Outlaw Design Blog

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.

[...] colin placed an observative post today on How to Make Money By Giving Things AwayHere’s a quick excerptI 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… [...]

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.

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.