Book Recommendation: FREE: The Future of A Radical Price

“There’s no such thing as a free cat.”  That was my father-in-law’s advice when my wife and I (Jake) adopted our cat 2 years ago.  I could tell by his chuckle he was a long time veteran of “FREE” cats and knew I had been duped.   As predicted, our “FREE” cat cost us $500 in veterinary bills just a few months later when she swallowed a string.

FREE by Chris Anderson challenged me to go beyond the psychology of free being “too good to be true” and recognize that cross-subsidizing a product could actually decrease barriers to entry.  We’ve used this approach to launch our Go Digital for FREE! Program to help single doctor and low volume practices convert to digital.  We found we could leverage our Service4Life program in a unique way to make a new digital x-ray system – FREE.

NOTE: Beyond cross-subsidy, Chris points out information in a digital era can actually be free – using the examples of Wikipedia and YouTube.  I found this point revolutionary and will be expanding on it in future posts.  In the meantime, enjoy Chris’ book.