Debating the value of giving away free images

It’s not the first time there’s been a debate on the value of giving away things for free to make money on something else. In fact, I wrote about this on a number of occasions, referring to Chris Anderson and others who advocate the freemium model. I don’t plan to fire up the debate all over again but do want to point to a couple of places where, for some reason, the debate has intensified yet again. This time it’s very much focused on photography. Let’s start with a great video rant that was sent to the linkedin discussion on the subject by Christaan Todd. This exposes one of the strong views about working for free.

Other and similar debates are taking place on Beate Chelette’s Photosecrets blog and on the Blackstar rising blog. Beate and I also addressed it in our Cepic presentation and it came up during my panel discussion at the Picture Buyers Fair in London, I will post the podcasts here soon. So join the debate, or better, decide what impact pricing pressures have on your business and how you could possibly adapt.

There are over 100 websites with legal free images and a reputable company like Fotolia already has 1 miljon free images on offer. Clearly it looks like the model is here to stay. If you feel like debating it here on Fast Media Magazine let’s try and look at ways we can use free to sell something else.

(Free) Picture: www.sxc.hu | Sue Byford