Stupid Attempts At Linking Policies Live On

from the welcome-to-the-internet dept

It used to be quite common for web sites to bury linking policies in their terms of use, asserting that people needed permission to link to them, and could only do so in certain ways. Most people have figured out that's pretty ridiculous, but every once in a while, some lawyer who doesn't understand the internet at all puts together the TOS for a site, and includes some stupid "you have to ask before you link to us" policy. The link is one of the elements that makes the web what it is; it's sort of the point that people can use links to direct visitors to other places, enabling the spreading and sharing of all sorts of information. Linking is not copyright infringement, it's not a violation of a terms of service, it's not illegal -- it's a key part of the web. But somebody at the Financial Times, or its law firm, hasn't figured out that it's a good thing for people to link to one of their new sites, and has inserted a stupid linking policy into its TOS. Here's an idea: if they don't want people linking to the site, people should oblige them and not link to it. Want to try and control or limit how people send you traffic? Fine -- don't reap any of the benefits of inbound links, and take yourself out of Google and other search engines while you're at it.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Financial Times Frees Some Of Its Content, Sort Of

from the set-it-free dept

Earlier this summer, we suggested that the Financial Times could beat the Wall Street Journal to the punch by differentiating itself by freeing up its content. Now that the WSJ is expected to remove its paywall, Financial Times has announced that it would remove the paywall for its online content by allowing casual readers free access up to 30 articles for free each month. First time visitors to FT are rewarded with freely available content. After five articles, registration is required, and then after 30, access is cut off. So, according to Pavlov, the Financial Times wants to discourage heavy users of its content by making it more difficult to use the more that they use it -- not exactly a good business move.

So, sure, the FT has a loyal subscriber base today, but the current paywall model does not encourage growth. By offering all of their content for free, they can grow their reader base into avid readers, a percent of which can then be converted to subscribers. By no means should they give up on subscriber revenue; they just need to give subscribers a good reason to pay. FT already offers access to tomorrow's paper as a benefit to subscribing -- this is a good example of a premium good. Give subscribers more of these types of benefits: from custom reports to events and conferences, and they will continue to be loyal paying customers. As we've said time and time again, "free" is a vital part of an online media business model and not something to be feared, but rather, it should be embraced.

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