Why ‘Free’ is a Good Business Model

Barry Says:

November 28th, 2007, 8:22 am

I think I understand the community of bloggers, now…by becoming a “guest blogger” for other sites, and having them “guest blog” for you, you have to come up with less and less content.

Toto Says:

November 28th, 2007, 10:02 am

Same impression…
No more content here, but a bunch of links to site where there is another bunch of link.
Everyone is connected, but no one gives information !

PeterK Says:

November 28th, 2007, 10:46 am

There is some original content here, but less and less every month. As the others said, the posts are either guest posts, links to a guest post, or revisiting old topics often without genuinely new content. Take for example the last ten posts, I would say no more than three or four of them are “real” zenhabits posts.

I understand that some kind of networking is necessary to make some money out of a free blog, but I think now the “junk” is becoming more dominant than the real value. And the reason I’m a regular reader of this blog is that there is (was) a lot of original content presented in a clean, easy to access manner. Now it starts to have a commercial feel to it, the content is hidden between text ads (a.k.a. guest posts, link collections, etc). I have the feeling it’s becoming just another money making enterprise.

Barry Says:

November 28th, 2007, 11:14 am

I didn’t mean to start a landslide toward the negative with my first comment…but the other 2 gentlemen here have extended and explained my thoughts pretty well. I like Leo, and read this page for that reason. And I would still like to come to the page for that reason, but too often am disappointed.

dimmak Says:

November 28th, 2007, 12:40 pm

Well I think I place more value on the community then the site itself. The site offers up topics and advice for us to freely discuss. The heart and soul is in the users not the founder. He just sparked the fire. Know of a better venue in the same vein of zenhabits?

John Hewitt Says:

November 28th, 2007, 13:17 pm

The amazing thing is just how free your article is. In fact, Jon Castleman was happy to take your article for free, scrape it, and add his own ads. At least Jon will be making money, and he didn’t even have to do any real work. Congratulations on becoming one of his “contributors”.

http://procopywriters.com/blog/

Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah) Says:

November 28th, 2007, 13:20 pm

Giving away my ebook for free was the smartest thing I ever did! It allowed me to get more readers in one week than I did in the entire first two months online!

zero255zero Says:

November 28th, 2007, 13:29 pm

As a frugalist, free is good. Not sure I learned anything new here though.

samantha Says:

November 28th, 2007, 13:44 pm

Just to be fair, he did mention a little while ago that he was going to have guest spots for a while. It sounded like something came up at home.

Barry Says:

November 28th, 2007, 13:54 pm

You can probably chalk up my complaining to a bit of mild OCD…just not liking change. Leo, if you are having issues at home, I wish you the best in dealing with them.

Lea Says:

November 28th, 2007, 14:02 pm

Let’s not forget guys that Leo has a full time job, six kids and a burgeoning freelance career. He’s spent several months creating one of the most inspiring resources there is in the blogosphere, so if he feels the need to take a breather, maybe expand his readership by reaching out on other blogs and do some virtual networking, it’s his right to do so.

Secondly, you could also look at the flip side of the coin and say that by allowing guest posts on his blog and by guest posting on others, Leo is giving back to the blogging community who have embraced him. Having Leo guest post for you, is in itself kudos, as is having a guest post on Zen Habits.

Thirdly, any of you who blog as regularly as Leo does (not just on this blog but on others) will know how hard it is to come up with fresh content on an ongoing basis. There are only so many ways to spin a positive thing and say something, so it’s not surprising if at times, some of the content is a little repetitive. What works for some, may not have worked for others so finding different ways to communicate essentially the same message, is not necessarily a bad thing…

Leo Says:

November 28th, 2007, 14:47 pm

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I have cut my posting schedule back a bit … for example, I didn’t have a post yesterday, but I had posts the last couple of days before that and I’ll have one today. I just got busy yesterday (no, not with guest posting, but with my day job and other projects). For some reason, I didn’t think people would mind - boy was I wrong! :)

Sorry, guys, if you feel the quality has gone down. I’ve tried to take the advice of readers here and post when I feel like it, and put out the best quality stuff I can. If you take a look at my posts recently (last few weeks), they’ve been as high a quality as ever (at least, that’s my intention).

Well, I will continue to try for the high quality, but less frequent posts (maybe 4 times a week right now). We’ll see how that works out, and if everyone continues to hate it, I’ll go back to 5 times a week.

Miss Gisele B. Says:

November 28th, 2007, 14:58 pm

Leo,

That was another an excellent post and it’s an inspiration to all of us out there trying to become experts in our own field.

My self and the group of people who have created an online magazine on beauty, anti-aging and aging well have also worked along the same principles you explained in that guest post.

We’ve been asked by many other publications to be the expert beauty team and this simple blog we created 6 months about has taken us on a great ride.

We’re basically following another blogger who went from blogging part-time while working at Salvation Army helping underprivileged people to having a very popular celebrity blog + having a segment on TV + covering a lot of the award events and the film festivals … all in the span of about 2-3 years!

The blog platform allows you to actually showcase what you do well and we do take the time to write compelling information that are completely and totally passionate about, people sense that and they come back for more and they also want you to share that kind of insane passion with their readers.

Getting paid is important because we all need the money to pay bills and also to grow financially, but there should always be something that we’re willing to give out for free to show people how level of expertise.

A blog is the perfect tool to help us do exactly that!

Gisele
http://www.beautymatch.com

Mark Says:

November 28th, 2007, 15:56 pm

Leo –

Dude, the last time I checked the posts on your site are FREE! Just like the guest article says…

Until you start charging for your content the only responsibility you have is to yourself. Of course, you want your readers to be satisfied but you publish your thoughts and ask nothing in return. Oh yeah, your RSS numbers look pretty good from where I sit too.

Funny, I was just outside landscaping my house thinking about the comments that you and Darren left yesterday on my post about gaining new site traffic via guest blogging. If this is what more traffic brings I am quite happy to stay a small, organic site.

Continued success to you! I look forward to your next post, whenever that may be :-)

Sajjid Manuel Says:

November 28th, 2007, 16:02 pm

“FREE” is good, but it’s the motive that matters. Giving away stuff to make money isn’t my cup of tea. Although, I do understand that one has to make a living, but, the motive is what makes the business last long. A relationship based business will always stand strong no matter what comes in your way.

Sajjid Manuel
Founder/Ceo
http://www.blogworkx.com
A Frost and Fable Record Company

Leo Says:

November 28th, 2007, 17:41 pm

@Sajid: Point taken and appreciated! I agree completely.

@Mark: You’re right, but I’m all about making my readers happy. :)

Megan @ Disorder2Order Says:

December 1st, 2007, 1:09 am

This is great Leo. I have to say that I don’t think I have commented on your blog but I just love your contribution. You have so many wonderful things to say and you really inspire me!