The,New,Internet,FREE,FEE,the, DIY The New Internet - FREE VS FEE
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and
In the last three months of 2000, it is estimated that over750 dot.com businesses went out of business forever.It was to be expected and very predictable because fartoo many dot.com enterprises were riding high on investor cash infusions, were long on promises butproduced little if any cash flow.The promise of success never materialized and investors wisely refused to throw goodmoney after bad.No business can survive having expenses but no revenue.Not even on the Internet.That was the "Old Internet" business model.You could write down an idea for an Internet business on a cocktail napkin and get millions of dollars fromeager investors. Reality has finally set in and once FREEbusinesses are changing their stripes and attempting tocharge a fee for their content or services.Enter the "New Internet".The first quarter of 2001 has seen a rash of companiesjumping on the "Now We Charge a FEE" bandwagon.A wide variety of services and content that was oncedelivered for FREE are now being delivered ONLY if you pay a fee.This includes such services as web hosting, website content like the current time, weather and date, stock quotes, music files and much more.Those once FREE services and content were able to beprovided because there was a strong advertiser base that paid for the show we all enjoyed.But the advertising base has faltered.Some of the big names that now offer new premium services include Yahoo!, http://www.yahoo.com/, eBay, http://www.ebay.com/, and of course, the new courtordered changes at Napster, http://www.napster.com/,which made it a legal necessity to charge a fee for their music services. Bizland.com, http://www.bizland.com/, has always provided web-hosting sites for small businesses, as well as email forwarding, e-commerce packages and marketing tools.For several weeks now, Bizland.com has been alerting its nearly 1 MILLION members that changes in theirservices would soon be implemented. Their Basic FREE service is now little more than a Business Card Web Page, with ads inserted and a forwarding email address. The next step up is their Charter service which allowsmembers 35mb of disk space with a monthly fee of $7.95.On top of that, there is also a set-up fee of $7.95.It is VERY doubtful that they will continue to boastof nearly 1 MILLION members.Especially when you consider that there are still manyweb sites around that provide the same level of servicefor FREE on which Bizland.com wants to start charging a monthly fee.A survey in our FBCN newsletter clearly showed that100% of our 282 respondents, would NOT pay a fee forservice or content they can aquire elsewhere for FREE.Perhaps some online businesses can get away with nowcharging a FEE for previously FREE services or content.However, any business playing with the idea of changing their structure would do well to research the competition.The Internet was born on a FREE exchange of ideas.I do feel we will NEVER see the complete removal of all FREE based services from the Internet.However, it is only natural to presume that someonline businesses MUST charge a fee or cease to exist.Which ones will depend on the unique type ofservice or content that they provide.However, I predict that the most valuable propertiesonline will be those that have a business model basedon BOTH FREE content and services, but with FEE based content and services that are much more enhanced.The promise of a FREE service or content will continue to drive traffic to a web site. Once there, visitors willbe given the option of paying to receive PREMIUM orENHANCED service and content.That will be the nature of , "The New Internet".
The,New,Internet,FREE,FEE,the,