is why many cable channels on TV still have ads as consumers are not willing to pay the “real” price for cable content. Generally, consumers are not willing to pay for content…There are a small minority of exceptions but very few.
Consumers are willing to pay for applications or other services that helps with processes – assuming the value associated with the service justifies the price.
I just bought a WordPress theme because it helped me create blog with a look and feel that I love. I used two versions of the theme to create a new “hybrid” design which I really like.
My design and development skills are limited, so I would have never been able to create it from scratch. I also couldn’t find a free theme that would have gotten me a similar result, at least not without doing a whole lot more work.
Even though it is for my personal blog, and really just a nice-to-have, I decided it was worth spending some money instead of wasting many more hours in front of the computer trying to create something similar.
Here is my response… weeks ago:
http://www.lucafiligheddu.com/2007/11/a-not-free-internet.html