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Does Free Content - Sell?

The answer is: no one knows. Many self-styled "gurus" and "pundits" - authors of voluminous tomes they sell to the gullible - pretend to know.

But their "expertise" is an admixture of guesswork, superstitions, anecdotal "evidence" and hearsay. The sad truth is that no methodical, long term, and systematic research has been attempted in the nascent field of e-publishing and, more broadly, digital content on the Web. So, no one knows to say for sure whether free content sells, when, or how.

There are two schools - apparently equally informed by the dearth of hard data. One is the "viral school". Its vocal proponents claim that the dissemination of free content fuels sales by creating "buzz" (word of mouth marketing driven by influential communicators). The "intellectual property" school roughly says that free content cannibalizes paid content mainly because it conditions potential consumers to expect free information. Free content also often serves as a substitute (imperfect but sufficient) to paid content.

Experience - though patchy - confusingly seems to points both ways.

Views and prejudices tend to converge around this consensus: whether free content sells or not depends on a few variables. They are:

(1) The nature of the information. People are generally willing to pay for specific or customized information, tailored to their idiosyncratic needs, provided in a timely manner, and by authorities in the field. The more general and "featureless" the information, the more reluctant people are to dip into their pockets (probably because there are many free substitutes).

(2) The nature of the audience. The more targeted the information, the more it caters to the needs of a unique, or specific group, the more often it has to be updated ("maintained"), the less indiscriminately applicable it is, and especially if it deals with money, health, sex, or relationships - the more valuable it is and the more people are willing to pay for it. The less computer savvy users - unable to find free alternatives - are more willing to pay.

(3) Time dependent parameters. The more the content is linked to "hot" topics, "burning" issues, trends, fads, buzzwords, and "developments" - the more likely it is to sell regardless of the availability of free alternatives.

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(4) The "U" curve. People pay for content if the free information available to them is either (a) insufficient or (b) overwhelming. People will buy a book if the author's Web site provides only a few tantalizing excerpts. But they are equally likely to buy the book if its entire full text content is available online and overwhelms them. Packaged and indexed information carries a premium over the same information in bulk. Consumer willingness to pay for content seems to decline if the amount of content provided falls between these two extremes. They feel sated and the need to acquire further information vanishes. Additionally, free content must really be free. People resent having to pay for free content, even if the currency is their personal data.

(5) Frills and bonuses. There seems to be a weak, albeit positive link between willingness to pay for content and "members only" or "buyers only" frills, free add-ons, bonuses, and free maintenance. Free subscriptions, discount vouchers for additional products, volume discounts, add-on, or "piggyback" products - all seem to encourage sales. Qualitative free content is often perceived by consumers to be a BONUS - hence its enhancing effect on sales.

(6) Credibility. The credibility and positive track record of both content creator and vendor are crucial factors. This is where testimonials and reviews come in. But their effect is particularly strong if the potential consumer finds himself in agreement with them. In other words, the motivating effect of a testimonial or a review is amplified when the customer can actually browse the content and form his or her own opinion. Free content encourages a latent dialog between the potential consumer and actual consumers (through their reviews and testimonials).

(7) Money back warranties or guarantees. These are really forms of free content. The consumer is safe in the knowledge that he can always return the already consumed content and get his money back. In other words, it is the consumer who decides whether to transform the content from free to paid by not exercising the money back guarantee.

(8) Relative pricing. Information available on the Web is assumed to be inherently inferior and consumers expect pricing to reflect this "fact". Free content is perceived to be even more shoddy. The coupling of free ("cheap", "gimcrack") content with paid content serves to enhance the RELATIVE VALUE of the paid content (and the price people are willing to pay for it). It is like pairing a medium height person with a midget - the former would look taller by comparison.

(9) Price rigidity. Free content reduces the price elasticity of paid content. Normally, the cheaper the content - the more it sells. But the availability of free content alters this simple function. Paid content cannot be too cheap or it will come to resemble the free alternative ("shoddy", "dubious"). But free content is also a substitute (however partial and imperfect) to paid content. Thus, paid content cannot be priced too high - or people will prefer the free alternative. Free content, in other words, limits both the downside and the upside of the price of paid content.

There are many other factors which determine the interaction of free and paid content. Culture plays an important role as do the law and technology. But as long as the field is not subject to a research agenda the best we can do is observe, collate - and guess. This article is, of course, free content...:o))

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Additional articles about Digital Content on the Web: http://samvak.tripod.com/busiweb.html http://www.trendsiters.com Sam Vaknin's eBookWeb.org articles: http://ebookweb.org.master.com/texis/master/search/?q=Vaknin

Tips For Writing Website Content

Online businesses need to reflect the concept that "Content is King" in the design, marketing, and writing of their web sites to truly be successful.

At Swift Media UK, we always ask these 3 questions to online business professionals to see if they really understand the concept of "Content is King." We find that if they cannot answer these 3 questions immediately, then that gives us a clearer idea of how prepared the client is to be online.

Why should I visit your web site (without spending any money)?

The #1 reason people visit web sites is for information. Thus, if you provide information for people such as free marketing tips, a how-to section, or tips for buying your product or service, you have given a benefit for visiting your site.

The tips for buying your product or service is particularly beneficial because you are helping your potential customers make the best decision they can. It shows that you are thinking of your customers ("Let me help you make the best purchase for your budget"), not yourself ("Buy my stuff because I'm the best").

Why should i return to your web site?

People usually won't buy from you until they visit your site 4-5 times. So you should give people a reason to return to your site. Updating product or service information, timely how-to tips, or an upgraded software demo are good reasons for people to return to your site or maybe even bookmark it.

This question also indicates web marketing savvy. Coca Cola does not show the same commercial year after year after year because people will get bored with the same commercial. Nor should anyone show the exact same web site month after month after month. A site should be updated at least every 1 to 3 months, even if the changes are minimal. (Search engines re-index/re-catalog changed pages).

What separates you from your competition?

We expect to hear company's unique selling proposition (USP) here and try to design or market the site based on this. We are usually amazed when people tell that they are the *best* at something but cannot back it up with customer testimonials or data. We also get many potential clients that have no unique selling proposition.

We often hear the "best customer service" and the "lowest prices" together. From our standpoint, if you want to hire a really talented customer service staff, you have to pay them well. That will affect your overhead and, thus, your prices. Also, we have found that the lowest prices rarely get the best quality.

Online businesses who can answer these questions immediately do extremely well on the web because they are giving people reasons to come and return to their sites. They show that they are willing to listen to their visitors and adapt their site to help their visitors get what they want.

Andy Macdonald owns and runs his own web design business called Swift Media UK, which incorporates logo design, & web site hosting

Content, Links, Relevance And Page Rank

SEO experts are constantly telling us about the importance of good quality content and good quality back links from web sites with relevant content. They also tell us that reciprocal links and page rank are of decreasing importance. They then instruct us as to how to go about getting good links by personally contacting other web sites and proposing a reciprocal link! Confusing! As is much of the advice given to prospective site designers.

Personal experience with our own web site has shown that the following is correct and works;

· Content is the key. Lots of it, with constant up dates to it, and it should be well written and informative not just a sales pitch.

· The more pages you can create the better. Upwards of 100 pages will highlight your site as an important one. Sites with only a few pages rarely appear on the first page of search engine results.

· As the site ages its importance will increase. Those who got in early generally outperform the later sites. Google also have an ageing process for links. As these links approach six months old they become of more importance.

· Reciprocal links once gone through the ageing process are still being counted, even with Google's updated algorithm.

· Article writing and publishing will produce huge numbers of backlinks. You should be looking to produce upwards of 30 articles and aim for around 250.

· Attaching a weblog to your site which is updated daily will increase the rate at which the search engines visit your site and at the same time adds valuable content and links.

· Page Rank has still some importance in determining your position in the rankings because it is based on the links and the content of your site. However the page rank as given by the Google Toolbar is not necessarily accurate. A more accurate page rank can be gauged from using the detail supplied by the Google Sitemap statistics. Consequently generate a sitemap and submit it to Google.

The most important piece of advice is to design your site for the visitor and not the search engines. Have as much information within the content as possible and keep the graphics to a minimum.

David is the owner of a cleaning service company and runs its web site.

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