How “Free Stuff” on the Web Really Works

Everything has a cost of some type. That’s basic economics. It’s not always a monetary cost; sometimes it’s a price paid in effort, and sometimes it’s an “opportunity cost,” which means that as a result of choosing one thing you can’t take full advantage of another opportunity. An example of that would be in how we choose to spend our time. If I choose to go swimming, the opportunity cost for that time period might be not being able to go hiking. In business, as a VERY simple example, if the owners of a business choose to spend a certain amount of money on a new piece of equipment, that money is not available to hire more help, or to buy advertising, or to lease a new location. The underlying concept is that there may be in infinite source of resources, but the resources themselves in your hands at any given time are finite.

When you “buy one and get one free,” the second item is at no cost to you, but it cost the provider to provide it. He had to acquire it somehow. Someone had to provide the resources that brought it into existence in the first place. That item you are getting “free” is actually “at no cost to you,” but it does in fact have a cost somewhere. Make no mistake—if someone is bringing you value and you are not paying for it, someone else is.

Here is an example: This blog you’re reading, I don’t charge you to read it. I will never, ever, ever charge anyone to read this or any other blog I write. I hope you get value from it, but I don’t ask that you pay me. How can I do this? Well, for some period of time, I’m “feeding” it myself. I had to purchase the name grownuptech.com and I pay a hosting company to house and serve up the files that make up the blog. Why would I do this? Because at some point, I hope that you will find enough value in the content that you won’t mind seeing a few advertisements along the sides and up at the top. You may not notice the ads on the blogs you read, but most websites that are not selling something directly are supported by some type of advertising. I get to choose what type of ads we don’t want to see, and I can promise you that if your kids end up at this website, there won’t be any ads that will shock them—or you. Advertising support is the primary reason so much good content is available on the web.

But there is a more insidious type of “free” content, and buddy, you pay for that. It’s usually when you download something, and then install it or unpack it, and there’s a hitch-hiker program riding along. The developer of that hitch-hiker program has paid the original content creator a price for the honor of being included in the download. The original content creator gets his money not from you, but from the hitch-hiker, the hitch-hiker gets his program out into the wild and onto the computers of unsuspecting users. Everyone wins—except you. You are saddled with a program you don’t want, don’t need, can’t use, it may be harmful to your computer, it may be logging keystrokes, it may be phoning home to the mothership. How did it get there?

You let it in.

You didn’t read the End User License Agreement that advised you that this other program was coming along for the ride. You just clicked “Agree” without paying attention to what you were agreeing to.

Certainly not everything offered at no cost to you is bad. Retailers often have promotions wherein they give away product or gifts with purchase; bloggers often offer a free ebook when you sign up for their newsletter. The place where we get our hair cut offers a free haircut after we buy 12 haircuts. In each of those cases, value is exchanged: the retailer has your business, and also gets a bit of advertising when he says “thank you” with a gift. The blogger gets your eyes on his blog and also in his book, and you’re more likely to talk about it and share the content with others. The haircut shop buys my loyalty, not that they need to buy it, but it’s also a thank you. I’m more likely to come back four more times after eight times, if I know that after four more times I will get a free haircut.  (I tip on full value when I get a discount, by the way.)

Pay attention to “free” stuff.  Sometimes it’s a gift or a thank-you. Sometimes it’s an enticement. Sometimes it’s not bad, just worth what you paid for it. But sometimes, it’s much more; sometimes it’s an open door to your computer.