Make Your Content Free – The Money Will Follow
This has been the topic of discussion for a very long time, the argument of making people pay for content over giving it away. The landscape is changing rapidly, the world is and will not tolerate being forced to buy content whether it be music, files or the written word, you can’t enforce control when you need trust! It used to be that he who had control made the money, today, the good news is, that is changing, he who has less control makes more money. The bottom-line is the bottom-line, we will always try to monetize anything and everything. It seems we are very short-sighted though, we are still trying to make people do things they don’t want to do. Trying to control what people can access is not the way to go about building trust, in fact, it puts the guard up and raises questions as to motive.
One of the bigger challenges I see with making money online is, it’s not seamless enough yet, people still have to jump through far too many hoops. You would think with all the advancement in technology this would have been solved long ago. As mobile technology improves, the more and more we become mobile, the more transactions and advertising will be come seamless, it has to because we won’t tolerate what is cumbersome. Mobile advertising is where you should be developing your content, convert your free content into an app for iPad, iTunes or mobile phones and what have you. Advertising (At-vertising) is now Appvertising. The world will almost be 100% mobile in the next 5 – 7 years, focus your distribution through Appvertising. Feed your Blog content through an app, distribution is not the problem anymore, the Internet solved that for us years ago.
The easier you make it for your audience to come in, the greater return on your investment. Attention is the new currency, and in that currency there is an underlying trust osmosis component. The equation of tomorrow is:
EXPOSURE -> DISCOVERY -> COMMUNITY -> REVENUE
We are moving from selling products & services, to selling our attention, Google is doing it all the time.
The power of the future is in sharing, sharing music, sharing content, and sharing means doing it freely, not being forced to pay for that sharing. The problem is we are in the midst of a copyright gridlock (coined by Gerd Leonhard), there is much to be figured out here. Making the money happens around all that sharing, your primary content is distributed freely, this paradigm shift of Free & Open will change behaviour. The revenue change will come after the behaviour, habit & culture changes first.
Being connected scares companies and business owners, because we are going through a fundamental shift, from Closed to Open. The fear of loss is far greater than the desire for gain in this shift. It means not controlling how the money is made, the open & free marketplace means you & I are in control, we get to decide, big business doesn’t want that. So think of ideas that will allow you to maximize the Open & Free Business Model, that will allow you to attract the right kind of attention.
We have to change our beliefs in how the world really is. Today only 25.6% of the world is here online, what will the world look like in the next 3 – 5 years when that number is over 60%? What would 5 Billion people online change in your online presence and brand? Think about that for just a moment, should you be doing things differently?
We have a Global Trust Crisis, Copyright Gridlock where the value of money needs to be re-determined, and there is so much to unlearn, but that’s what makes all this fun, the future is perfect because we haven’t screwed it up yet!
Give your audience access first before paying, Collaborate instead of Dominate, Coordinate & Cultivate instead of Command & Control, Control is Dead. We are becoming a broadband culture, we click to get before we ever pay. Access first, pay later.
I would love to hear your thoughts, my goal is to make you think, nothing more nothing less.
What do you think?
The 2010 Walk for Kids Help Phone in Fraser Valley
The 2010 Walk for Kids Help Phone in Fraser Valley is taking place at Mill Lake Park in Abbotsford, I will be the Emcee for this event this year.
Walk Distance: 5 km
Registration Start Time:10:00 am
Walk Start Time: 11:00 am
The 2010 Walk for Kids Help Phone in the Fraser Valley is taking place at Mill Lake Park #1 North in Abbotsford. Parking lot is accessible from Mill Lake Road. The 5 km walk is twice around the park, through the trails, over the boardwalk & across the lake. It’s a gorgeous walk & fabulous place to take the family to support the Walk for Kids Help Phone on May 2, 2010! Bring the kids, the dog, your bikes, scooters and wagons and enjoy some beautiful Fraser Valley scenery while helping to support a fantastic cause to help kids in our community and across Canada!
More details on the Fraser Valley Community Walk
Mini Workshop – Book Your Seat Now – Seats Still Available.
Social Media = The Open & Free Business Model – Workshop
Book your seat NOW – 1st Come 1st Serve – ONLY 20 10 Seats available!
How to give your content away and generate revenue!
This mini workshop is being held in Abbotsford, B.C., and will touch on three primary areas:
TRENDS
We’ll look at trends and what’s happening around the world, and how these trends will impact your business online & off. Today there are 1.7 Billion people on the Internet, in the next 3 – 5 years that number will be 5 Billion. How will you get their attention?
THE OPEN & FREE BUSINESS MODEL
This is not a skill set, it’s a paradigm shift and this shift is painful, I’ll layout why and what this model might look like for your business, I’ll also show examples of how businesses are using this model. We’ll talk about Content, Social Media Strategies and tools.
BREAKOUT SESSION
By the time we get to this section, you’ll already have some new creative ideas, and ways to increase revenue. We’ll work through how you can build & implement your ideas with your staff.
When the workshop is over you will have a much better view of what’s coming, a framework to help you adapt, plus you will have a simple step by step approach for implementing new revenue streams.
The workshop will be held on April 30th, Noon – 4PM and it’s just $100. There are only 10 seats available and are on a 1st come 1st serve basis.
To reserve your seat please reply ASAP by e-mail at owen@owengreaves.com for all the details, DO IT NOW!
The world is coming, and I look forward to helping you get ready.
Owen Greaves Consulting
The Open & Free Business Model Mini Workshop
I have been asked many times what the Open & Free Business Model is and what it might look like, how would do I use it in my business and so on. The questions always center around, how will I get paid for my digital content? That’s actually the wrong question and the wrong focus. The model is not about technology, nor is it a skill set, it’s a mind set, a paradigm shift of moving away from control. It used to be, he who had control made all the money. Today, the good news is, that thinking or model is shrinking and is changing to, he who has less control makes more money. It sounds risky doesn’t it? I liken it to a faith based way of doing business, trusting the people formerly know as consumers.
With that in mind, Owen Greaves Consulting is holding a workshop for local businesses Friday April 30th from Noon – 4PM, there will only be 20 seats available and is being held in my community. This workshop is a scaled down version of the Two Day Program. Three topics will be covered, first I’ll touch on trends to help get the creative juices flowing, then I’ll give you 4 – 5 examples of brands / businesses that do variations of the Open & Free Business Model, then we’ll spend most of the workshop in a breakout session, call it a Think-Tank if you will. We’ll split up into teams of 5 to work together on developing idea’s, concept’s that can be implemented, and then each team will share their idea’s with everyone. In the longer Two Day Workshop, the format is similar but with perks not included in the shorter session.
The purpose of the workshop’s is to help you as a business owner to begin the process of changing the way you view the world online, revolution is adopting new behaviour, it is my hope you will change your behaviour and become revolutionary through these workshops.
I have shared many times before, there are 1.7 Billion people online today, in the next 3 – 5 years that number will be 5 Billion. We will have to prove Impact like never before, we will need to find new creative and effective ways to get attention. The current strategies and or tactics have yet to be proven effective in this new way of thinking, also the current infrastructure is inadequate.
If you live in my area and would like to fill one of the 20 seats available, please contact ASAP! I will be providing more details later in the week, there will be a 10% discount for registering by April 23rd, 2010.
For more information, check this Blog and or send me an e-mail: owen@owengreaves.com
iPad = Net Neutrality
Now that the iPad is available, many are jumping on the 1st version as a collectors item. Many are hailing the iPad as the future of computing, I don’t see it that way. I do see Apple’s iPad as a player in the Net Neutrality movement, it’s a closed system that forces you to play the Apple way. This gives Apple the opportunity to control what you can and can’t do with the iPad, what apps you can run, what you can look at on the Net and so on. It’s another mechanism of control which smacks the face of being an open opportunity. Yes the product will have an impact in many areas, and you will enjoy using it. The bigger picture is more bothersome in my humble opinion.
Firstly, it’s not a computer. Secondly, it’s more like a portal that can run apps on the cloud. Thirdly, the size is a problem for power users. I see the iPad as a distraction, mobile computing should be your focus if you are a developer of apps. You can argue that the iPad is a mobile device, but you would be hard pressed to convince me. With only 1.7 Billion people on the Internet to date and another 3.3 Billion to come over the next 3 – 5 years, the iPhone, BlackBerry & Android are more likely the tools of choice over the iPad.
There will be a niche for the iPad but that’s a far cry from being the future of computing. The future of computing is in the Nanotechnology field, we will merge with technology and become wireless devices in the next 30 – 40 years. I won’t be around to see it most likely but it will be very interesting to watch the progress.
I suspect I’ll pick up an iPad at some point, but it’s not the future of my computing. Soon you won’t be able to buy Desktop Computers (Towers), Laptop’s will slowly disappear in the next 5 years, leaving the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android & iPad? Microsoft just announced a phone as well, we’ll see more before it’s all said and done. Don’t bank on any one thing in the next 10 years, we are going to see more change than ever before, making it impossible to predict what is and isn’t possible.
Net Neutrality is all about control and Apple isn’t about to move beyond that model anytime soon by the looks of things. I am more interested in ecosystems that benefit all, not just a chosen few.
What do you think? Is the iPad the future of computing or is it a shortterm product making way for something better?