I had the pleasure of reading a really great blog post the other day on the cost of free stuff that really got me thinking. Is it possible that Internet marketers are digging their own graves with all the stuff that they’re giving away? This article is going to briefly fill you in on the incident that brought this up and then, I’ll give you my thoughts on this whole mess.

Essentially, what happened was this. The New York Times started giving its news away, online, for free. So many subscribers were getting accustomed to this service. Well, the New York Times, after a few years, realized that they weren’t getting enough advertising money to cover their costs, so they decided that they were going to start charging again. Needless to say, customers weren’t too happy. Something they were getting for nothing was now being taken away from them.

How the New York Times comes out of this is irrelevant to this article. What IS relevant is that, as you know, many Internet marketers, myself included, are giving away free information in order to get subscribers onto their lists. And there is nothing wrong with this. The problem is, there is only so much free information that can be given away. And with marketers constantly moving the free line, eventually, 99% of what we offer people is going to be free. When that happens, what’s going to be left to sell?

This problem is more than just a marketing one. See, the world we live in expects more and more everyday. With technology increasing at alarming rates, it seems that we can have almost anything we want at the touch of a button. Imagine going through your life without so many of the things that you now take for granted, such as you cable TV, Internet connection, IPhone, IPod, and so many other items. No, they’re not free, but a lot of the services we get ARE free.

Think about it. How many things can you get online at no cost? Certainly you can get all the news you’d ever want. For the life of me, I don’t know how newspapers stay in business. And the truth is, many do not. My one local paper has come dangerously close to shutting down…after over 50 years in business.

Point I am trying to make is this. There IS a cost to free information. That cost comes in the form of lost revenue from customers who simply feel that there is no reason to pay for anything YOU have to offer IF they can find it somewhere for free. This forces you to compete on the same level by offering your products for free as well…unless.

Ah, and there it is…the unless. And this is what separates the successful marketers from the ones who can’t scratch two dimes together. These marketers are the ones who know that they have to deliver even more value than their competitors in order to justify charging for their product or service. In niches where there is tons of information, this isn’t so hard. However, in niches where there is very little info, this becomes almost impossible.

Ultimately, what this will force marketers to do, the ones in those smaller niches, is to branch out and package these smaller related niches together into one big authority site or gateway. In other words, a one stop location where, because of the convenience, customers will be willing to pay for the product or service.

There is a change coming. It may not be this year or next year, but it’s coming. Soon, the small ebook seller is going to have to expand his business in order to get business.

In other words…only the strong will survive.

Yes…there IS a cost to free.

And it’s costing us a fortune.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim

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