After my wonnnderful message, here's a more serious thread. I'm searching for markets where people pay online because they have to. And maybe there's money to be made in these markets, giving it free and making money with ads or any other way. For instance people pay for web hosting because either they don't trust free web hosting or because they need more resources. People used to pay good money for video hosting, now it's free and YouTube is worth a lot of money. Same for image hosting where people don't have to pay anymore to host images (or files). And the pioneers now make money. Same for telephony and Skype, etc... There are probably "hidden" markets to tackle. To find out, we need to keep in mind that any good idea that gives away something for free can't go wrong. Could you list the things people pay but if they had the choice, they wouldn't? I'll start: web hosting web site design logo design books computer hardware pr0n gambling medicine advertising Now it's your turn.
If I had a choice between paying and not paying, I would prefer not paying for anything and almost everything!
Thanks! Yeah, software is already kind of free (OpenOffice.org, Opera, Firefox, GIMP, etc...). I have never spent a penny since 2000 in software, and these days it's easy to build a computer with 100% free software The exception is maybe Microsoft Windows that some people still use. Maybe it's possible to recover paid licenses from old computers and give them away?
and you could imagine the advertisments plastered all over the cover .."free notebook"="double prices in other peripherals" interesting thread..
What about giving away these $200 computers with locked in operating system and lifetime ads on the top of the screen? I mean, a computer like this may have a life expectancy of 5 years, and if the person litterally LIVES in front of their computer like me, $200 for 5 years of advertising is a bargain User with free low-end computer = Happy Advertiser with good deal = Happy Everybody = Happy
I would love to have softwares for free. Maybe someone somewhere will start a trend that makes companies like Microsoft give away their softwares for free
Personally I don't need any Microsoft application But isn't it possible to buy/sell used commercial applications? For instance you buy a computer that has Windows and then you decide to resell the license because you already had one...
Microsoft isn't the only software that people pay for... ever thought of the hundreds of specialized business applications out there? A baker who needs to keep track of inventory, recipes, etc... Small breweries that also need to keep on top of the different brews and QC from batch to batch.... there are a million opportunities out there for those that think outside the box. Giving away a good (basic) application to small brewers (for example) could get some of them to eventually buy the "upgraded" versions and other stuff from you. Good idea BTW on giving stuff away.
I pay for hosting becouse i want and this makes me more money No body is having a gun to your head to buy a new computer ? i buy when my old is broke or my requirement grow No body is forcing to pay for porn ..... So i don't see your point really
giving away things is the greatest advertiser, maybe give away a new product you develop free, or have a pay what you want model for things like radiohead did for their new album..
But if I offer a free laptop (worth $200), will you deny it? When a product/service isn't an essential good it doesn't mean there's no need for it. It it's free, people will want it. Joe doesn't want to pay for porn because it's not worth the money, or because he doesn't have money. But if you give him free porn, he'll watch it.