There’s a good reason that I like free stuff and you should, too.
One of the amazing things that the Internet has led to is the ease of publishing to the World Wide Web. No longer do you have to be a large media outlet to get the word out and to publish content.
Blogging has capitalized on this freedom on the Internet, allowing (literally) hundreds of millions of people to create their individual online presences. That’s why there’s so much content that can be accessed, and one of the reasons why Google has billions of pages in its index.
Does it cost you a cent to read a blog?
I think it’s an interesting question. Sure, you (probably) have to pay a monthly fee to get your Internet access, but you’re usually not charged by the blogger to read his or her content. In other words, posts on blogs are valuable content given away for free.
There are many free services like WordPress.com, Blogger, and even my own PersonalLog which let you easily get your site on the Web. That means that a good portion of those “hundreds of millions of people” don’t have to pay anything to get their site on the Web.
Of course, those free services aren’t without costs to operate; they need some sort of return on their investment on the infrastructure to keep the service going. That’s exactly why WordPress.com offers upgrades (eg. CSS customization, domain names, storage upgrades, etc).
In other words, it doesn’t cost you or the blogger to read a blog that is hosted for free by these services.
Then let’s take a look at people who need to pay for shared hosting or those who have dedicated servers to run their blogs. This blog, for instance, depends on paid hosting.
Most of the blogs like Frederick’s Timelog don’t charge the end-users to read or access their content.
Most of us need to support our hosting, too; that’s why we often need advertisers and sponsors to keep the blogs on the Web.
In other words, it doesn’t cost you to read a blog that needs paid hosting, and the cost incurred by offering this FREE content to you is recovered through a third party – the advertiser.
Blogging is an amazing way of getting content on the Web and also a great way for ordinary non-bloggers to read free content. The non-bloggers are getting the content without having to pay the bloggers, even though they’re driving up costs. The bloggers act as an intermediary between the cost-incurring readers (you) and the cost-paying advertisers.
The advertisers aren’t just losing their money for no reason, though; they either promote their image or entice you to take action (ie. sign up or purchase something).
Thus, in this case, free stuff (or what appears to be “free”) is good for all parties.
If you have iTunes or another podcast client, and you like listening to informative material on the Internet, you really must try these podcasts. I’ve actually mentioned a few of them (the TWiT network podcasts) on my previous post, No more Lab With Leo. Let me recommend my favourite podcasts:
In February 2008, it was announced that all production on Lab With Leo had ceased. It was a very entertaining and informative show for me, even though Leo often couldn’t offer a better solution to the problems of a caller.
I seriously wish that the show could continue. Whether it was Sean’s Shinies or the security section with Steve Gibson, it was always interesting to watch. And Leo Laporte is an entertaining figure.
Fortunately, Leo lives on with his This Week in Tech (TWiT) netcast network (he prefers to call them “netcasts” rather than “podcasts”). I currently subscribe to the following TWiT network netcasts:
- Security Now! with Steve Gibson
- net@night with Amber MacArthur from Toronto, ON, Canada!
- FLOSS Weekly with Randal Schwartz — a podcast about open source
- This Week in Law with a whole bunch of people
And apparently Leo has some strange new ideas… let’s just wait and see.
