Freemium is a Marketing Strategy that is only appropriate and effective in very specific - and rare - situations.
In 2009 we published our “7 SaaS Revenue Streams” (PDF) report and it has become the most viewed publication we've produced to date. The reason for its popularity? No one had ever broken down and detailed all of the possible revenue streams available to a SaaS company like this. We thought we were doing great work, and it turns out we were! The feedback has been incredible and you should certainly check it out.
However, what we didn’t count on is Freemium being so popular, that here we are talking about seven revenue streams while a segment of the industry is buzzing about giving stuff away for free. I suspect this new publication, titled "The Reality of Freemium in SaaS," will quickly surpass the "7 SaaS Revenue Streams" publication in views.
As always, your feedback is requested and appreciated.
UPDATE: Download the PDF of the paper directly.
The Reality of Freemium in SaaS
Author: Lincoln Murphy (@lincolnmurphy on Twitter)