No More Free!

I was going to try and be clever with my title for this posting, but I felt like this maybe warranted a bit of a direct approach. I think the topic is fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll just get into it.

You see it everywhere now – free this, free that, “don’t pay when you get it for free” – this needs to end immediately. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but there seems to have been a shift in business logic when it comes to internet start-ups. I think it’s probably because of the relatively small overhead cost of actually starting the project, but it seems that everyone wants to do everything for free on the internet.

I understand that the internet is for sharing and connecting, but don’t forget that it also creates business and revenue and stimulates the economy. We truly need to get out of this mindset that just because it’s on the internet it should be free. Every time I see an advertisement for a website that provides “Free Websites in Minutes!” it makes my blood boil. Why are we taking something that is profitable and trying to rip the money right out of it? Let us not forget that Web Development is a business and should be treated as such.

Can you imagine opening a retail store, starting a brand new business and then right next door someone opens the same store but gives away all their merchandise for free? It sounds like a ridiculous scenario, but it is a perfectly legitimate example of the way things are going on the internet.

As you can imagine, the video that I’ve added is another that was done by one of the owners at 37Signals. His name is David Heinemeier Hansson (@dhh) and this presentation he did really hits all the points that I’m trying to make here. For any business owner, but especially those in digital media, this is definitely worth your time. Enjoy.