I received an email today from Sprout, a website which lets you create interactive Flash widgets which you can share with others on the web, place on your website and distribute on any other medium that supports Flash. Here’s something I had created a while back:
The email advised me that Sprout had closed off the ability to produce free Sprouts and launched tiered pricing ranging from $140 a year to $3000 a year, depending on the number of projects, storage and support options people require. The Basic service lets you produce up to 3 Sprouts but is only available to current users.
Now, I’ll be the first to insist that a company has a pricing strategy which can guarantee growth and sustainability, especially in today’s harsh climate. However, it’s always worth bearing in mind that free advertising can be valuable, as it taps into hobbyists and people experimenting with the medium. I have a friend who’s heavily into sports attire and I’m sure he’s geeky enough to try and put together a Sprout about NFL jerseys if he had the time and knew about the service.
I believe Sprout are making a mistake but not allowing a free aspect to their service. Even if it’s time-bound, it allows people to play with their technology, evangelise about their services and draw in more paying customers.
What do you think?
I agree. Especially since this is the first I’ve heard about the service, and now I can’t even try it!
i think you’re right. offering free services would draw in so many more users. i would have been interested in trying it.
My husband does radio imaging (production of liners and promos for radio stations on air and online). To try and get new online radio stations, he is a member of several boards and offers the first liner for free, hoping that after they have one good one they’ll buy more. This has gotten us good business. Sure, there are some people who take the free one and we never hear from them again, but for those who buy, it makes up for it. This would have been a better route for Sprout to go.
I’d be curious to try out Sprout for free – and definitely not for this price, no matter how good it might me…
It’s not the fact that they charge for (premium), it is the fact they they proof to be unpredictable = unreliable.
What will be the price next month? next year? What can we do if we have so many projects we can’t change anymore?
That’s a big jump in price – nothing to $140. Pretty amazing.
Sounded like a cool option, but ti go from free to $140.00 makes it hard to try out first! We are interested in the Tweet Roll!! Can you use it on Blogger?
Your FL furiends,
@Samantha/Mr Tigger: Yup, you can use the widget on Blogger. Just pop down to http://tweetburn.com, pick up your HTML and just add it to you page.