Tweet

Not all the best things in life are free

Guest post by: Ian Berry

Article Overview: The explosion that is social media has led to many believing in the old adage, the best things in life are free. I don’t buy it for a second, if you will pardon my pun! People will always pay for what they perceive is valuable.

Not all the best things in life are free

The explosion that is social media has led to many believing in the old adage, the best things in life are free. I don’t buy it for a second, if you will pardon my pun!

People will always pay for what they perceive is valuable.

Most things that are free on the internet are a marketing strategy to get us to buy something, eventually. Nothing wrong with this. I think it is a good thing to have to demonstrate value before expecting people to pay.

The challenge is, many folk expect everything for free.

Sure some great things in life are free. Most things of value however require an investment of time, energy, or money, and often all three.

The next time you take advantage of something for free on the internet give some thought to how much it cost the providers.

I am finding myself downloading less and less stuff because firstly I don’t really need it, and secondly I am wanting to do my bit to support people who are providing their hard earned, valuable stuff for free, and so I generally only take free if I think I can spread the word for folk, or I think that at some time in the future I will pay for future value.

I think the whole world of free has a rude awakening coming. I am not saying free doesn’t have its place, it does. I am saying that many of the good things in life require an investment of some kind to be made.

I would be very interested in your thoughts. Please email me at ian@changingwhatsnormal.com

If what you sell in your business is a commodity someone will eventually sell it at a cheaper price. I’d suggest changing your business. The next time you purchase something from a supermarket, give some thought to the people in the supply chain getting screwed to provide what they do for almost free. This will eventually happen to you.

The future of business has much to do with providing what people in a niche market want and that they are prepared to pay for.

What niche market/s are you serving? You may have to provide something for free to people in your niche/s to attract them. Don’t fall for the trap of giving away too much, rather give what you need to do to demonstrate value.

Be the difference you want to see in the world

Ian

Related Articles
  Saying Yes, Saying No
  Affirmations That Work
  Discipline Is A Beautiful Word
  FREE isnt what it used to be
  5 Keys to GUILT-FREE Success
  When Free Is Just Too Expensive
  Exercise in Freedom
  The Little Things
  Wanting and getting and having and giving
  3 Steps to Find “Freebies” to Add to Your E-book
  Tired Of The Old School Network Marketing Techniques?
  Help Your Way to More Sales
  Sales Appointments to Sell Free Services
  Is it finally time to forgive
  Examples of Good Positive Affirmations
  What's Great About PR
  Easy ways to promote your website
  How to create success in your life by using the Five L’s method
  Free web site platforms
  The Most Powerful Free Marketing Methods! ~100% Profit Secrets

Article Tags: best things in life, explosion, fee, free, old adage



Related Forum Posts
Re: What would you be willing to do for a million dollars? - Hi members, Like others have said, yes a million dollars would be great but do I 'need' a million dollars then no. I would settle for enough to pay of my mortgage and have a comfortable life style going into future years and I suspect most people would feel the same. It's an old expression but a true one that the best things in life are free. Good health, happiness and your friends and family around you, all other things are a bonus. regards, Mal.
Re: What would you be willing to do for a million dollars? - [quote="Mal Tindle":2q96wh9f]Hi members, Like others have said, yes a million dollars would be great but do I 'need' a million dollars then no. I would settle for enough to pay of my mortgage and have a comfortable life style going into future years and I suspect most people would feel the same. It's an old expression but a true one that the best things in life are free. Good health, happiness and your friends and family around you, all other things are a bonus. regards, Mal.[/quote:2q96wh9f] I am with you on this one Mal. To me just having enough money to live a comfortable life and do the things I want with my friends and family around me, would make me completely happy. MichelleJ
Law of Attraction and I - I too don't dispute the Law of Attraction (LoA) but in addition to thinking positive to attract things into my life I also believe you need to take positive "action" towards those things you want to attract. The LoA is too fluff to stand on it's own. When you are working towards a goal in your life you automatically become aware of things (hence you may think you are attracting things) that will help you accomplish this goal. The key thing here is you are actively taking action. I forget the name of this study but if you are in a room you may not notice the things around you but if I say "do you notice all the red items in the room" all of a sudden you will "noticing" Red. Same with the car you buy - you probably pass hundreds of 1998 Mazda 626's on the road but you really notice them when you own the same model. When I have attracted something into my life I congratulate myself in practicing the LoA but when that something doesn't come I analyze how I could have done things differently so that when the opportunity arises again i'll try something different.
Balance - Make time for things you love - To kick things off in this new forum category I wanted to share with you some of the lessons I learned from Jim Cathcart. Jim's simple message is to make time for the things that you love. No matter how busy we get in life, no matter how ambitious we are in chasing our business dreams, we still need to make time for the things that we love - be it family, friends, music, motorcycles, etc - whatever means something to you. If you don't make time for those things then you're bringing less to the table. If you're just a business machine then eventually you will burn out and have an empty life. Jim recommends finding time every day to doing the things that you love. It will give your life more meaning as well as make you happier. In my life, for example, I committed to spending more time with my family and I now only go into the office from Monday to Thursday. I'm home on Fridays and spend time with my wife. I've also created a journal where I try to do something meaningful for someone in my life every day. It could be a heartfelt thank you card to someone who helped me, clipping and mailing a news story to a friend who would find it interesting, or surprising my wife with chocolates. I find that by doing something every day and by being home on Fridays I've been able to increase the quality of my life and my business has also grown in the process. What have you done to make time of the things that you love?
Re: Great video on work-life balance - Hi Evan, Thanks for the video link on Work-life balance, I found Nigel’s presentation very enjoyable and his style kept your interest all the way thru. I must admit I saw a lot of myself in what’s wrong today and the only thing that was a bit unrealistic is when he said he took a year off work to discover more about family life. Other than that it was a great video and very thought provoking. There are some very basic things we can all do to look at life differently and value the right things before we are too old to make it happen. I suppose that is why so many of us want to work from home. regards, Mal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Get Your Business on Google Places

How to Set Sales Goals that Work

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.