Earlier today, the extraordinarily popular design blog Smashing Magazine posted a one-page site takeover asking their readers for financial help. Every page on the site redirected to a screen asking readers to purchase an eBook from them, should they continue to provide high quality content. As anyone would expect, there was a mixed reaction in the design community. Many were supportive and many were annoyed.
I think this really all comes down to one thing though: Precedent.
Setting the Precedent
When Apple first opened the App Store, they had paid apps and free apps from the start. Can you imagine if they had free apps at first, and then added paid apps later? A huge company like Apple probably wouldn’t receive the same outpouring of support that Smashing Magazine has been graced with today.
Our show Doctype is another example. We insisted upon having sponsors from the very first episode, so that viewers would know what to expect. If we released the first few episodes for free and then suddenly added video ad spots, it would create an unexpected disruption and greatly take away from the content of the show. We rarely receive any complaints though, because fans know what to expect. The precedent has been set.
Now, I’m in no way blaming Smashing Magazine. They had some tough calls to make and I feel they did the right thing today. But this should serve as an example to the web industry; the cost of "free" is very high.
The Age of Free
Content is one of the least-free things I can think of. However, content has the appearance of being free because there’s such a huge abundance of it. Additionally, there are very few (obvious) material costs to produce it, compared to, say, the material costs of producing furniture. We’re fortunate that our fans understand the tangible costs of producing high quality video; It requires cameras, lights, and editing software.
Everyone in the content biz knows though, that materials are cheap. Time is the expensive part.
How can content producers help consumers understand the costs involved? How do you monetize in the age of free? Leave a comment and let us know.
7 comments ↓
Overall I’d have to say that I respect SM but this to me is too much. You don’t necessarily have to redirect every single link on their site. I understand they need financial help, but honestly this wasn’t the right way to go about it.
- Henry
IMO, the way they did it was wrong. However, good contain has a cost in time and investment (cameras etc). This is a precedent but it’s not going to be a standalone things i think.
I don’t see any problems in paying for good contain. I only hope someone will have a solution for a kind of “global pass” or it’ll be hard to follow everything.
I didn’t notice their plea and never would have. Since their redesign I haven’t actively followed SM. (Regrettably, that makes me sound like just another fickle design leech.) I left before they completely fell into the tip aggregator trap or “Top 50 Blahs You Should Blah-Blah” reflexiveness that characterizes so many design blogs today.
Years ago, Smashing Mag taught me graphic design for the web. SM found all the stuff I needed to know about the web interface and pulled it all together on their site, daily. SM shared countless resources and techniques which have not only made my job easier, but made it possible. I think they can still do that for the new blood.
How do we help them survive so that others may benefit from them as we did (aside from buying their book)?
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