Some say this is the most interesting new thing since Napster.....

I think part of the problem is that everyone was giving away everything free on the net to build brand and to generate money from advertising.

It's worked for a few but has failed for almost everyone else.

The problem with giving away everything free is it conditions people to think they never have to pay for your product...that's part of the problem of free ezines. (something I'm phasing out)

If blogger and other companies would have sold the benefits of using the service/product using real marketing, in the beginning they would have got people to pay for it. That might have given them the base to build a sound business.

Ron

> Hi Ron,

> Yes it's an all-too-common story....

> In reality, the high-tech business is
> generally a high-risk, high-reward game....
> Often the pioneers of new technology are not
> the ones to reap the most benefit from it,
> as others later come along later and do
> better....

> (A clear example is Microsoft - which bought
> Q-DOS from another company and renamed it
> MS-DOS, while Q-DOS was itself a clone of
> the CP/M operating system by Gary Kildall
> and Digital Research.... Gary Kildall and
> Digital Research saw no profit from
> Microsoft's use of the copy-cat operating
> system, even though Digital Research was the
> technical pioneer. Digital Research was even
> considering suing Microsoft for copying its
> software, but it didn't since it knew that
> it would then also have to sue the giant
> IBM.)

> I think there has to be a distinction
> between technical pioneers (those who
> develop the technology) and commercial
> pioneers (those who develop it and
> distribute it so that the market wants it
> and will pay for it). That's because often
> the two types of pioneers are not the same
> companies....

> (Just thinking out loud...)

> - Dien