FREE isn’t a business model!

Call it freemium, I call it a zero value proposition. People trying to build a business giving their work or those of others for FREE in the hopes of striking it rich with a massive following are fooling themselves – they don’t have a business nor do they offer value – otherwise, they’d be charging money!

FREE is easy

One of the worse advice I was offered a few years back from a very successful entrepreneur and recognized was that I should offer all the designs on CNCKing.com (then WoodMarvels.com) for free… build a huge following and then – like the underwear gnomes in South Park – profits would fly in once I reached critical mass.

The reason this FREE idea is so seductive is because it’s so easy – who would say no to FREE? The problem with this approach is several-fold. First, switching customers use to everything being free to PAID is extremely difficult – I’d dare say nearly impossible – once they are use to not paying. Second and most importantly, you don’t have real customers – FREE is anybody and everybody… there is no skin in the game on their side – it’s all on you! Thirdly, somewhat related to my last point, because the barrier to entry is so low (free!) the quality of your leads suffer as does your customer base.

FREE gets you in the door, SALES pays for the house

I’m not saying FREE doesn’t have its place – you have loss leaders – a very good tactic if you have other people’s money to burn similar to what FaceBook has managed to do or YouTube but if you noticed, both of these companies were being crushed by the weight of their success – especially YouTube. You don’t go public or get bought unless you have some serious debts needing to be financed. FREE is also a tactic I use here on CNCKing.com to get new customers – I give stuff away but in return, they provide me with their e-mail and contact information… I use this to remove a major barrier on my site, getting a CNCKing.com download account! Let me be clear though, I’m not giving everything away, just a sample of my designs and other designers who want to spread the word about their models.

FREEmium is dead

It’s no wonder you don’t hear the “freemium” business model mentioned very much anymore – it was all the rage a few years back – what happened? They all went under! I much prefer to slowly grow CNCKing.com than to offer everything on the site for free and have to spend a fortune on people who don’t know what my site is about through bandwidth and technical support. CNCKing.com will never e another FaceBook – the market I’m after is a mostly affluent niche of a niche market… and I prefer to keep things this way. The customers who buy things on my site HAVE a CNC machine, otherwise my site has zero value to them. I love CNC machines, I love designing for them and am honored to have other designers offer their work on it – I’m not looking to scale into the general populace at this point as they can neither afford my designs are be expected to learn how to cut, engrave, print the designs they buy from me. I publish books, make videos and share my knowledge to drive interest in CNC machines for designers and those interested in CNC designing and machines – not to entertain people on a Saturday night with nothing to watch on television.