Evernote - and the concept of "Freemium"

[Elaine S. Hansen]

After I watched Ed show us how to use Evernote, I was sooooo excited.

I am a generalist and am interested in EVERYTHING. So, I have collected 1000+ links on my facebook pages. The pain comes when I need it and try to remember how long ago I posted the article - AND can not find it in FB because I cannot assign tags or categories to my links.

Evernote does exactly what I have been saying I need. Why didn't I know sooner that this tool is out there? Now, I just need to capture all these links in Evernote and tag and assign categories and I have a wealth of great resources at my fingertips for future blogs.

AND here is the irony for me..

I just read in FastCompany July/August edition pg. 42 – where it talked about “freemium” business model. This is being used by several online companies – Evernote (is who they spotlighted) – Ning was doing it, think DropBox and any other service that offers a multi-level service option that includes free.

This takes offering something "free" to capture emails to a whole new level for me. We've been trying to figure out how to promote another company I am working with and trying to figure out what "little" thing we could "give" them. This just gave me a whole new way of approaching this - and we will give away something that has value.

What the article said about Evernote is they have figured out they only need 1% of customers to be paid customers to make money. They currently have 2% paid premium customers – so they have to have a lot of customers – For example – having 1 billion people using their services – only requires 1 million of them to BUY the premium services. (the premium service only costs $5/month or $45/ year - how cheap is that!)

This helped me understand what DropBox is doing – and why they reward for referrals. It increases their exposure and the odds that someone will “pay” for their services. Strictly a numbers game. Ning has changed (Aug. 20) their model – but have made the entry point almost free with only charging $2.95 for a very basic Ning site. The next level up gets you almost everything you need at $19.95 per month – the Platinum version if $47.95 per month and has the really fancy options.

My head is spinning with possibilities on how to use this tool and the "freemium" model.

Thank you Ed and Evernote!

[DoDge]

Elaine, I know exactly what you mean, Evernote is a fantastic tool, been using it since Ed's video and wondered how I ever got on without it!

[Jim Sewell]

Evernote's strategy is brilliant. They give you the tool up to a limit for free and in a year or so, if you are still with them, you will be so dependent on what the tool provides that you'll be willing to pay the nominal fee for premium to boost your limits. They said in a podcast that if you are with them a year they will most likely convert you to a paying customer. Great model and it's a great service for a cheap fee. I love em!

[gs4492]

@Elaine

on similar note i read an article the other day which is all about "freeconomics"
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/maga...urrentPage=all

Perhaps it might be of interest :-)

[Elaine S. Hansen]

Thanks for the link to Wired. Loved the article and gives another perspective on "free". I've shared it with my husband.

Now I've added 2 new words to my vocabulary "freemium" and "freeconomics".