The WorkinOnline Group

Tips for your success

2005-07-08

Why there's no such thing as FREE

My Observation:   Many "Newbies" to web advertising and promotion seem to go in for anything they can get for free these days.

Side note: if you are surfing, you may want to bookmark this page so you can read it in it's entirity at your leisure

My Interpretation of "FREE" :

These days we find many websites available advertising various "Free" items; these can range from

• traffic to your site
• hosting for your site(s)
• scripts or E-books
• .... and so the list goes on

Let's tackle these one at a time

1. Free traffic for your sites
   
   when you join any exchange (auto or manual surf) you are usually given a pre-determined number of credits upon activation of your account.
   These credits will soon be used up, in order to continue to receive traffic to your site, you are required to surf the site and "earn" more visitors.
   Once your initial free hits have expired, you are now trading your time (to view the pages) against the value of a visitor to your site, the site is no longer free as you are trading your time, which is the ONLY limited resource you have .... you can always find a way to earn more money, but you will only ever have 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.


2. Free Hosting for your site
   
   Free hosting is all well and good when you are just starting out, or experimenting with your presence on the web. In many instances, your free site comes as a trade off ... you agree that your pages will carry advertising on behalf of the company you are hosting your pages.
   In exchange for carrying their advertising, they agree to keep your site 'live'; why shouldn't they? You are now providing free advertising for them.
   Another consideration with Free Hosting; more often than not, these free hosts provide you with an on-line WYSWYG editor for your pages and info you key in, is then formatted to fit the host's page templates; this form of hosting can be VERY restrictive when it comes to the over all look of your site.


3. Free Scripts and E-books
   
   This one is, in my view the biggest myth of all.
   In exchange for your contact information, you are permitted access to a given resource; you are exchanging your privacy for access to their file(s). Most legitamate webmasters out there will use this information wisely and with discression, possibly only making contact with you very occasionally to see if there is any further way they can assist you in your endevours.
   There are however some webmasters, who are unaware of proper netiquette and will bombard you with unwanted advertising for other products or services you may or may not have any use for.

At the end of the day, how much (and indeed how) you invest in your business, is entirely dependant on three things

1. How much MONEY you can afford
2. How much TIME you have available
3. How highly you value both your business, and your personal information

For those of you with little money but plenty of time, free may very well be your best option INITIALLY. For those of you who value your business and your privacy highly, I have a question for you .....

If you were looking to have a minor operation, would you rather go to a doctor who performs surgery in the back of a van (to reduce costs), or would you rather go to a hospital or other medical facility where you are at least sure of the sterility (and reputability) of the surgery?

If we rely on nothing but free resources, we are setting ourselves up for failure, we are giving the public the impression that we don't have the faith in our endevour to back it up our-selves. One way or the other, YOU WILL PAY A PRICE.

Just my thoughts for today, feel free to add your comments.