Giving away books = Giving away conference content
There is an interesting discussion going on at the Google Unbound conference about how authors are giving away electronic versions of books without cannibalizing sales of the paper versions. Seth Godin and Chris Anderson are both quoted in the article with real statistics to back up their claims.
Chris Anderson, Wired Editor-in-chief and author of The Long Tail
As always, I’m looking for the tradeshow angle here. And it’s the fact that if tradeshow producers started giving away audio recordings online of their conference sessions, it would not result in decreased attendance. Listening to an audio recording or even viewing a video of a session will never be the same as being there. And being there is valuable to people and worth spending both time and money to participate. In fact, I’d argue that giving the content away, even if over the course of several months after the event (like we do with Podcast and New Media Expo) will actually increase paid attendance over the long run.
January 26th, 2007 at 3:09 pm |
This is a great point. As an online information marketer, I’ve noticed that people will still pay for content even if some of it is found elsewhere for free. They’ll pay premium price to get the information in the format they want and to have the experience they want. Sometimes they don’t want to wait or search for it.
The common fear of giving content unfortunately holds publishers (and event planners) back. It may seem counter-intuitive, but let the content go. At least test it and track the results. In most cases people will be surprised that sales stay the same or, as you stated, even go up.
Another example…
Despite the fact that my book is on the market for $16 revealing a lot of my promotion strategies, people still hire me at healthy consulting rates to do the very things my book talks about. They want that “experience” of just knowing it is being handled by someone they trust.
February 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm |
This is so true. I completely agree that neither print media nor live events need to feel too threatened
by giving things away online. People will always want printed materials, and they will also continue
to need face-to-face events, where often the networking is as valuable as the sessions (and
sometimes more so).
At the recent Meeting Professionals International Conference in New Orleans, they hit on a great
compromise. While some sessions were recorded, they’re made available only to attendees as MP3
downloads. So it actually extended the benefit of our registration … we could attend certain sessions,
and still get to hear others later (as well as download the PDF handouts). The Conference ended three
weeks ago, and I’m still working my way through all the additional session audios. Talk about
extending the conference!
February 16th, 2007 at 7:21 pm |
Hi Tim:
I also completely agree. I read a whole issue of Entrepreneur magazine (highly recommended by the way for anyone in business-especially new media) a few days ago-probably 15,000 words, without much eye strain. Even on a great monitor, that would be difficult, and printing it out is just not the same.
I was also just knocked out by some photography in a recent issue of Time. Double page spreads of fine photography are also not easily matched on-screen.
All the best,
Andrew Darlow