Freebies: A Rant

First- you have to read this entry in Holly McCaig's blog, Chicky Talk. Interesting rant. When you are done with that- check out this thread at 2Peas. Both places make some interesting points.

I have no problem with freebies, or the people who choose to give them away. I've been following this hobby for over two years. I feel like I'm still somewhat new to it, but then comments like this one:

Was someone under the impression that this is a "freebie" hobby? Were they thinking that the only thing they had to invest in was a computer and a decent graphics program? I hate to be the one to disappoint, but every hobby has a price tag and this one is no different. Just like a paper scrapper wouldn't dream of walking into the LSS and asking for a stack of free paper and embellishments just because she wanted to "try them out", digital scrapper shouldn't anticipate doing the digital equivalent.

When I first started, everything was so totally different. Those who were digital scrapbookers either made their own papers and elements, or they downloaded web graphics. Questions in mailing lists covered 'How Tos'- how to make a button, how to make an eyelet, how to tear paper. When someone asked 'Why digital?', multiple people would respond with 'Because it's free.' Yeah- two years ago, it was, for the most part 'free' (we won't get into the cost of a good graphics program, printers, scanners, digital cameras, printers, inks, and- in some cases- fonts). Imagine how many paper scrapbookers that are now at least partially digital scrapbookers have read those threads. It should come as no surprise that they are expecting free stuff- afterall, it's what we've been telling people since digital went mainstream.

Digital scrapbookers have, for the most part, greeted the changes in the business with open arms. There's always going to be someone who complains about the cost, or the fact that they have to jump through hoops in order to access a freebie or whatever. Most digital scrapbookers are used to the speed at which things changes around here. Again- not talking trends, but the business aspect. With paper scrapbooking, businesses changes aren't as apparent. Paper scrapbookers pick the paper, pay for it, take it home and use it (or wait for it to arrive in the mail before they use it if they ordered it online). The part of the business that the customer sees hasn't changed that much. But, with digital, we've gone from not being able to find digital scrapbooking products, to CDs that are shipped to your door, to individual designer sites that sell downloadables, to consignment sites with multiple designers selling downloadables and CDs. Most of those changes have taken place in the last year. A year. That's not a long time, when you think about it.

I think that in order to change how the customer views freebies, we, as designers, need to change how we handle them. Our actions, past and present, have created this 'monster'. At this moment in time, we can't expect our sales to increase because we offered a freebie, with no strings attached. Why not let those freebies be thank you gifts- nothing asked in return, just a 'thanks for stopping by'. If you want sales from your freebies, offer them as a 'gift with purchase'.

Ah, nuts. I'm probably not making much sense right now. I've been working on this for forty five minutes now, and feel like I'm just rambling on and on into incoherency (is that even a word?).