How to Make Money By Giving Things Away
I recently watched a From the Couch video where the guys talk about how nice the design and blog community is. They don’t necessarily say that giving things away for free is a bad idea, they just question the practice a bit. This got me thinking about; when and how can you make giving things away for free profitable? When done right, giving away things like themes, icons, textures, etc can really do a lot to get your name out in to the public.
So, the question of the day is; how do we do this?
How to Make Money Giving Things Away from Danny Outlaw on Vimeo.
Show Notes
First let me start of by clearing out some myths. Some people seem to have this “if I give it away, people will come” attitude. This certainly isn’t the case. If you give crap away for free, no one is going to care.
If you give away an amazing theme for free, but only market it on your blog that gets 100 page views a day, you probably won’t get the desired response. This leaves you with two options, start charging for that theme and you may pick up some extra money here and there, or give it to a “big website” to give away on your behalf.
Perfect Example
The latter of the above ideas is, in my opinion, the best way to make money from giving stuff away for free. A friend of mine, Liam McKay of We Function, is a prime example of this. Shortly after launching his design business, he released a free theme on his own blog, a free icon set with Smashing Magazine, and later on down the road did another free theme for Smashing magazine.
The exposure he got by giving these things away on a major site almost resulted in instant job offers. It is no doubt that these giveaway pieces helped him land jobs with Woo Themes, Graphic River, and Theme Forest. Not to mention his other clients.
Tips for Giving Away Stuff
So, how can you follow in Liam’s footsteps? Here are some tips for giving away stuff for free:
- Make sure it is quality work – If its not, the community will tear it apart.
- Don’t be sneaky – Don’t add in ad links or things like that in themes.
- Find a top blog – Don’t just pick a big site to try and giveaway your stuff on. Pick one that has a wide audience aimed at your services.
- Don’t rely on this for work – Don’t make giving away stuff your only way of getting work.
What are your guys thoughts on giving away stuff for free? Do you do it? Has it worked for you in the past? What channels did you go about in doing it? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in the comments area.
Unfortunately, giving stuff away for free by large organizations (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) for the most part depends on attaching “eyes” (i.e. advertising) to the product in the long run. On a base level, a company can’t pay individuals for a nil return. For individuals, I agree with the exposure as alluded to in your “Perfect Example”. Either way, nothing free is ever sustainable unless it is subsidized by something else. I’ve known hobby developers/designers who release custom javascript snippets or basic CMS’s who got so fed up with the “lack of” demands by the users of their code (despite these being given out free) that they simply stopped developing and moved onto something else. The best way to go IMO is to do it strictly for fun to get work, but maintain the “hobby” as a source of creative satisfaction.
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Great video cast Danny. I totally agree with everything you said. Thanks!
I watched both videos. This is an interesting topic. I give away a lot of stuff on my site. Probably too much. I’ve dabbled with selling things in the past but I felt that it took too much time and I got very little in return for my efforts. I’ve found that free stuff however is a great way to bring in visitors to my site. I agree that quality is key. Bittbox is a prime example of a quality site that gives away items for free. If you want to draw huge crowds to your site, try following the Bittbox example and see what you can accomplish. If you work hard enough and produce quality content, people will come to your site.
Thanks for this video. I agree with most of the stuff you said and it is true. We don’t get more readers by giving away…but still …I agree about the A**hole part too
Good comments there. Completely agree that a considered approach to giving things away can provide you with some solid PR and brand building.
Two questions really:
Would you simply send your stuff unsolicited to a large blog – where I imagine they get a lot of junk mail and the like?
How do you transition from giving away cool stuff to being the guy who charges a premium for what clients may argue is “the same” cool stuff?
@Matt I agree with what you say about large and medium size companies. But I can’t really say much else on that as I know little about it.
I never really considered the open source side of giving things away. You’re right, that does seem like it could be more trouble than it is worth.
@Colorburned I have kept tabs on your site and noticed the stuff you gave away and sold. That sort of tactic can work and as you mentioned, Bitt Box is a great example of that.
The problem is, it took him a while to where he could go full time with his site. I think that might be a luxury many people don’t have.
Keep up the great work with your site though!
@fogofeternity To answer your questions…
>>>Would you simply send your stuff unsolicited to a large blog – where I imagine they get a lot of junk mail and the like?
Probably not unsolicited. Many of the big blogs that regularly give stuff away have a submission form. If they dont have one, I would send them a email saying “hey I have this cool thing Id love to give you to give away to your readers, blah blah blah” and go from there.
>>>How do you transition from giving away cool stuff to being the guy who charges a premium for what clients may argue is “the same†cool stuff?
Great question!
I think perhaps if you you already have some stuff for sale on your site, it makes things easier. That way there is no transition and the giveaway is seen more as a promotion piece. Take Go Media for example.
Hey Danny,
Thanks so much for taking the time to mention us in your post. We are stoked to have prompted your tips.
Funnily enough we are giving away something for free on our blog tomorrow. So these tips are HUGE help.
Cool,
David Perel
@David No problem! I love talking about cool stuff and your videos are right up there.
Just checked out the previews for your theme. Looks cool! Good luck there!
I wish I watched this before I commented on “From the Couch” I was making pretty much the same point.
@Brad C Too bad. You had some good comments there though.
Nice video with some great points. Gift wrapping shit in a christmas box doesn’t mean people are going to want it
You can tell you’re getting more comfortable with the video blogging as well. Keep it up.
@Mike – LOL. This is true. Glad you can tell. Im really starting to get into them.
Good word man!
I was just contemplating doing a contest for a free ipod or something. I decided to stick to my guns and focus on creating more and better content for a few more months.
Your video just confirmed my thoughts on the topic.
@Yahshar yeah, contests are pointless unless you have a good readership. Otherwise, who is going to enter the contest?
This is exactly what I had in mind just now. And BTW, nice setup u got there!!
Great stuff. And completely agree, I think the point that stands out the most is “Don’t make giving away stuff your only way of getting work.”
I think setting up a blog where you spend you time creating free resources and doing nothing else, you’re going to definitely be wasting your time.
Working on free resources as a way of promotion & keeping your visitors happy. But it’s not going to make you rich unless you can use the popularity of your resources and visitors to your benefit.
I gave away a free wallpaper on my blog and somehow became #1 in google image search for something random like “high resolution wallpaper background”. The traffic to my site spiked for about 2 weeks. Didn’t get any work from it, but it’s cool to see that this giving away technique definitely brings results.
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Giving away is a viral adv. concept to expand your skills, your knowledge and at the same time sharing get more friendly Internet for all. For exemple I gave a twitter background for an small restaurant changing with this action an uggly restaurant promotional face ,with no waiting for nothing; they were unknown for me, they were in other extreme point of this world and I think why not ?; they got a need and I the answer…Your work moves ! Think about it like a design practices…
Definitely,this action is a boomerang… always back…
Thanks for the video. I think you made some good points. I’m actually working on a free wordpress theme to give out for music makers ( http://hiphopmakers.com/ree-wordpress-beat-selling-theme-coming-soon ), and i’m trying to figure out what to do to get any value out of giving it out for free.
I was initially thinking about having a limited free version, and then for a little bit of cash get a more advance version with more color styles and more features. But i’m not sure how that will work. So just working on the theme still, and trying to figure out a plan.
Basically it’s about giving quality and using affiliate networks that are alot bigger than yourself, it’s also the oldest sales technique, give something to get something.
Very Cool, thanks.
It’s an interesting topic. I started a new site a couple of months ago that gives away quality (hopefully you’ll agree) free vector patterns. Initially, I created the free site to draw attention the the premium patterns that I offer for sale. Will that strategy work for me? Not sure yet. I’ve had a big increase in daily visitors and generated a few new backlinks to the site. I guess the jury is still out for a while.
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Mmmmm…now here’s a topic worth commenting on
My blog ( http://lostandtaken.com for those of you unfamiliar) is probably one of the few design blogs that focuses on only giving things away…in this case, one thing: textures.
I started the site about 7 months ago and while I am nowhere near making a living from it, It does pay my car payment every month and then some…not bad for only spending a couple hours a week on it.
For me personally, I started giving away for things solely to help out fellow designers…I had no intentions on making money from it. But it developed into a hobby and perhaps in the future it will turn into something more.
I think the key to being successful is giving away quality items, like you said. If you try to be the best at what you are doing, people will notice. I’ve gotten several writing gigs as a direct result of what I do on my blog, including a weekly column on Bittbox (thanks Jay!).
One last thing: when you give away quality free resources people really are grateful for them…which is something you can capitalize on. Donations are my second biggest source of income
Take care!
Caleb
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