Comments on: “Free” Isn’t A Four-Letter Word Offline, So Why Does The Media Hate It Online? http://daggle.com/free-fourletter-word-offline-media-hate-online-1247 Danny Sullivan's Personal Blog Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:44:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: OnArmedSEO http://daggle.com/free-fourletter-word-offline-media-hate-online-1247/comment-page-1#comment-5382 OnArmedSEO Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:20:44 +0000 http://daggle.com/?p=1247#comment-5382 I had this "Free" discussion a couple years ago when I worked for an agency. When discussing particular client with the team we were talking about their SEO and how their organic ranking was Free unlike their PPC ads which they paid for on a daily basis. One of the team said their organic ranking listings were free and my boss said: "Don't say free when you speak with them, because it's not really free, they're paying to get their SEO done. When you say free, it makes them think that they are getting something for free and then they start to expect more for free." It made sense to me...I still don't use it to this day. I had this “Free” discussion a couple years ago when I worked for an agency. When discussing particular client with the team we were talking about their SEO and how their organic ranking was Free unlike their PPC ads which they paid for on a daily basis. One of the team said their organic ranking listings were free and my boss said: “Don’t say free when you speak with them, because it’s not really free, they’re paying to get their SEO done. When you say free, it makes them think that they are getting something for free and then they start to expect more for free.”

It made sense to me…I still don’t use it to this day.

]]> By: Rocky Agrawal http://daggle.com/free-fourletter-word-offline-media-hate-online-1247/comment-page-1#comment-4714 Rocky Agrawal Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:04:02 +0000 http://daggle.com/?p=1247#comment-4714 Music has two different parties that get paid -- the composers and the recording artists. For terrestrial radio, the composers get paid, but the recording artists don't get a cent. For satellite and Internet, both parties get paid, but at different rates. When it comes to printed newspapers, the circulation cost (especially when discounted) doesn't even cover the cost of paper and distribution for that copy, much less the newsgathering. But because it's paid circ, the ABC and some advertisers believe that those readers have higher value than those of a free paper. (ABC has steadily reduced the threshold of what counts as paid circ... it used to be 50% of the regular price, then 25%, now it is at 1 cent.) A huge problem for newspapers is that online the highest value advertisers get siphoned off to niche sites... autos goes to Edmunds, AOL Autos, KBB.com. travel goes to Expedia, Orbitz, TripAdvisor. financial services go to Yahoo! Finance, AOL, etc. Newspapers deliver a rather generic audience (at best, locally targeted). There are attempts to tackle this issue with behavioral ad targeting, but I've been hearing that for 10 years. Another issue for the AP is that text is harder than video when it comes to monetization. It's easy to syndicate video like hulu and others do. You embed my container on the page, I'll make money off it with a pre-roll or other ad elements that get rolled in automatically. The ad views get included in my tracking. You get content, I get distribution, advertiser gets eyeballs. Everyone wins. Music has two different parties that get paid — the composers and the recording artists. For terrestrial radio, the composers get paid, but the recording artists don’t get a cent. For satellite and Internet, both parties get paid, but at different rates.

When it comes to printed newspapers, the circulation cost (especially when discounted) doesn’t even cover the cost of paper and distribution for that copy, much less the newsgathering.

But because it’s paid circ, the ABC and some advertisers believe that those readers have higher value than those of a free paper. (ABC has steadily reduced the threshold of what counts as paid circ… it used to be 50% of the regular price, then 25%, now it is at 1 cent.)

A huge problem for newspapers is that online the highest value advertisers get siphoned off to niche sites… autos goes to Edmunds, AOL Autos, KBB.com. travel goes to Expedia, Orbitz, TripAdvisor. financial services go to Yahoo! Finance, AOL, etc. Newspapers deliver a rather generic audience (at best, locally targeted).

There are attempts to tackle this issue with behavioral ad targeting, but I’ve been hearing that for 10 years.

Another issue for the AP is that text is harder than video when it comes to monetization.

It’s easy to syndicate video like hulu and others do. You embed my container on the page, I’ll make money off it with a pre-roll or other ad elements that get rolled in automatically. The ad views get included in my tracking. You get content, I get distribution, advertiser gets eyeballs. Everyone wins.

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