According to this post by Chris Carfi (which references others), these are the six kinds of free:

Freemium - Offer a limited-functionality free version of a product to encourage trial, and have a purchasable premium version available for power users

Advertising - Offer a free service to end users, and sell advertising to advertisers

Cross subsidies - Give the razor away free, and charge for the razor blades

Zero marginal cost - Products such as podcasts and digital music effectively incur a zero marginal cost to "ship" each unit

Labor exchange - Access to the information on a site is free as long as individuals contribute to the content of the site, like Yahoo Answers or Digg

Gift economy - Items are given away at zero cost.

what do you think? Can these be translated to member services?

Freemium - free entry to online communities, charge for "premium" areas/functionality?
Advertising - on websites, online communities, e-newletters, sponsorships?
Cross subsidies - free initial access to articles, charge for distribution?
Zero marginal cost - webinars, podcasts, other e-learning modules?
Labor exchange - wikis?
Gift economy - any social object that promotes the association / donated labor or barter system?

I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but it seems to me these concepts certainly translate.

But, you ask, if everything is free, where is the value in membership? Tom Lehman and Scott Oser made this point in their comments to my last post on this subject. (There's also a great conversation in an Acronym post by Jason Della Rocca from back in July).

Tom said, "Associations are too quick to assume that the membership part of membership doesn't have a value worth paying for (in some way, doesn't have to be money). They are always looking for a benefit that "pays for the cost of membership" rather than really sell the value of the membership."

Scott's point was this: "I believe that membership itself does have a perceived value and therefore it should have a price tag. I also believe that giving it away for free makes people interested in your organization customers much more than members. Customers come and go but members tend to have more brand loyalty (assuming their needs are being met to a reasonable level). I feel that just by being a member you are saying something more than when you simply purchase a product or attend a meeting. Being a member to me means that you like being involved with an organization and believe in the people that are also members and the mission which the organization looks to fulfill.

Now that I am thinking about it mission is something that has not been addressed here. Supporting a mission has value and that is something that associations do with, and through their members. Would mission be as important if anyone could join just by signing up for free?"

I would say yes to this last question! I think that associations need to understand that their value more and more will lie in the community they provide - either cause-related, advocacy-related, profession-related, or just "like-minded people"-related. I do agree that reducing services to menu-based "here's a bunch of things you can buy from us", and thinking of members purely as consumers, is not the way to reduce reliance on dues. I also think there are many untapped ways in which some associations can bring in much-needed revenue - such as sponsorships and advertising - because they see that kind of external marketing to their members as, well, kinda dirty. But associations do need to realize, and soon, that some people may not be willing to pay for membership when they can get some of those traditional member benefits, like information resources, elsewhere.

Many, many associations are currently struggling with declining membership, aging membership, difficulty attracting new members and younger members. Maybe it's NOT because their services are less relevant to their target audiences - maybe it's because they have not figured out how to communicate the value of their community. Whether that community rallies around a cause, or seeks to provide a professional network and place to learn more and improve careers, it's the personal connections that will be the lasting value. And that's something people WILL pay for. It just doesn't have to be in the form of dues, necessarily.

I think we're only just beginning to have this conversation, and we'll need to continue to hash it all out, but I just wanted to add this to the mix.

Originally posted @ Diary of a reluctant blogger ;)