{"id":14586,"date":"2012-08-10T21:01:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T13:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=14586"},"modified":"2022-09-19T18:19:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T10:19:21","slug":"free-business-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/free-business-model\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Free Business Model (And How to Make it Work)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Modern consumers don\u2019t buy cr*p. We see more and more free products made available on the Web since businesses moved from the material economy to the bits-and-bytes economy.<\/p>\n<p>Physical things are much more expensive than virtual ones, which is why the free business model is becoming increasingly popular.<\/p>\n<p>As more businesses adopt this model, you may have to rethink your business strategy because people may just stop buying your products if they can get the same for free.<\/p>\n<p>Learn all you can about the free business model to stay ahead of your competitors.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ref-block ref-block--post\" id=\"ref-post-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/handling-the-business-side-of-design\/\" class=\"ref-block__link\" title=\"Read More: Handling the Business Side of Design\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Handling the Business Side of Design<\/span><\/a>\n<div class=\"ref-block__thumbnail img-thumb img-thumb--jumbo\" data-img='{ \"src\" : \"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/thumbs\/250x160\/handling-the-business-side-of-design.jpg\" }'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<noscript>\n<style>.no-js #ref-block-post-7626 .ref-block__thumbnail { background-image: url(\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/thumbs\/250x160\/handling-the-business-side-of-design.jpg\"); }<\/style>\n<\/noscript>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"ref-block__summary\">\n<h4 class=\"ref-title\">Handling the Business Side of Design<\/h4>\n<p class=\"ref-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOne aspect of the American Dream is owning your own business. The idea of becoming your own boss,...\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Read more<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Types of <em>Free<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Yes, there are different types of free, namely:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Buy one get one free<\/strong> \u2013 This type of <em>free<\/em> exists with traders who want to clear their stock inventory. This sort of <em>free<\/em> sells because people think that they get more while buying less even though the fact is that they are spending money for free stuff.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Someone else pays<\/strong> \u2013 Via advertisements. People buy <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ads.google.com\/home\/\" rel=\"noopener\">AdWords<\/a> from Google, and that\u2019s why we get to use free mail, powerful search engines, great productivity features, and more products for free from Google.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cross-subsidy<\/strong> \u2013 Product X is free, but the customer pays a hefty price for sub-product Y, which covers the cost for both items; for example, you get a free razor, but the blades are going to cost you for the long term.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Freemium<\/strong> \u2013 Quite popular these days. For example, the basic account of the product is free, but if the user wants more features, he or she has to pay for premium services. Premium customers subsidize the free for products like <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Dropbox<\/a> or <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mailchimp.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">MailChimp<\/a>. Critical mass is vital.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gift Economy<\/strong> \u2013 The price for the product is not fixed, e.g. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wikipedia.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a> is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, people usually help by donating. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/losttype.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Lost Type<\/a> \u2013 you can pay as much as you want for the fonts you download but it is not obligatory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Free for real <\/strong>\u2013 giving things for free without expecting anything in return, e.g., charity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Who\u2019s using free business model?<\/h2>\n<p>Plenty!<\/p>\n<p>Most new start-ups offer something for free, for example, <strong>Spotify<\/strong>, <strong>SoundCloud<\/strong>, <strong>Rdio<\/strong>, <strong>Grooveshark<\/strong>, <strong>Evernote<\/strong>, etc.<\/p>\n<p>The same applies to older established brands like <strong>Twitter<\/strong>, <strong>Skype<\/strong>, <strong>Vimeo<\/strong>, <strong>YouTube<\/strong>, <strong>Google<\/strong>, and <strong>Yahoo<\/strong>, who all implemented something from this business model and successfully grew with that.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/free-business-model\/websites.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"346\" alt=\"Spotify\"><\/figure>\n<h2>How free business model works?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Michael Woloszynowicz<\/strong> explains how the freemium business model works and uses Dropbox as an example. To be successful with freemium, you need massive amounts of traffic and a continuous flow of new sign-ups.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning, freemiums are a loss of money, but at <strong> at a point where you reach a certain number of premium users, you will start making money<\/strong>. At that point, profit becomes bigger than cost, and this freemium model will start to pay off. Both bad and good scenarios are explained in the charts below.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/free-business-model\/bad-good-scenario.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"364\" width=\"500\"><\/figure>\n<p>To succeed, you must ensure that you have good enough features to achieve better conversion rates. This freemium model works very well even with low conversion rates.<\/p>\n<p>Only 3.5-4% of Dropbox users pay for everyone. You can accomplish this by testing your concept within your target audience. Another important point to consider is the visibility of the pro account, and the benefits users will get by choosing a premium.<\/p>\n<p>You can achieve better visibility by effective usage of reminders.<\/p>\n<h2>Free Games: Angry Birds<\/h2>\n<p>Angry Birds is free for Android, Chrome, and Facebook. Letting people play this game for free builds a fan base and spreads brand awareness.<\/p>\n<p>When the brand becomes well known, they start selling merchandise, apps for iPhone or the iPad, and special editions of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/cool-angry-birds-merchandise\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Angry Birds<\/a> like Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, etc.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/free-business-model\/angry_birds_toys.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" alt=\"Toys\"><\/figure>\n<h2>How to implement free model?<\/h2>\n<p>You can easily implement the free business model in your current business by following good practices other companies use. Here is a list of some paid services you can offer your users.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upgrade features<\/li>\n<li>Premium services<\/li>\n<li>Support<\/li>\n<li>Add-ons<\/li>\n<li>Pay for commercial use<\/li>\n<li>Product giveaways for promotional purposes <\/li>\n<li>Membership<\/li>\n<li>Product trials<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Some burning questions:<\/h2>\n<h3>1. What are your user communities?<\/h3>\n<p>If you are creating something for everyone, you\u2019re creating for nobody then. You have to narrow down your target audience and address specific types of people segmented by interest, needs, or income.<\/p>\n<p>You have to define your target audience and test your business concept with the people from your target audience to make your business successful.<\/p>\n<h3>2. What problems do they share?<\/h3>\n<p>To be successful with this free business model, you have to listen to the people you\u2019re creating products for and try to help them to solve their problems with your products.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody wants to fork out money for something that doesn\u2019t help them solve problems.<\/p>\n<h3>3. What can you monetize once you have the traffic?<\/h3>\n<p>You must decide what you will monetize when traffic is big enough. You can offer premium upgrade features and memberships, release free products, and offer paid support.<\/p>\n<p>For example, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/woocommerce.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">WooCommerce<\/a>, the leader in the market, offers high-quality WordPress themes; some are for free, but with these free themes, you don\u2019t get any support. If you want to support, you can buy a membership and access the forum to get the necessary information.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/free-business-model\/woothemes.jpg\" alt=\"WooThemes\" height=\"353\" width=\"500\"><\/figure>\n<h3>4. Pros and cons<\/h3>\n<p>One of the pros is the small conversion needed to succeed. Only 3-5% of users pay for the rest. That means you don\u2019t need a lot of users who pay for the product to be successful.<\/p>\n<p>Also, having a free product is easier to promote and build a community around it. For sustainability, huge amounts of traffic and users are needed, which is hard to achieve if your product is very new and cannot compete with big competitors in terms of discoverability and originality.<\/p>\n<h2>Money is not everything<\/h2>\n<p>You might think it\u2019s not true, but in reality, it\u2019s not just the money that counts. Getting a good reputation for the company is a hard and long process. Everyone from the company should be involved. You have a problem if your company values differ from your employee\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone is connected to the Web via social media platforms, and they can say whatever they want after working hours, so you should be aware of this and make sure your employees understand that how they behave online will affect the direction of their product and organization.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/free-business-model\/money-is-not-everything.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"280\" width=\"500\"><\/figure>\n<p>Reputation is one of the things that is hard to build and very easy to lose. A single wrong message or misdirected campaign can destroy all your hard work.<\/p>\n<p>By giving things away for free, you can build a reputation as a good and caring company. If the things you are giving away are really good, people will consider supporting your organization by buying other products from you.<\/p>\n<p>If your products are too expensive, give something for free to show them that your products are worth their attention. This is the chance for them to get to know your company and products without spending money.<\/p>\n<h2>Every company is unique<\/h2>\n<p>You should analyze your company and current market in the niche you\u2019re targeting to choose the best way of implementing the free business model in your business.<\/p>\n<p>Every company is unique, and while what worked for the companies mentioned above might not work for you, it strengthens the argument that you should conduct your own analysis and find the best way to use free economy in your business to put your product on the map.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern consumers don\u2019t buy cr*p. We see more and more free products made available on the Web since businesses moved from the material economy to the bits-and-bytes economy. Physical things are much more expensive than virtual ones, which is why the free business model is becoming increasingly popular. As more businesses adopt this model, you&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3407],"tags":[1483,4629],"topic":[4522,4523],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is a Free Business Model (And How to Make it Work) - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Modern consumers don&#039;t buy cr*p. 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