You have probably heard of cars.com. If not, I’m sure that you can imagine that such a domain name comes at a high premium. Ranking well for a keyword like “Cars” is quite lucrative for web based business. In fact, most companies that own such premium domains will also purchase related domains, such as the .net, .org, and .us version. They do this to capture mistypes from direct traffic, and to prevent competitors from piggybacking off of their brand recognition.

Google. inherently credits .gov domains as trustworthy and authoritative. In fact, it’s built right into the algorithm. When Google. sees a .gov domain, it automatically ranks it high in the search results. But owners of premium domain names can not do anything to compete with the potential of a domain name that matches theirs exactly, but has a .gov domain. This is because private citizens and private industries can not purchase a .gov domain. Only the government can do that.

In just a few short weeks since it’s creation, cars.gov ranks second for the term cars, as seen in this screenshot.

Cars.gov can automatically rank for a term that would cost the average Internet marketing firm thousands, or even millions of dollars to compete. In fact, that’s exactly what they did. Within two weeks of creating the cars.gov domain, Google was ranking it on the first page of search results for the keyword cars. Additionally, the cars.gov cash for clunkers program gets free advertising from Toyota, Nissan, auto dealerships, and any auto related advertising where automakers and auto dealers are using the government program to attempt to drive up sales. This is not competing in the marketplace. This is anticompetitive.

So, we have had the Bush stimulus 1 and the Obama stimulus 2 plunge the country into record setting trillion dollar deficits, and nothing to show for it but an economy that is circling the drain. We have a tax cheat as treasury secretary, and a cabinet full of crooks and criminals. President Obama has hijacked the auto industry and the banking industry, with hopes of also hijacking the health care industry. This administration also hopes to micromanage all of our lives with it global warming hoax tax and regulations.

Now, President Obama and the rest of his crooked cronies are taking their first measures at undercutting the Internet marketplace.

It’s difficult enough for a home based business start up to compete in the cutthroat environment of Internet commerce without having the US government to compete with. I wonder, with this administration’s obvious contempt for private industry, how long will it be before the US government says, “Sorry cars.com, but your domain unfairly competes with ours,” and just take the domain.

Don’t think that will ever happen? Don’t ever underestimate an administration that thinks “I’m from the government and I”m here to help” is a comforting sentiment.

I’m going to have to sell a lot of Barack Obama Collectible Million Dollar Bills to stay afloat. The funny money you’ll find on the other end of that Amazon affiliate link is worth about 5 cents, which is about how much the US Dollar will be worth in 6 months. And I was saving up for that unicorn Obama promised but never delivered. Damn.

I’m scrapping plans to buy unicorn.com because Obama will just start unicorn.gov and screw me.

I’m sure I’ll be fine, though. The government just arrived and they’re here to help.

What “free” is not is a business model. Somewhere you need to draw the line. There is a point where the ROI (return on investment) of “free” begins to hurt your business rather than help it. This is a lesson that some bloggers I read seem to be either learning, re-learning, or just being reminded of.

Grizzly, who gives away an unbelievable amount of free information got disgusted by the response he got from some individuals when he issued a call to action in response to a big Site Build It! fiasco. Many individuals that demanded he hold their hands and walk them through how to make a website and make money from it responded to his call to action by telling how wrong he was to do so. He finally felt the need to vent, and write a rant about how people don’t appreciate free Internet Marketing advice.

Now, I don’t think that Grizzly is just learning this lesson. I think it is more of a rude slap to remind him of something that he knows, but somehow slipped under the radar for a while.

Justin Briggs, a Search Engine Optimization engineer, points out how he made a great Grizzly Wordpress theme, and one user didn’t seem to appreciate the time and effort that Justin put into it. At least one person did not appreciate the value of “free.” He also points out a quote from Arron Wall that really gets to the heart of the issue. People that want something for free, and only for free, do not value you or your time. They don’t have any value for YOU at all. They only value themselves, and they don’t care how much money or time you lose in the process of giving them what they feel they are entitled to.

Paul tells us about how he used a site as a case study, and as a result of his benevolence, he lost the site and it’s income. He won’t be giving away free information anymore. I remember seeing an exchange somewhere, and I don’t remember where it was, or who were the participants. One person said that he was not worried about his site. Google has better things to do than to review his site. Another responded, “But 10,000 assholes on Digital Point don’t.” That’s pretty much the point. Vic points out how even if you get approved after the process, it still costs you money.

This really stuck with me, because these are the very same people that Arron Wall refers to as not having any intrinsic value for your time. These are the 10,000 assholes on Digital Point that get sites deindexed, because they have no sense of how to actually make it in Internet Marketing, so whenever they come across anyone having any degree of success, they feel the need to tear them down, and bring that person down to their level.

The 10,000 assholes on Digital Point take and take and take, because they feel they are entitled. They only see not making money as a legitimate business model. If you make money, they want to know your secret (which is probably not a secret, but rather hard work) and they demand you give it to them for free.

If you have the audacity to ask for financial compensation, then these 10,000 assholes on Digital Point realize that they have just discovered a “spammer.” No shit. That’s their limited, narrow, pathetic, absurd view of making money online. If you want to charge for your time, you are a spammer. So, it stands to reason that a “spammer” should be reported.

My father owns a retail store. It’s a physical store, not an Internet retailer. From time to time they give away something for free. This is done with the strategy of promoting the business. Often it will be something like T shirts with the business name on them. Sometimes it will be something of greater value in some sort of contest. Other times it is something small an inexpensive that is okay to do for promotional purposes, but they don’t give away the inventory for free. Free is not a business model.

By extension, Grizzly gives away a lot of information for free. This is fine. It funnels traffic to him, and builds authority. One commenter on Justin’s post, Patrick, observed that he would be willing to pay $100 bucks an hour or more to pick Grizzly’s brain. You need to draw the line between free content and free consulting. Once you start holding hands, you need to either cite your hourly rate, or refer (with affiliate link) to someone that does charge a rate if you don’t want to do the consulting yourself. Either way, you are compensated without spending hours re-answering the same n00b questions over and over again.

Create an FAQ page with all the beginner questions. Make all the questions point with anchored links to where those questions are answered. When a question is asked the answer is a link to the FAQ. If the person wants more than that, then it is time to charge or attempt to earn an affiliate commission. If the person doesn’t value your time enough to pay for it, then perhaps that person doesn’t value his own time either. In that case, good luck finding all that “free” information out there.

After 6 months of attempting to separate the good advice from the bullshit and scams, and you haven’t earned a dime, you’ll learn that your time is valuable too. I have paid people for their time, precisely because I value MY time. I didn’t want to spend 6 months filtering out bullshit. I wanted good advice, and I wanted it now, because I realized the value of my own time. I realized that what I can learn in a few minutes of having it handed to me will save me hours of time filtering bullshit.

Free is a good promotional tool, but never forget that you are running a business. Don’t give away the inventory. 10,000 assholes on Digital Point will only screw you over for it.