iMedia recently published this article: "The internet's dirty secret: free will cost you" by Anthony Casalena - http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/16432.asp.
Anthony raises the question to online marketers: What happens when this "ad-supported" model is transitioned from supporting not just content, but actual services on the web? The shift brings in the requirement of "customer service, reliable systems, and a dedication to fix bugs" - is the ad revenue enough to cover these costs?
According to Anthony, $32 billion is spent globally in online advertising. The bottom line: Hardware is consumed and servers host masses of free users that create "downtime" for paying users who are mostly professionals with higher traffic sites that can't afford to be offline for substantial amounts of time. How can marketing professionals eliminate this downtime - missed opportunity for business?
Antony M. from Spannerworks - http://www.spannerworks.com/ - gives an interesting perspective: http://open.typepad.com/open/2007/08/facebook-fandan.html.
But how much does free cost you?
I pay approx. $11-12 per month to use Yahoo! Smallbusiness - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ - to host my website: http://www.bizrapport.com/. And it's worth paying this amount because I derive pleasure out of creating the site and experimenting with social media.
No free service could offer me the same tools. The service is terrific. Instead of adding a Yahoo! blog or one on offer through the service, I choose to add a Google Blogger one - http://www.blogger.com/, because I'm comfortable with how Blogger works and don't have to use AdSense if I don't want to.
Even though I experience bugs (as a free user) from time-to-time, I learn how to work around it and Edit Html too until my page looks right. Being able to combine the Yahoo! and Google services together works for me - the blog is accessible on every page of my Yahoo! website. Both Yahoo! and Google benefit from this too.
Free users of blogs do provide free content with innovative ideas, and serve as a broad sample base to gather statistics. Paying customers - marketers in particular - benefit from these ideas, statistics, and market exposure to their products and services, that users give away freely.
Where professionals can spread the costs of internet service, the non-professional often doesn't benefit from this form of scaling.
Weigh these benefits to professionals against the cost of their "downtime" and what's the result? How much "downtime" do the user and customer experience?
Similarly, even paid software isn't without its bugs and incompatibilities as we're aware with Microsoft products and others - http://connect.microsoft.com/Main/content/content.aspx?ContentID=2220. Customers still have to rely on global call centers (I've had the experience) and the online forum. Time is still money whether you're paying for the software or not.
And open source products (many of which are free) are aimed at taking into consideration those with disabilities -http://www.ibm.com/able/resources/firefox.html - what value do you place on this?
There are many aspects to consider when thinking about Premium versus Freemium. What are your thoughts?
Showing posts with label Internet Debates_Freemium vs Premium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Debates_Freemium vs Premium. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Do blogs replace or compliment company Intranets?
Rishe's Comment:
Hey there Fiona!
Thansk for your feedback.
The autheticity/ ownership of blog content is always going to be a big area of possibilities. Ghost written or otherwise, so long as the companies voice is heard, I think it's a job well done.
Now for my query, What I meant to know was, can blogging be used to create dynamic online communities to make the employees feel more connected and instilled with a sense of belonging.
Can they serve as a media for internal communication, say, as against an official Intranet. Which is always suspect in the absense of content updates on periodic basis.
And so far as I knwo blogging, it defines the skew of content from, created by specialists to created by the user. So user generated content can make a difference to communication within the Internal Publics or employees.
Would look forward to your feed.
Cheers
11:04 PM
Fiona Torrance said...
Hi Riche
Blogs definitely create dynamic online communities -- the interactions on this blog between students and those in business internationally is a real example.
What I love about the IBM blogs, such as Bob Sutor's blog, is how even managers and employees are interacting -- in this sense the blog is a wonderful bonding, mentoring, and motivating tool.
In terms of official intranets and internal blogs, my view is that internal blogs create a more open platform for discussion and reduce email overload. In using an email inbox, we have to choose (by subject line and sent from line) whether or not to open the email. Sometimes people copy one another unnecessarily on emails too.
In contrast, an internal blog allows optional comment (or it can be part of workflow) and also provides time for the commenter to think about what they will say/write. Emails are often fired off in haste with detrimental backlash.
So, on a whole internal blogs provide a number of flexible and useful options.
Internal blogs can be password protected and accessible by company employees only -- not for open comment by the public. Comments can also be moderated. Certain blogs are used internally and externally as long as the blogger registers on the company blog.
My view is that we -- as bloggers -- should take ownership of our postings for credibility.
With marketers using stealth means to sell products and services, blogs are a platform that can, are, and will be used for this purpose. I have already deleted a number of comments that were advertisements because I temporarily lifted comments moderation to allow students to see their comments posted immediately. Stealth marketers can destroy credibility.
This is where Intranets (I am limited in my knowledge on them) may succeed because the content is better protected.
What do you think?
Hey there Fiona!
Thansk for your feedback.
The autheticity/ ownership of blog content is always going to be a big area of possibilities. Ghost written or otherwise, so long as the companies voice is heard, I think it's a job well done.
Now for my query, What I meant to know was, can blogging be used to create dynamic online communities to make the employees feel more connected and instilled with a sense of belonging.
Can they serve as a media for internal communication, say, as against an official Intranet. Which is always suspect in the absense of content updates on periodic basis.
And so far as I knwo blogging, it defines the skew of content from, created by specialists to created by the user. So user generated content can make a difference to communication within the Internal Publics or employees.
Would look forward to your feed.
Cheers
11:04 PM
Fiona Torrance said...
Hi Riche
Blogs definitely create dynamic online communities -- the interactions on this blog between students and those in business internationally is a real example.
What I love about the IBM blogs, such as Bob Sutor's blog, is how even managers and employees are interacting -- in this sense the blog is a wonderful bonding, mentoring, and motivating tool.
In terms of official intranets and internal blogs, my view is that internal blogs create a more open platform for discussion and reduce email overload. In using an email inbox, we have to choose (by subject line and sent from line) whether or not to open the email. Sometimes people copy one another unnecessarily on emails too.
In contrast, an internal blog allows optional comment (or it can be part of workflow) and also provides time for the commenter to think about what they will say/write. Emails are often fired off in haste with detrimental backlash.
So, on a whole internal blogs provide a number of flexible and useful options.
Internal blogs can be password protected and accessible by company employees only -- not for open comment by the public. Comments can also be moderated. Certain blogs are used internally and externally as long as the blogger registers on the company blog.
My view is that we -- as bloggers -- should take ownership of our postings for credibility.
With marketers using stealth means to sell products and services, blogs are a platform that can, are, and will be used for this purpose. I have already deleted a number of comments that were advertisements because I temporarily lifted comments moderation to allow students to see their comments posted immediately. Stealth marketers can destroy credibility.
This is where Intranets (I am limited in my knowledge on them) may succeed because the content is better protected.
What do you think?
Friday, March 10, 2006
What Net is next - Internet2?
We use the Internet as we subjectively know it every day. To Internet2 minds, we are using Internet1. And what does this mean?
Internet2 is pioneered by 200 plus universities working in conjunction with industry professionals and government to develop and implement network applications and technologies for research and higher education. Internet2 participants aim at "accelerating the creation of tomorrow's internet" [http://www.internet2.edu/].
They are creating a "new" Internet or otherwise put - they are "evolving" Internet-use from ambiguous mass-use to a centered and measured system of use that efficiently, effectively, and credibly serves the needs of Internet users.
Internet2 initiatives include:
Arts and Humanities - "remote interactive media events" through Internet2 networks.
Digital Video - "development consortia to gather and disseminate information about leading edge digital video activities and technologies."
Distributed Storage - "The Internet2 Distributed Storage Initiative project is a replicated hosting platform for Internet content and services. Content is distributed at the network edge, improving latency and reducing bandwidth consumption. Content is gathered into channels that are then published to a URL."
End-to-End Performance - sponsored Joint Tech Workshops FiberCo - "Internet2 has established the National Research and Education Fiber Company (FiberCo) to support regional fiber optical networking initiatives dedicated to research and higher education."
Health Sciences -"The Internet2 Health Sciences Initiative supports and facilitates the use of advanced networking applications in clinical practice, medical and related biological research, education, and health awareness."
HOPI - "...the HOPI project leverages advances in optical networking technologies to examine and explore revolutionary network architectures."
K20 - "The National Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to extend new technologies, applications, middleware, and content to all educational sectors, as quickly and connectedly as possible."
The Internet2 Commons - Offers remote collaboration services.
Watching Internet2 unfold and evolve is something we should pay attention to.
Internet2 is pioneered by 200 plus universities working in conjunction with industry professionals and government to develop and implement network applications and technologies for research and higher education. Internet2 participants aim at "accelerating the creation of tomorrow's internet" [http://www.internet2.edu/].
They are creating a "new" Internet or otherwise put - they are "evolving" Internet-use from ambiguous mass-use to a centered and measured system of use that efficiently, effectively, and credibly serves the needs of Internet users.
Internet2 initiatives include:
Arts and Humanities - "remote interactive media events" through Internet2 networks.
Digital Video - "development consortia to gather and disseminate information about leading edge digital video activities and technologies."
Distributed Storage - "The Internet2 Distributed Storage Initiative project is a replicated hosting platform for Internet content and services. Content is distributed at the network edge, improving latency and reducing bandwidth consumption. Content is gathered into channels that are then published to a URL."
End-to-End Performance - sponsored Joint Tech Workshops FiberCo - "Internet2 has established the National Research and Education Fiber Company (FiberCo) to support regional fiber optical networking initiatives dedicated to research and higher education."
Health Sciences -"The Internet2 Health Sciences Initiative supports and facilitates the use of advanced networking applications in clinical practice, medical and related biological research, education, and health awareness."
HOPI - "...the HOPI project leverages advances in optical networking technologies to examine and explore revolutionary network architectures."
K20 - "The National Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to extend new technologies, applications, middleware, and content to all educational sectors, as quickly and connectedly as possible."
The Internet2 Commons - Offers remote collaboration services.
Watching Internet2 unfold and evolve is something we should pay attention to.
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