There is a lot of money to be made by giving mobile apps away for free.

Freemium, a business models for mobile devices, was a topic of discussion at DC Week’s Digital Garage.

“A lot of people are realizing the power of free because there is no barrier to entry,” said Natalia Luckyanova of Imangi Studios. The point is to get people to “99 cents is a barrier.”

The way to make money with free is to start by opening a door to potential customers.

“People will at least try out a free app. The 99 cent barrier could be the difference between a success and failure,” said Vincent Buscemi, Vice President of Mind Grub. Sometimes free apps can be used to drive brand so users might make a decision to invest in your product that you sell.

There are already several successful iPhone and iPad applications that have been able to  drive customers to make that investment. App makers have found that success by giving away the first few game levels away for free, then charging for additional levels. They also make money by giving away the game for free then charging users for game enhancements. The key is to get the user hooked.

“Free apps are more likely to be downloaded than ones that charge.” Luckyanova said. There are other ways to monazite a free apps. We monazite our free apps through ads.

Ads have been able to drive success in the mobile market, and companies like Apple are trying to change the way ads work by creating a product called iAds that adds more rich media integration.

The panelists warned that the business strategy that you plan take use should be decided on before you start your application.

“You have to think about how you are going to monazite your app. It will make a difference on how you will design it,” Luckyanova said. Adding premium layers for additional levels or better game experience later will make things very difficult for you change once the app is released.

“The freemium model is really hot right now. If you change your model then [change] it all in at the end, it will not be as successful,” Luckyanova said.

Deciding on a plan to make free profitable is important.

“You cant give away things forever,” said Grant Allen, Vice President of Core Capital Partners. “At some point you have to flash things in front of them to get them to buy something. Otherwise you will not have a business.”

Chances are the odds are against you.

Only one company in 50 or even a 100 actually will find funding, according to a panel of CEO’s and Angels talking about the secrets of seed funding. To make matters worse there is a catch.  Not all angels are perfect for your company.

Its really tempting to say I got one fish on the hook, but if it is not someone you can’t enjoy you are stuck with your choice whether it is good or bad for your company, one of the panelist said.

Several panelists speaking at DCWeek included: Angels: John Lapides, Shadowpoint Capital Dan Mindus, New Vantage Group Frank Ball, New Dominion Angels Errol Arkillic, National Science Foundation CEOs: Mathew Baker, CEO, Bid 4 Assets Steve Woda, CEO, KidSafe Bonnie Rishell, CEO, ROI2

Their advise for start-ups: choose your investment partners wisely.

Fundraising is an investment in time. Their advise is to start early.

If you want to raise money in a year you need to start building your relationships now. It will take you longer than you think. People expect the funding process to take a month or two. You need to count on the fact that it will take you more than 6 months to go through the process.

One of the secrets to helping to close that deal and bring angels in to invest in your company is to have a compelling event. That event will be the deadline needed to force them to make a decision. You will need to force something to happen to make the closing occur. Sometimes without the event you will not be able to get the investment you are looking for from angels.

Investors want to invest in assets that are undervalued. Your job is to show how big your company give them compelling reasons to want to invest in you. One of the ways to find investment is to show that your business plan is strong enough to continue to grow without angel investment. Nothing makes vc’s salivate more than a company that doesn’t need the money.

You will have to know your numbers inside and out. Investors will want to know that you have a Plan A,B,C,D an E. They will ask you several what if scenarios that they see other start-ups run through, and if you cannot provide answers you will appear to not have the details ironed out.

Be sure to demonstrate your passion and cold-eyed realism about risk and realities you face. Let the investor know you understand the odds you are facing and convince them that their investment in you will pay off.

Investors are not interested in being your partner for life. They are interested in an exit strategy so they can move on and cash out.

The definition of journalist has changed and the news industry needs to shape up or get shipped out.

That is one of the reflections that were made by the media roundtable discussion at DC Week’s 140 Conference.

Citizen journalism is changing the way news is gathered and newsrooms can no longer claim to be the sole resource for news.

“You are a professional if you are getting paid,” David Johnson of American University said.  “It’s up to the crowd to determine if you are a journalist or not.”

Tools such as Twitter has been changing way the news is created and how news operations incorporate citizen journalism into their news reports.

“The fact is we are really in the wild wild west of how us in the mainstream media are going to incorporate [citizen journalism] into our news gathering,” Mark Pretson of CNN said.

But not everyone accepts citizen journalists or bloggers into the newsroom fold. It has spurred competition in an industry that would otherwise benefit from closer collaboration.

“Most [citizen journalists] understand that there is a role for professional journalist in this environment,” Jim Brady creator of TBD.com said. “I think the sooner that the professional side of equation starts embracing the fact the the citizen journalists are here to stay, as well, the quicker this problem will get solved.”

The new journalists from Glenn Luther on Vimeo.

The key to effective communication online is to use the Internet to connect with your audience, not just to distribute your content in new ways.

“We’ve been socializing on the Internet as soon as it was created,” Johnson said. “It is what it was created for: for collaboration, socialization. It’s not a broadcast platform it’s a

collaboration platform.”

Johnson said newspapers can no longer treat bloggers and citizen journalists as if their voice has no value.

“If journalists treated their audience with the same regard that they treated their sources, things would be very different in the journalism sphere today,” Johnson said.

Still even the biggest names in journalism struggle to accept to the looming blogosphere as a credible voice.

“I know in the journalism business, I still hear a lot of, and I just heard this the other day, the New York Time reporters went off on bloggers as being in their basement with pajamas,” Brady said.  “If we cannot get rid of of that stereotype at some point we will be in a lot of trouble.”

The future of the media is smoke signals.

At least, that is what one of the panelists said jokingly when asked the first question, First we had smoke signals, later Gutenberg’s printing press, today we have the iPad, ‘What’s next?’.

The reality of his comment could not have been more apparent.

While the four panelists, representing SB Nation, Aol., CNN and the Washington Post, talked on stage about their vision of the future, audience members held their own discussion via Twitter.

tbridge Hearing CNN, WaPo and AOL talk about new opportunities in media is like hearing the buggywhip makers talk about cars. #dcwfom

Karpantschof Funny. Attending The Future of Media session (w/AOL, CNN, Wash Post) and not hearing a word about the future. What a shame. #dcwfom

ladyglock I was kind of surprised AOL had anything to say really. #dcwfom

NicoleInDC Someone from @TBDDC should've been on this panel. #justsayin #dcweek #dcwfom

hashtager # I really wish the panel monitored the hashtag - or at least the uncomfortable squirming in the audience.#dcweek #dcwfom

darthcheeta I feel sorry for the panelists when they read the twitstream. #dcwfom

The tweets kept rolling in.

The panelists for DC Week’s Future of the Media talk at National Geographic were: Vijay Ravindran, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of The Washington Post, Jim Bankoff CEO of SB Nation, Meredith Artley, editor at CNN and Martin Durkin of Aol.

“Content is king,” Meredith Artley of CNN said, one of the four panelists while talking about what will drive media of the future. “It’s all about the story you are trying to tell, whether it is the disaster in the gulf, protest or a unique feature piece, the story always comes first. The future is not about one medium you use to tell the story it is about the best way to tell the story.”

The story for this panel was the backstory.

Their analysis of the media shift from old media to online media was presented and discussed, while users of the online media both applauded and criticized their ability to fully understand the impact of online media in a old media world.

The media industry is in a formative stage right now, content has become unbundled from distribution,” Jim Bankoff of SB Nation, said. “One of the things we are going to see is a redistribution of big distribution channels. Content is no longer the king, it is the kingdom.”

Vijay Ravindran from the Washington Post said new business models are still emerging and it is creating a lot of uncertainty for traditional media.

“The print medium is under tremendous pressure,” he said. “We are hunting for the right business model for us to allow journalism to occur [online].”

Success is not just the percentage of revenue you get from advertising, Ravindran said. Every person that decides not to buy a paper and get news online is bad for our business.

ArielDL Have a feeling #dcwfom panel is just figuring out how very interested audience is in specifics on ROI and CPM. Can have a redo? #dcweek

jeffsonderman #dcwfom RT @davewiner: @jeffsonderman-- big companies rarely innovate.

jeffsonderman REALLY wish we had a blogger on this panel to question some assumptions #dcwfom

darthcheeta If #dcwfom panelists are in charge of the future of media and advertising, RUN don't walk to your broker and SELL your stock!

jodiontheweb Panelists on the Future of Media panel are from AOL, CNN.com and WaPo. Take from that what you will. #dcwfom

angelambrown: Trying so hard not to lol. Tweets have been better than panel #dcweek#dcwfom

EricHLewis Now, the internet is everywhere, fast, and endless. Thank you, captain obvious #dcwfom

bydanielvictor Can we please stop calling it citizen journalism? If not, can we please stop pitting it a corner opposite "real journalism"? #dcweek #dcwfom

mjenkins The #dcwfom panel is increasingly becoming a big media backslap session. Feeling smirky here in the#heyTBD corner. #dcweek

mpranikoff Best line of this panel so far to the moderator "No, I don't want to answer that". Finally breathed some life into the audience #dcwfom

melaniephung This panel about "future of media" needs a lot more focus on "future". #dcwfom #dcweek

For more on the conversation follow #dcwfom on Twitter.

This morning my twitter feed was full of journalists reporting on yet another newspaper deciding to take a chance on getting a paywall to work for them after years of giving the content away for free.

@stevebuttry Newspapers pursuing paywalls: Chapter Whatever. http://p2.to/Tcb

The brave dinosaurs are running one by one to the comet to see if it will help them survive.

Their online business model is not changing, even though time after time news organizations have tried to put up a paywall and have failed.

Nicole Bogas aid this week in a post this week, that the news industry has still not yet adjusted to an over-saturation information market. In fact, they hardly even recognize that it is the catalyst behind it all.

@nicolebogdas Media misperception: Biggest change is from analog to digital.http://bit.ly/9P6XcX

We can keep betting on the paywall, a system that has been proven not to be the savior some have hoped for, or we can start working together to come up with solutions that move online news into a different future.

I am starting a hashtag on Twitter, #news20, for forward thinking journalists, business experts, web developers and everyone in between to discuss how we can start to build better news start-ups.

It is my firm belief that it will be incredibly difficult for mainstream media to make the cultural and business changes they need to create a thriving online business. I think that real innovation will come from small start-ups.

Start-ups will be able to create new news platforms, applications and strategies that are too risky for established media.

The journalism industry has yet to find their own digital creative like Sergey Brin, Larry Page or Evan Williams that can help create a platform that moves us all forward.

It’s time to forget about paywalls. It is time to be more creative. Let’s talk about new ideas rather than suggest the same ones as if they are our only options. It’s time to start news companies who are native to the web not just adaptation of offline models.

It’s time to start talking about news that does not need a paper or broadcast station to exist. It’s time to start thinking about news post-Gutenberg. #News20.

Tony Hsieh doesn’t sell shoes.

Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos sells something he says is much harder to fit into a box.

He sells happiness.

Hsieh outlines his strategy to create a billion dollar business by changing the business culture to make customers happy.

“It’s all a matter of priorities,” Hsieh says. “The first two things that get cut in companies are culture and customer service. That is something we will never cut. It’s all about what you value.”

Hseih told a group of people attending DC Week’s Unconference, at George Washington University, that success comes from focusing on customer service rather than pushing products. Hsieh was there to promote his new book, Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose.

Hseih says he puts a lot of energy into connecting with his customers directly in order to make an emotional connection. That connection has been key to his success. Zappos reports about a billion in sales each year.

“Our strategy is to connect with people on a personal level,” he says. “Brand is just a shortcut to one or more emotions.”

One of the main tools that he uses to reach his customers is the telephone. He says it allows customers an opportunity to create an emotional connection with his brand in a unique way.

“We do way more through the telephone that with Twitter,” he says.

Companies that perform well long term is due to the strong culture behind the companies he says. It is something that has driven his success.

“If you get the culture right, the rest will happen naturally on it’s own,” he says.

One of the ways he promotes a healthy work culture is by encouraging his managers to spend 10-20% of their time out of the office hanging out with employees. He says taking time to have fun increases overall production levels, makes employees happier and that transcends into customer service.

“Worst case scenario,” he says, “you break even and you have fun doing it.”

I saw a post by a colleague, Jeff Sonderman, who posted a list of events he will be attending at #DCWEEK. I thought it may prove useful if I did the same. Thanks @jeffsonderman for the idea.

I will be at DC Week covering emerging digital entrepreneurs in Washington DC over the next ten days for DC Week.

I am hoping to find people who are starting or have started a digital/online media company here in the District. If you are a digital entrepreneur or if you know of one, make sure to catch up with me at one of these events.

My schedule will be pretty packed so it should be easy to find me. (The schedule is a bit tentative, I may have to miss one to get an article in on deadline. )

Saturday

11 AM Because News is in your Future: Meet the minds behind TBD.com (If I can get in)

1 PM CityCamp DC

Monday

1 PM Legal Issues for Startup Companies

7PM DC Drupal Meetup

Tuesday

2 PM The Future of Media (pannel)

6 PM Hacking Social Networks in Real Life

Wednesday

2:15 PM Social Media 202: an advanced discussion in online community building

3:30 PM Is There Really an App for That? Non-Profit Leaders Debate Online's Real Impact

4:45 Social Media For Social Good

Thursday

1PM #140conf DC

7PM Tech Cocktail DC

Friday Digital Garage Day 1

1 PM Secrets of Seed Funding

2:15 PM Search for Start-ups

6 PM Show, Tell, Hire!

Saturday Digital Garage Day 2

1 PM District 5- Creative Panel

3:30 PM Performing Artists Clinic- How to Use the Web to Your Advantage

10 PM Closing Party

I got laid off today. It surprised me because I thought I was just finding my groove as online and mobile media producer at MHz Networks, a media company that specializes in international broadcasting.

I have to say it really sucks to lose a job that you have been very committed to for two years to see it go away in a meeting that was supposed to be a discussion on your first vacation. My commute home lasted forever. All I could think of is, how will I be able to pay my rent? How will I be able to make this work? My mind was switching channels faster than I could focus.

When I was a kid I remember standing on the edge of the swimming pool without my life preserver thinking, what if I sink? What if I can't swim? I think that is about the time that someone usually pushes you in. At first, you panic. It's hard to focus through the pressure to stay afloat. That is when you start kicking like everything depends on it and you realize you had it in you the entire time.

So this is it. My mind is still wanting to panic, but I know all I need to do is to start kicking. I have spent the last year building up my own consulting company, Greveo, and now it is time to start realizing I can do this on my own. It is a big change to go from steady paycheck to a little bit of uncertainty. I have stared at the edge wondering if I could swim for the last year and waited for the courage to jump. I guess it doesn't matter how I got in the deep end: jumping into it, getting pushed— whatever. The fact is, I am fully committed, kicking and I am determined to make this an opportunity not a setback.