Keith joked, “Rick wants everything on the internet to be free.”

Not true.

I want everything to be bought and sold in micro-payments. Like the fraction of a penny Google is paying me for you opening this page on your computer. (They hope you will click on one of their eight advertising links.)

Google is making billion$ on these tiny transactions.

The problem with you or I selling something on-line is that some geek in a basement somewhere will offer it for free.

How do you compete against free?

I store over 6000 photos on flickr. And happily pay US$25 / year. That’s an amazing value / transaction. Some of the best money I’ve ever spent.

There are free photo hosting sites. But flickr is so much superior, I’d rather pay.

You can host blogs for free, but I recommend the US$10 / year WordPress plan including domain name. A much better value than free anywhere else.

There are many free project management websites and software tools. But I’m testing one called Basecamp. It’s got a free limited version — but I’ll likely upgrade to the pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-need, US$12 / month version if it works as reported.

Project management and collaboration

Collaborate with your team and clients. Schedules, tasks, files, messages, and more.

Basecamp is part of the 37signals suite, considered best in class at what they do.

You can try to convince me to use cheaper (or free) software. But first read this article: Why You Shouldn’t Compete With 37Signals

I’ll check out Basecamp and the other 37signals products. And report back here.