How much is Free costing you online?
Depending on your situation, using free services online like Google Analytics, Gmail, Hotmail and other very useful tools could be costing you much more than you think…
Sometimes you have to ask yourself, what’s the cost?
Google Analytics – On the outside, their enterprise level statistics are extremely versatile. They let you view tiny market segments and massive movements and dig into every part of your site… All free! But at what cost? You can’t backup your data for previous years… That data is valuable and could be come important to learn from in future, however there’s no way to download it all *AND* If Google went out of business, or discontinued the service, it would be a dramatic loss for many. Omniture & Coremetrics offer more robust systems than Google Analytics, however the value Google’s providing becomes immediately clear when you discover how much it costs to go from free to enterprise level stats…
Google Gmail/Hotmail – You know, I can’t help but keep thinking about that Wired Magazine story of how Google went and deleted someone’s Gmail account because a bank screwed up and sent a sensitive email to the wrong Gmail account. Or… When Stephanie’s account got Hacked… I mean, these things happen. Saying “They won’t happen to me” Is the same mentality of those people living in mobile homes in Tornado alley… It will eventually! An alternate option is enterprise level email like Microsoft Exchange. Offers webmail and years of backup and searchable emails.
WordPress/Blogger – Hosted on their server… You’re at their mercy. You have no access to the database or the code, and if they deem your information innacurate, incorrect or someone lobby’s against you… It’s gone. Deleted. Imagine if a credit card company sues Blogger.com and 300+ posts and 4 years of stories about your children or business are gone! A good reason to not ever use those free services and keep your blogs hosted on your own server that you back up frequently. (You do back your stuff up, right?)
Google Docs and Other Office Providers – When your writing a nice love letter to your girlfriend, or building a comprehensive study on your competitors – or who knows what.. inside MS Word on your laptop, you never for a second think of it getting into the wrong hands, do you? But you should be thinking about that if your using the services of an online “Free” service. Yet, what happens if someone somehow finds/hacks/gets your password? At least stealing an entire computer is harder than hacking a Gmail/Hotmail Account.
If you’re a business owner of any kind, even a small business you have to consider what these “Free” services really cost you. Not just what features they lack but what features they INCLUDE that shouldn’t be there all to keep the service “Free” and whether you’d acutally gain money, traction or peace of mind from having the enterprise level versions….
Until Next Time
Daniel J Deyette
