GET PAID FOR EVERYTHING FREE

The idea that everything on the Internet should be free is a byproduct of the Information Highway. It was supposed to provide the complete total of human knowledge to everyone regardless of where they lived. The dotcom bust in the early 90s showed this concept could not be sustained, but now it is being revived and applied to the creative industries like copywriting, music, and entertainment. All of these things are part of home-based business activities.

THE PROBLEM
In his book, Free, Chris Anderson addresses the increasingly frustrating entrepreneurial problem of everyone expecting to pay nothing for anything. It has always been a fact of marketing that customers want to pay as little as possible for all goods and services; that’s where the art of negotiating or obtaining multiple bids comes into play. With the advent of the Internet this trend toward free has become more of a driving force.
The first groups of entrepreneurs to be seriously affected by the demand for everything for nothing are entertainers, musicians, and software manufacturers; they have been tormented for years by this free idea, mostly through piracy and free downloads. Most of the world doesn’t understand our obsession with intellectual property rights because it is a uniquely American idea promulgated at the beginning of our country by Thomas Jefferson. This means providers of most creative works are fighting against a driving force that is already here. There are some ways for us home business operators to survive in this free environment–that’s what this article is about.

Pay attention; this is important information for all who make a living from the Internet. It could be the difference in losing our businesses or staying alive.

REACTION
Among the first organizations to realize what is happening and create a way to survive in spite of free is Monty Python, the English comedy group. For years they watched poor video reproductions of their work receiving millions of free views. They fought back by telling all the free viewers to stop looking at all the substandard stuff, and derogatory comments on YouTube and, instead, view their own Monty Python channel on YouTube. They further asked, in return for their free service, viewers to click their links and buy their movies and TV shows. Guess what? Three months later the Monty Python YouTube channel was No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies and TV best-sellers list, and sales increased 13,000 percent.
This illustrates the mystery of Free: People are making a lot of money charging nothing—not for everything, but nothing for enough that an economy as large as some countries has developed around the price of $0.00.
As this example illustrates, part of the idea is free, but not everything; in this new world of free, there are money opportunities all around the free part. This is what you need to get from this article–how to use your entrepreneurial creativity.

PROBLEMS WITH THE BUSINESS MODEL
The title of this report sounds like an oxymoron: “Music: Too Expensive to Be Free, Too Free to Be Expensive.” Advertising was supposed to cover the payments to copyright holders so that music could be delivered free to users. This has not happened and appears to be an unsustainable model. If the legitimate sources of on-demand music go away, all those listeners will return to the mostly illegal file sharing networks that existed before MySpace and others tried to make music available legally. The solution could be a service bundled with smartphones or made available for a small monthly fee. People don’t like to pay for stuff they feel should be free, so good luck with this version.
One solution to this dilemma is the model used by YouTube, which appears to be able to pay the required licensing fees. The reason they are able to do this is that, because of the visual nature of YouTube, users are more likely to encounter visual advertisements; this is the reason YouTube can pay what it owes–the money comes from advertising. This model leads many to believe the availability of free information, especially creative information from writers, musicians, and other small entertainers will come, in the future, from sites that are of a visual nature. Visual Websites offer the ability to display advertisements in front of users ensuring high ad responses.
WHY CREATIVE PRODUCTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FREE
In this report some music industry executives revealed that their industry has planned for the decline of purchased music for years. CD sales have declined about 20% for years and will certainly go to zero when traditional music sales will cease. In the meantime, the major labels will continue to sue those who illegally allow downloads of their music. This kind of illegal stuff is likely to continue for some time because there are several generations of young people who see nothing wrong with stealing music which they have been told should be free. Because much music is now free anyway, that simply reinforces the young attitude that nothing is wrong with illegal streaming.
The big labels, who are doing all the suing, have known for a long time that CD sales will go to zero at some point; when this happens, they also know they will be using the same people they are now taking to court to promote all their hot new music. When this happens, the big labels will be free of their requirement to market music; they will be able to concentrate on much more lucrative areas such as revenue streams from fan sites, concerts, merchandise, endorsement deals, and everything else associated with popular recording groups. The labels know they control the music creators and are likely to do so well into the future. This assures their income future.

IF INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE, WHO WILL PAY FOR IT?
This analysis explores the question of what it means when you say, “Information wants to be free.” Some authorities on the subject say there are at least three aspects of free as it relates to information. They are:

• There should be no standard that establishes rules on how information can be organized. It should not be forced to conform to any conventional structure.
  
  
• There should be no unnecessary controls on how a person can use multimedia or electronic content they have purchased. Users should be able to used purchased products however they want to.
  
  
• Then, we have the standard attitude of almost everyone that all information should be free.

This would all be wonderful if we can make information free because it wants to be free. The problem is, Websites cost money, producers of information cost money, and there are some other delivery expenses associated with information. Who will pay these expenses? The traditional income stream to support free information, including newspapers and magazines, has been advertising. With the new attitudes of users toward pushy advertising, this has become a reduced source of income.
The idea of free information has been around for a long time. There is nothing new about it. Consider what you are doing when you go to a library. You are getting information for nothing as soon as you check out a book. Did you contribute anything to the cost of providing that book for the public to use? No. You look at network TV for free whenever you want. Is there a charge for this? No. So we all have come to believe information and entertainment should be free.
Now, look at this from the point of view of wanting to actually own what you are using. In the case of the library you will need to buy a book in order to own it. If you wish to own a song you heard on the radio, you will have to buy a CD. To actually own a favorite movie, you must buy a video. This begs the question, “Do we not mind paying for the medium that carries our favorite information, but we will not pay for the information itself?”
Then, there is the fair use question under copyright law, an issue that ultimately is always resolved by a lawsuit in a court of law; common users are not capable of determining the details of fair use. People normally just go ahead and use protected information however they wish. We have no qualms about using verbatim information when helping our children with a report. We have no problem letting a friend copy the video we made of last week’s big game. Further, we have no problem copying CDs onto a tape so we an listen to the music in our cars. All of this may be legal, but only if a court says so. Which brings up the question, “What good is information if we can’t use it?” All of this goes back to what this article is about. If information wants to be free, who will pay for it?
No matter what we think, information is never free. Consider these things:

• Some portion of every purchase goes to advertising which ultimately pays for some part of information.
  
  
• Some part of every purchase we make goes to a tax of some kind and ends up subsidizing information in some way.
  
  
• All membership fees and charitable contributions we make ultimately support information.

We have, for many years, used advertising, membership fees, subscriptions, licenses, and usage fees to pay for the supposed free information available on the Internet today. The ultimate solution now will use a combination of these things along with new creativity from the entrepreneurial sector, including home based business entrepreneurs.

SOME WAYS TO PROSPER IN THE NEW WORLD OF FREE
Partner with YouTube is a way to generate income from free information. To take advantage of this opportunity you need to become a regular contributor of videos to YouTube. This is a mandatory requirement for becoming a YouTube Partner. If you can qualify for the Partner Program, you can reach perhaps billions of prospects. Many members make a very nice income using the Partner program. If you are interested in videos, you should consider this program as an additional source of income.
This report shows how to make money from an information Website. Millions of people search Google, MSN, and Yahoo for any number of things they want to know about. If you build a Website that answers their questions, you can make an enormous amount of money. On these sites the money comes from affiliate programs that are willing to pay you for referring their products and services. Google has a free affiliate program as do Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other large Internet retailers. The best thing about using Information Websites and affiliate programs is you never have to stock products or deal with customers. The Internet retailers do all of this for you.
Chris Anderson, in Free, lists a number of business models you can use to make money around the idea of free information on the Internet. A few that may be most appropriate for home based entrepreneurs are these:

• Give away services in order to sell products later.
  
  
• Do the reverse, give away products in order to sell services.
  
  
• To sell harware, first give away software.
  
  
• Use loss leaders to give items free with a retail purchase.
  
  
• Buy one, get one free in your retail operation.
  
  
• Free shipping for orders over a certain amount like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some other large Internet retailers.
  
  
• Imitate Travelocity and give away travel services for a cut of rental car and hotel reservations.
  
  
• Sell information about consumers obtained by giving away content.
  
  
• Charge builders and contractors to be listed as green resources in return for giving away their “green” house plans.
  
  
• Sell magazines and books by giving away Web content.
  
  
• To sell your books, give away snippets of what is in the books.

These are just a few ideas you can use to make money from the “everything is free” concept. When you first see this idea, it seems impossible for anything good to come from it if you are a home based entrepreneur. This article should show you some ways to make money from the free illusion.

CONCLUSION
Much of this discussion has been about the free aspects of creative intellectual property. This includes all the home based entrepreneurs engaged in copyrighting, freelance activities, production of e-books and a host of other activities conducted from home. The ideas we’ve presented may also apply to some hard products. An example would be the razor industry giving away razors in order to sell more expensive razor blades. Look for opportunities all around your particular business, then capitalize on them. You will make money when you do this.