Free is great, isn’t it? The Net is packed with free stuff.
Need a free dictionary? Use Dictionary.com. Need some free music? Listen to Pandora. Want some free news? Try CNN.com. Free classifieds? Try craigslist.com. Free phone calls? Dial Skype. It’s all free. I should know, I use all of these sites and services.
And, insanely enough, many applications are free. Years ago, you had to pay for word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. Now, you can get pretty powerful software, all for free.
As I noted in an earlier blog, free isn’t really free. Someone is paying for it in the hopes of earning money. While most of these applications and resources will remain free, there are a few that are starting to turn a profit on the “freemium” model.
That is, it’s free, but to unlock powerful premium features, you gotta pay. Hence, the techronym freemium.
Freemium in My Life
Here are some examples of free and freemium services that I use:
Google Docs:
Free productivity software. Good stuff. I use it a lot. All free, until I want to roll it out enterprise wide to my coworkers or employees.
And if you use GMail, you may eventually run out of space. Yup, look at the bottom of the GMail window, and you will see a little “% used” message. After you exceed your GMail limit, you may be prompted to upgrade to a paid Gmail account.
Zoho Docs:
Similar to Google Docs, Zoho is a productivity software suite. Actually much broader and more powerful than Google docs, but not as well known.
Similarly, you can do a lot with Zoho, but if you want more features and space, you pay a Freemium price. I’ve been impressed with Zoho’s software suite and may tap into a few of their premium features.
Flickr:
A photo sharing social network. I keep all my photos here. And now, with a pro account, I have greater control over my photo sets and I can upload videos.
Someone gave me a freemium Pro Account for my birthday and now I am addicted to it.
Evernote:
A free to use idea-and-stuff capture system. (It’s hard to explain. Check it out.)
A freemium account unlocks more space and flexibility in Evernote and some cool digital camera features.
WordPress Premium:
This very blog is based on free WordPress software. The free version allows me to blog on their platform or even install it on my own web server.
But a premium version unlocks some extra features and hosting options.
Will Freemium Work?
Will the freemium business model work? Will people pay for stuff that they are used to getting for free?
Let’s hope that the added features are an incentive to get people to shell out a few bucks. Because eventually, some of these programmers and content creators are going to want to get paid…they have to pay the rent and utilities too.
For now, most everything on the Net is free and freemium features may help to keep it that way.
In the future, freemium features are going to matter a lot. This will be the way that many sites capture revenue…and the way they attract advertisers and partners. (For example, “how many people are registered for the free service vs the freemium services?”)
For more on freemiums, check out:
- Is Freemium Really the Way to Go?
- The freemium business model: giving away pays
- The Freemium Business Model: Anything There for the Media?
And, as always, a visit to my personal website at buddyscalera.com is still free
