Things that matter

For years and years, misinformed consumers were duped into paying through the nose for television, music, phone calls and information. NOW IT IS FREE. THIS IS THE FUTURE!

Isn’t it funny how with more and more free stuff around people have less and less money? Getting things for free should mean that you’re saving some money. But it just isn’t true. The opposite is. Free costs more.

Things are offered for free, yes. Free calls. Free music. Free television. Free books. Everything is free, but free is selling you something else. Something that isn’t sold to you directly and isn’t the main focus in the picture. Kind of like the current sidebar featured video (the one with the ball). You’re being told to look at the free stuff while your pockets are being picked (okay not really like that but you get the idea.

In the end, free is just another business model. A better one. You’re paying without being aware that you’re paying, and that makes everything in the sales process easier. Which means that you should be more careful who gives you candy. Yes, remember what your mom told you, “never take candy from strangers.” She was right.

Here are the 4 little known truths of free stuff.

4. It’s free, as long as we sell you another thing at the same time.

Well, I kind of told you about this one in the introduction. It basically plays with your mind tricking it into not noticing the part of the process where you have to pay. One marketing technique that is employed in this “get it, it’s free” game is the norm of reciprocity – I help you, you help me back. That way, by offering you something for free, I can ask you for something in return later. And you, being the nice person that you are, will accommodate my request in a friendly manner.

So you get something (that you maybe don’t even need) for free, but you will pay something/somehow later on. And you will most likely want to pay!

3. It’s free, because we need your attention.

With so many advertisements and information literally everywhere around us, the attention resource people have is being challenged. You can only look at and analyze so many things during the day, and what better way to get attention than with something that has the magic word in it: free.

And getting your attention leads to the point above, scoring an indirect sale or relationship that leads to sales for the one giving away the freebies!

2. It’s free, because it kind of sucks… and it has to be free.

Okay, this is a bit of a generalization, but it does apply to some cases. Like free IM software for your phone, free voice calls, or free books. The free IM software sometimes (quite often) eats your messages and doesn’t deliver them, instead bugging your friends advertising itself; the free voicecall may have the call quality of a 1949 Russian military field radio; the free book will only tell you what you already knew (using crappy pictures).

If anyone has a crappy product they can’t ask for money in exchange for it. So they just give it away. But they don’t necessarily lose in this. They gain some popularity and exposure. Which they can use to push and sell an improved version of the crappy product they gave away for free.

Or they’ll say the free product/service was just a sample and you have to pay to get the real thing.

1. It’s free because we’re selling something else and helping other industries sell too.

Think about Skype, or MSN. You can make free calls on Skype, but you need:

• A high speed Internet connection ($50 a month)
• A sound card ($200 version strongly recommended for best performance with branded products)
• Speakers ($50)
• Skype Microphone ($112 version recommended)
• Skype Headset ($165 version recommended)

In the case of MSN you need:

• High speed Internet connection ($50 a month)
• A display (or more!) with a big diagonal so you can talk more nonsense with more friends (52″ $2,299 recommended)
• An ergonomic wireless keyboard from Microsoft ($183 one recommended)
• A Microsoft wireless mouse to go with the Microsoft keyboard ($83 one recommended)
• Comfy ergonomic chair ($900)
• Microsoft operating system ($276 Vista Ultimate recommended)

And it would probably be okayish if those were one time costs – but they need replacements and updates/upgrades. So they are free products/services, no lie there, but you have to pay indirectly to be able to use them. But that’s ok, because they’re free!

And then there are those “prizes” you get when you win a free watch but have to fly to Hawaii and sit through a three-day sales pitch to claim it.

Free from free

I believe that the vast majority (>95% ) of free products and services out there are just “evil” marketing. Getting something for free will usually result in you taking an action intended by the giver, which means buying something or being “prepared” to buy in the future.

Giving something away for free creates a friendly bond between the giver and the taker. And such bonds can be easily exploited for profit.

So, be more critical about what is given away for free. Being careful about what you’re being offered for free and trying to see what are the real costs and purposes can help you save money, energy and time. And those are valuable resources!

Remember: Nothing is for free, even when it’s free.