Community & Conversation » Resources http://communityandconversation.com Social tools for business success Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:46:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 FreeDigitalPhotos.net Leverages the Power of Free Stuff http://communityandconversation.com/freedigitalphotos-net-leverages-the-power-of-free-stuff/ http://communityandconversation.com/freedigitalphotos-net-leverages-the-power-of-free-stuff/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:17:55 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/?p=487 There’s been a lot of talk in the last couple of years about “free as a business model”—the idea put forth by Chris Anderson in a 2008 Wired magazine cover story that you can build a successful business around a product or service that you give away for free. Bill Gurley presents a nice overview …[more]]]> There’s been a lot of talk in the last couple of years about “free as a business model”—the idea put forth by Chris Anderson in a 2008 Wired magazine cover story that you can build a successful business around a product or service that you give away for free. Bill Gurley presents a nice overview of the development of the idea. One of my favorite books about the Internet economy is What Would Google Do?, in which Jeff Jarvis talks about how Google has exploited the power of free services to make piles of money.

FreeDigitalPhotos.netYesterday I went looking for an image to illustrate a blog post, and I stumbled across an exciting application of “free as a business model” at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. This stock photography site offers web-resolution versions of all of its images for free on one condition: the user must acknowledge the photographer and FreeDigitalPhotos.net. You can also purchase higher-resolution versions at very reasonable rates and without the acknowledgement restriction.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net’s terms of use are simple, clear, and very generous. Few types of use are prohibited even for the free versions of images. The site merely requires you to include a photo credit on printed pieces or a hyperlinked text acknowledgement in online media. You can find an example of the required credit on the latest post on my lifestyle blog, Working or Playing?

]]> http://communityandconversation.com/freedigitalphotos-net-leverages-the-power-of-free-stuff/feed/ 0 YouTube http://communityandconversation.com/youtube/ http://communityandconversation.com/youtube/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:49:31 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/?p=334 Anyone who’s been online for more than a few weeks is likely to be familiar with YouTube. The enormously popular video sharing web site got its start in early 2005, and within a year of its official launch, was receiving a hundred million video views per day. The company was purchased by Google in late …[more]]]> YouTubeAnyone who’s been online for more than a few weeks is likely to be familiar with YouTube. The enormously popular video sharing web site got its start in early 2005, and within a year of its official launch, was receiving a hundred million video views per day. The company was purchased by Google in late 2006.

YouTube permits registered users to post an unlimited number of videos and to share, rate, and comment on other users’ videos. Unregistered users can watch and share videos. The ease of sharing has turned some YouTube offerings into “viral” videos—clips that spread around the Internet like wildfire (see Evolution of Dance, for example)—and has made some obscure producers into Internet celebrities.

As a registered user, you can also set up a “channel,” a user page that organizes your own videos and others that you’d like to feature. If you’re producing video content, YouTube can be a great way to find an audience and to lead them to other elements of your online presence. Google also offers the option of designating your content as a Promoted Video. Promoted Videos are a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising system for driving viewers to your channel.

Your channel can contain a photo or logo image, information about your business or organization, and a link to your web site, blog, or Facebook fan page. The channel can be customized to coordinate with other branding efforts. For example, we’ve configured the font and color scheme of The Clutter Fairy’s YouTube channel to match the client’s web site:


The Clutter Fairy

Web site
[Click to open in a new window.]


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