Its free (terms may apply)

In today’s world, we expect things for free, it’s pushed to us each day; free broadband, free TV, free software, free movies, free music, free games and apps, and free advice, but terms apply.

There is a saying in todays user based on-line economy “if its free, you’re the product”. Here’s another saying “you can’t compete with free”, thats what “they” said when I started RiPWiRE; the first ISP in the UK to offer fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) high-speed internet to consumers. But that very fact that we were offering something different, meant that we could compete, that was until these services became common place, then the consumer could buy it cheaper than we could buy tier 1 transit just to support our customer. Big branded telco’s gave it away for “free” if you took their landline, TV and calls package.

Here’s a snippet form a recent Seth Godin blog post about free advice that inspired mine:

“Of course, advice that’s simple, guaranteed, easy and free isn’t worth very much, because if it worked, we would have done it already.

No, the advice worth seeking out is really difficult to execute. It costs time or money (or both), and it just might not work.

Hey, if it’s worth asking for advice, it’s worth doing the hard stuff once we get it, right?”