My life has been taken over by free (or almost free) things. Here are some examples:
- We decided to use WordPress for a company knowledgebase rather than purchasing from a leading a SaaS vendor.
- We finished a webinar that yielded over 1,800 signups. We used Gotowebinar ($99/month) and emails our house list (~$400). That is $0.28 per lead for those keeping score at home (about 50 to 100 times less than most B2B marketers expect).
- Organic search and social media are the fastest growing parts of referrer traffic at Tangyslice and Firstgiving.
- I chatted on Skype with my parents during their recent trip to Costa Rica.
- I sold my wife’s minivan (ok, snicker away, it was my idea) on Craig’s list.
- After flailing for months without a calendar or contacts on my phone, I discovered Google sync for my Blackberry
- I stopped reading the daily newspaper now that I seem to get all my news through free RSS feeds.
Are you feeling the power of free? Any other great free stuff to share?
Get Free-er with web conferencing.
Check out DimDim.com at Free for 1 to 20 seats or $99 per year for branded for 1 to 100 seats. No software to download.
When I’m on a GoToWebinar on my home DSL, GoTo’s screen display can never keep up with the speaker.
Steve Chazin is the CMO of DimDim and lives in NH. http://www.marketingapple.com
Nice guy
Pingback: Marketing Analytics » The Free Economy
I agree the good things in life are free.
I was really impressed with my day at the FREE Product Bootcamp, organized by members of the BPMA (Boston Product Managers Assn) 2/28/09 http://barcamp.org/ProductCampBoston
. It was just as good as conferences that cost thousands to register. It was also a really interesting experiment in self-organization. Everyone is supposed to contribute and take ownership for the day. Predictably, although everyone was invited to present, most presenters were selling a product or service. It didn’t detract, though, because that gave us polished, content-rich presentations. Why would anyone invest the time and effort to prepare a good presentation otherwise? The camaraderie was really nice, the product of a meeting of equals, rather than speakers parading with their colored labels.
The other great free event is WebInno (see your newer post.) I find the quality of start-ups there just as good as any VC-competition event. The energy of the buzz at WebInno is better, though, because it is not dampened by fear of saying the wrong thing to an investor audience. I always leave WebInno feeling good that exciting businesses are still being generated in MA.