Commercialization of GTD?

M

Max

0
What is going on at DavidCo? Several of the freely accessible "Tips & Tools" are no longer available on the site at the usual spot. They are now available as free PDF from the Products section. But they get emailed to you. Wish I would have known beforehand so I could go the simple route and copy them from the web. I reference them from time to time so I guess by email bukket will get filled soon.

DavidCo is beginning to worry me that they have become to big (popular) and need to focus more on the money side of keep things running. Same thing happened to Covey Leadership Center.

Hopefully this forum will remain open and free and not get absorbed into the GTD Connect or something.
 
Yes, heaven forbid that they should actually make money off their creative and wildly productive concepts and tools.

Of course, my output has increased tremendously since first learning the concepts, but don't expect me to pay for it!
 
I am fine with them making money. My concern is the forum disappearing, the website content disappearing, and nothing being offered for us lowly knowledge workers.

The $48/month services, $100 wallets and seminars that cost in the hundreds I actually think are great. I can't afford them but the wealthy suits can. Which is fine because I don't need a seminar or expensive wallet. But I do enjoy this forum and don't want to see it go.
 
David has said in interviews that they deliberately focussed on marketing his "personality" because that is what "works", as opposed to the methodology.

I highly doubt they will make people pay to post at this forum.
Possible, but doubtful.

Send David an email and ask him not to do it, that should work..
 
I think that keeping the posting board around would be good for business for the DA company. Giving people something for free is a tried-and-true marketing strategy. Of course, there will always be people who will take the free stuff but never buy anything. On the other hand, there will also be people who will try the free stuff and decide they like it well enough to pay for more of it.

The book is also a good marketing tool, for similar reasons.

JDC
 
Services

What are the $48 a month services? I knew he/they were coming out with a subscription service in the fall but haven't heard details.

Thanks!
Jeff
 
Requiring registration for some features is standard for a website, especially one which is product/service based instead of advertising supported. Visitors register for the free stuff, and then after they return in the future to look at the paid products there are fewer barriers to completing transactions. They no longer have to register and they've gained familiarity with both the purchasing process (the 'free' checkout) and the products offered (having visited the store to receive the free product). It's tested and effective online marketing, and refusing to use good techniques that you have knowledge of wouldn't be a good way to run a business.

I wouldn't worry that the line of thought requiring registration for free stuff will inevitably lead to the forums becoming a paid-for service. DavidCo is too savvy for that. The forums are currently contributing to the 'sticky' factor of the site. When users visit the site, a small portion of them become attached to the forums and will inevitably visit the DavidCo site more regularly than someone who has only bookmarked the site, and they're more likely to buy DavidCo products.

Usually paid inclusion to online community only occurs after a community has grown much larger than this one. It runs alongside a successful free community, a pool from which the paid inclusion builds its ranks. The reason people pay is because they see the paid inclusion as having something extra to offer that the free community doesn't. WebmasterWorld.com is a good example of that. Simply shutting down a community to create that incentive would backfire completely, with users migrating to other communities or simply losing interest. I can't see that ever happening here.
 
jeffgoza said:
What are the $48 a month services? I knew he/they were coming out with a subscription service in the fall but haven't heard details.

Thanks!
Jeff
Click to expand...

They have not announced it yet.

They also have not announced anything related to the GTD Faster cd.

They also have not announced if/when their new merchandise will be available.

That is part of my concern. Lots of things in the works but no real details.
 
4-6 months, if that helps

Max said:
Lots of things in the works but no real details.
Click to expand...

Over in the Getting_Things_Done Yahoo group, there was a question about new products, too, after the GTD Fast CDs went the way of the dodo.

Here's the story we got there:

They [DavidCo] hope to release a series of products within the next 4-6 months to meet that need, and meanwhile they ask for our patience. There are plans in the works for a GTDF-like recording of David presenting the GTD material at a live seminar, as well as a product that's focused more on implementation and getting people up and running quickly. Their primary focus at the moment is on providing a recorded product based on David's "Roadmap" seminar, which has been mentioned here many times. It's described as a "work/life GPS," so it sounds very interesting!
Click to expand...

Someone from DavidCo should be able to speak to this question here in the forums too.
 
Actually come to think of it, they could probably sell a type of Premium forum, where you are able to ask questions of the DavidCo staff, and get answers, even from The David himself.
Quite a few folks would buy into that, I bet, as part of some type of package deal...
Just think, they could offer Podcasts, and all that other jazz too...

Just think of it, the more complicated and confusing they make GTD...the more people who will sign up for the Premium service!
 
Separate free and premium sections

I just went through the registration and "ordering" process to get a free document (the paper_organizer doc for paper-based GTD implementation). I have to agree it is a little too tedious to get a free doc. I have no problem with registration (I did) and pay for some contents. Even the logging in to access free docs is fine. Lots of sites do that. But the ordering process and waiting for emails in order to view a free PDF doc is a bit too much. (I think it requires your shipping/billing addresses, though I didn't check if it's for registration or ordering. No creditcard, FWIW.)

So, commercialization is fine. Registering is also fine. But it would be great if the "free" contents are really free (procedure-wise). Put them on separate pages if necessary.

yushun
 
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