Free – Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
Free – Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson is a book that explores the concept of offering things for free and how it has evolved from a marketing gimmick to a sustainable business strategy.
The book looks at how the internet has changed the way we view value, and how free and freemium models are changing the way we sell products.
The book explains how companies can use the power of the internet to offer a bigger selection of products without incurring additional costs.
It also looks at how attention has become the new currency in the digital world, and how companies can use this to their advantage. Anderson also explains how companies can use the freemium model to give away basic products for free and then charge for extra features, services and related products.
The book provides readers with an insight into how the concept of free has evolved over time and how companies can use it to their advantage.
It also provides useful takeaways on how to make money online, such as building an audience with a free product and then figuring out what to charge them for, and creating more products such as books and courses.
Overall, Free – Future of a Radical Price is a great book for anyone interested in learning more about the concept of free and how it can be used to make money online.
What I Liked
I love how the book tackles such a counter-intuitive topic. The concepts of “long-tail vs fat tail” have defined my career. It’s a fascinating and well-done book.
What I Did Not Like
I’m finishing & publishing this review 15 years after I read this book. In hindsight, the book is way to naive about how the economics of free turn out in real life. Even though Free on the Internet has brought about massive consumer surplus, it has brought about some downright awful business models and incentives terrible behavior.