Nothing is Free
While reading “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business,” one of my father’s favorite sayings “nothing is free” came to my mind. When you see a food coupon that says “free” on it, it usually says “when you buy something else.” You may be getting one food item free but you have to buy the second one to get it. Or how about those ads that say you get a free cell phone? You may be getting the cell phone for free but you have to sign up for their service with a two-year contract. In both of those situations, you don’t get anything completely free. In the case of websites, they may be free for us to use but they have advertisements, which people pay for. Yahoo, Facebook, and MySpace are all free to users but there are advertisements on each one of those websites. Even though they’re free for us to use, someone somewhere is making money from them and the people that use them.
Advertisements are everywhere, you can’t escape them. There are advertisements on commercials, in newspapers and magazines, on websites, on billboards, on the radio, on cars, and sometimes even on items you purchase (i.e. clothes, purses, and electronics). Advertisements are what most businesses need to succeed; you need to spend money to make money. They’re making money from advertising and they’re paying to advertise. That’s why certain websites, television channels, radio stations, and newspapers/magazines are free to use/watch/read. We don’t have to pay but people who advertise are paying. It would be foolish for businesses to make something truly free because if they do, they aren’t making any money and if a business doesn’t make money, it’s not a business. According to an online dictionary (which has advertisements all over), a business is “the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit” (www.dictionary.com). If a business isn’t making a profit then, by definition, they are not a business.
