I’m bored of the whole idea of FREE. I used to be all about it, but lately I’ve been heading in the other direction. There seems to be free stuff everywhere online, particularly ebooks. Every blogger has a free ebook these days. It bores me.
Free really dilutes value for me.
Think about who you’re attracting when you give something away for free.
Think about who you’re attracting when you sell something of value to someone who needs it.
Which one of those groups is going to become true fans and want to spread your idea? Unless your free thing is mindblowingly good, it’s just going to end up taking up space on someone’s hard drive.
The free world is cluttered and they’ll probably just jump right to the next thing, because hey, it’s free too. It probably would have been better used as a regular blog post where your message is more easily spreadable and easier to access.
If I get something for free, I might use it. If I pay for something, even if it’s just a small amount, I’m going to use this thing because now I’ve invested in it. It would be a waste not to.
When someone charges money for something I don’t see it as them just wanting to make a quick buck, I see it as them knowing what they have is valuable and they want only serious people to take part in what they’re doing.
Instead of putting a free ebook out there (let’s face it, you’re not going to work as hard on a free ebook as something that you’d charge money for), why not put that time into creating something truly epic. Something that you’re so confident in it’s ability to change the world that you only want to attract serious people to it.
And someone who has paid to get involved is going to do a hell of a lot more than a freebie seeker.
If you want to provide true value and make a difference, is free really the best way to go?
I don’t think it is in most cases. You provide enough of your brilliance for free through regular posts. Don’t be afraid to get paid for your expertise. People care enough to pay for it.
And if they don’t, it’s not a big deal. They probably aren’t the type of person you want to join your movement anyway.
What do you think? I’m not trying to offend any of you reading this who have free ebooks, just trying to share what I’ve been thinking about lately, and curious as to whether it makes any sense to you or not.
the growth of this site depends on you, please share it. get free updates when I post again by rss or by email.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m researching this right now to try to figure out my best path if I decide to go that route. I know I have been a typical consumer in the sense that I have often downloaded the free stuff, simply because it’s free, and then never even looked at it. It just didn’t grab me, or I glanced at it, and it was poorly written or designed.
It depends on the source of the product too. If it’s someone whose free stuff I already read is great (blog posts, for example), it’s something I am really interested in, or it otherwise blows me away, I’ll get it and devour it.
It’s always going to be used to some degree. One, because it works. It gets what a company wants (a list or traffic), and also helps to create fans.
The newer web services that either stay free, or go to a freemium type model are just following what has gone on for a long time in radio and television. They have been doing free since they were invented.
I think more services will go to this freemium or “free, but…” systems. They have to stay in business, and free doesn’t pay the bills by itself.
I see many free eBooks out there, and I think one of the greatest problems is that people (Chris Guillebeau) have written really awesome free eBooks and built an empire on it. People see that and think “Wow, I want in.” So they do the same.
Problem is that they don’t put in nearly as much effort and then we end up with all these mediocre free eBooks flooding the medium. For this reason I also find little value in many PAID eBooks. If I am going to pay $20+ to read the exact same thing that I could get for free on your blog, I’m going to be frustrated.
A great example of free vs. paid valuation. Good Will Hunting: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library”
@ james – My experience with free stuff has been the same, that’s what inspired me to write this. I found that most of it is just rotting away somewhere on my computer. And I’m glad you brought up the freemium business model, that’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, seems to work in a lot of instances. Thanks for a great comment!
@ elisa – Yes. The idea of copying someone else who has done it successfully is great, but you can’t forget about quality. Chris is a great example there. I’m a huge fan of his free manifesto, it’s outstanding.
You bring up a good point in mentioning how you get frustrated when a premium product is really no different than the free stuff on a blog. I’ve experienced that as well. I think there is a big responsibility to go above and beyond when you charge money for something, sadly that is often forgotten. – And thanks for the great Good Will Hunting quote – one of my favorites :-)
Great post Nate! A lot of times people think offering something of no value for free they will get people to buy there paid products. The problem is like you stated a lot of times those people will download it and never even read the thing or you have people who read it only to find that its something they have already read or better yet could have found on the internet.