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 and Blogger 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.

Does it cost you to listen to a podcast?

Most of the time, podcasts are offered for free. This also means that you, the person on one end of the complex relationship, are getting FREE content.

Surely it costs something to run a podcast. Let’s take a look at two scenarios.

First scenario — the podcaster hosts their content on free services like Blip.tv that provide the bandwidth. Sometimes, such services may inject advertising; at other times, such as with Blip.tv, that’s not the case.

In this case, neither the podcast, nor the listeners, are paying for the content or bandwidth. The free service is, and they usually recover their cost through advertising or through other revenue.

Once again, you are getting free content that doesn’t necessarily cost the podcaster to produce.

Second scenario — the podcast pays for a service like LibSyn to host their media. The podcaster is spending money, and you are still getting free content.

Why? Because the podcaster has often accepted advertising deals to recover the cost of bandwidth (or even to make profits). Still, the advertisers are getting something — new users, subscribers, or customers. Still, the podcasters are gaining something — listeners/subscribers, possibly money. And you are getting something — valuable content.

Do you see why I like free stuff now?

Free content benefits the end-user most

You, as the “end-user” (as we geeks sometimes say), are gaining the most out of this deal. A single cent never leaves your pocket/wallet/bank account/PayPal account/credit card. Free content is exactly what it sounds and seems like to you — free, which means no conditions, no trial periods, simply free content.

Often, the intermediary, which is the blogger or podcaster, will need to have funds exchange hands. From them to the hosting services. To them from the advertisers.

But it’s all hassle free for you.

Now do you understand?

I believe I’ve made my point clear. I like free stuff… and you should, too!

• Security Now! with Steve Gibson
• net@night with Amber MacArthur from Toronto, ON, Canada
• FLOSS Weekly with Randal Schwartz
• LSAT Logic in Everyday Life with Andrew Brody
• Tech5 with John C. Dvorak
• commandN with Amber MacArthur
• Make It So explicit!
• and a few New York Times podcasts

Let’s start with Security Now!. This is an excellent podcast discussing security and privacy and all relevant matters to these subjects. I’ve learned a lot about encryption from this podcast. Additionally, it’s always interesting when they talk about how insecure and buggy Windows is.

net@night notes web sites (mostly Web 2.0 social networks) of interest. I first learned about blip.tv from net@night. Unfortunately, Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte are both users of Facebook, with Leo Laporte at about 5000 “friends”. Anyhow, some of the sites they talk about really do pose great benefits to the users, including blip.tv.

FLOSS Weekly isn’t about dentistry, but rather about Free/Libre/Open Source Software. They discuss open source in great detail, with every week bringing a new topic. Sometimes, they have guests. Most of the time, I fall asleep listening to the guests.

LSAT Logic in Everyday Life is a great podcast which analyzes current issues and talks about logic. I love it because of the logic as well as the LSAT aspects. But mostly, I like this podcast because common logical flaws that go unchallenged are addressed by the host. Not to mention that he achieved a perfect 180 score on the LSAT.

Tech5 is a short, brief overview of every day’s technological news. What I like about it is the amount of current news that I can get from listening to one episode. What I don’t like: the host’s cranky attitude; the host’s incomplete understanding of many tech subjects, leading to misleading criticism; and the excessive amount of opinion as opposed to news. He almost reminds me of Lou Dobbs, except that he isn’t pretending to be patriotic, and he actually recognizes: the good anti-trust legislators in the EU; the good broadcasting (by the CBC) in Canada; and that the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal probably won’t go through as a result of the EU. Besides, he hates Windows and Microsoft almost as much as me.

commandN is also a podcast of recent tech news, except that it is done in a video format, and produced by Canadians. The quality of the video is actually very good — I download the H.264 videos. Watch one or two episodes yourself to gain an understanding of this podcast.

Make It So is a podcast by British people, talking about Star Trek. Recently, one of the hosts suddenly disappeared from the show and their network (Simply Syndicated) without explanation. Now they have another guy who isn’t nearly as familiar with Star Trek. And they are now starting to repeat themselves, talking about subjects they’ve previously recorded. Don’t listen to this podcast if you really cannot tolerate profanity.

I also subscribe to the New York Times’ Front Page podcast, which provides me with a daily update on recent news. It’s a good way to get an overview of the day’s news, without having to read Google News. Excellent when you’ve missed out on the day’s events — or yesterday’s events — and this podcast will provide you with just the right amount of information whenever you want to listen to it.

That’s it for today.

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.