10 Ways To Make Money in A FREE - Nicholas Lovell
10 Ways To Make Money in A FREE - Nicholas Lovell
10 Ways To Make Money in A FREE - Nicholas Lovell
@nicholaslovell
www.nicholaslovell.com
Introduction
10 Ways
Notes
The future
Free is coming.
Digital files are easy to share. They can be reproduced
with almost no extra cost. The music industry knows this.
The games industry knows this. The book industry is
learning this. Artists, photographers and anyone who uses
creativity in their work is at risk.
And as digital manufacturing and 3D printing become a
reality, industries which thought they were immune to
digital threats will face the challenges of ridiculously easy
filesharing and casual piracy. Even those industries which
seem insulated, like events management or the installation
of swimming pools, face challenges in a digital age.
There is good news too. The same technology that
enables files to be shared easily also offers an
unprecedented opportunity to build one-to-one
relationships with your customers and fans. The web
enables artists and businesses to share what they do at a
very low cost while building relationships with
customers, some of whom will become fans, some of
whom will become superfans. How you choose to respond
to this opportunity will determine how you fare in the
digital age.
The list of businesses being affected by these
transformations is vast. It affects any industry that sells
products, services and experiences to consumers and many
that don’t. It affects artists and creators ranging from
sculptors and painters through musicians and writers to
photographers and movie makers. It can transform the
working practices of people who sell flour or
woodworking tools or tractors. If you need to connect with
other people, using free and building relationships are
becoming the cornerstone of what you do.
[1] ‘The Sharps and Flats of the Music Business’, Los Angeles Times, 1
September 2013, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0901-
keating-labor-pains-music-20130901,0,7684809.story
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/19/zoe-keating-spotify-
streaming-royalties
[3] Nicholas Lovell, The Curve (Penguin Books, 2013), p. 184.
[4] See Chris Anderson, Free (Random House Business Books, 2009),
Chapter 11, for a detailed discussion of Bertrand competition.
[5] Lovell, The Curve, pp. 24–5.
[6] Forbes, ‘Is This the Fastest-Growing Game Company Ever?’, 6 May 2013,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/04/17/is-this-the-fastest-
growing-game-company-ever/
[7] Eric Ries, The Lean Startup (Penguin Books, 2011), pp. 40–42.
[8] Lovell, The Curve, pp. 137–45. Schafer may have raised over $3 million,
but the scope of his project increased with this windfall and Double Fine
Adventure is facing production challenges.
[9] http://blog.indiegogo.com/2012/07/indiegogo-insight-perk-pricing-
practices.xhtml
[10] Henry Ford, My Life and Work (NuVision, 2007), p. 35;
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bUbdMRx43JgC
[11] For more on availability, price, quality and feelings, see James Gilmore and
Joseph Pine, Authenticity (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), and
Gilmore and Pine, The Experience Economy (Harvard Business School
Press, 1999).
[12] http://ir.take2games.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-
newsArticle&ID=1856046
[13] See Seth Godin’s entire body of work on the importance of being
remarkable, particularly Tribes (Piatkus, 2012) and Purple Cow (Penguin
Books, 2005).
[14] Lovell, The Curve, pp. 187–8
The Future
Your next steps are to start thinking about how your art or
your business can embrace the Curve. How you will use
the power of free to attract an audience, technology to
figure out what they want and then enable those who love
what you do to spend lots of money on things they truly
value.
You could start by paying attention to what Superfans
spend money on with crowdfunding services such as
Kickstarter or Indiegogo. You can visit
www.nicholaslovell.com, where I blog about successful
businesses taking advantage of the Curve.
And, if you have enjoyed this book, I hope that you will
consider buying The Curve, a book that expands on many
of the arguments in this free ebook and provides examples,
illustrations and practical advice to take advantage of this
new way of doing business.
We’ve added a sample of The Curve as a final chapter
of this ebook. I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you for reading.
Below follows the Preface to and Contents of The Curve
by Nicholas Lovell (Portfolio Penguin, 2013).
The Curve: Preface
‘Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and
give it to all your friends and keep on stealing, because
one way or another these mother fuckers will get it through
their head that they’re ripping people off and that’s not
right.’
Preface
1 The Curve
6 What’s it Worth?
7 Freeloaders
8 Gawkers
9 Superfans
11 Make-it-Yourself
12 We’re All Retailers Now
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
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