How do you find the best products to make money from a freemium model?
Here are a few great places to look for ideas.
In my last post, I wrote an open letter to Alex Osterwaleder. The reason was that he was about to release a new book on business model innovation. This created a lot of discussions and arguments about releasing a book for free.
The book also created a question. If the book is to be released for free, what then should be the products for sale? To answer this question, there are a few great places to look.
Flat World Knowledge
The publisher lets college students download top quality textbooks for free. They then have a range of other products, like study guides or audiobooks on sale. Their wide variety of complementary products is a great place to look for inspiration.
Josh Freese
The Drummer that “has taken freemium to weirdville”. To gain revenue from his free release, he has a range of very unusual complimentary products. Looking at these will undoubtedly inspire and confuse you.
Disney & Star wars
The Star wars franchise and the Disney cartoons have been masters of making money from related products. It can be toys, clothing, lunch boxes, theater plays, costumes, computer games and 245 other things. The movie industry can be a master at creating revenue ‘on account of’ its movies, sometimes even more than from the movie itself. When setting up a freemium model, the trick is to make money ‘on account of’ of your free product, not from the product itself. Going through the movie industries track list can be a great place to start.
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