I have had people feel quite content to take hours or days of my time, ask me to travel across the country for a lunch and brag to people about how my advice helps them personally and professionally …..

…. but when you say, “given that we have established that this has value, perhaps you should compensate me for my time”, suddenly they move on to the next free source.

It’s quite ok to ask for compensation … otherwise you will go broke creating opportunities for everyone else.

Some free loss leader stuff is fine … and pro bono stuff to good causes is excellent ….

But knowledge has value and should be compensated for!

I think some people don’t realize they can look at what they’ve written in that way – as virtual real estate they can do whatever they want with and even do more than just one thing with.

As long as I don’t automatically follow the crowd with “moving the free line”, I can decide in each situation which works best for me and my subscribers.

Thanks,
Peggy

Peggy Barons last blog post..PLR Articles>Opt-In Report>Growing List

The advice they gave was to price higher than you’d expect. Or at least, don’t price low.

His comment was that they had originally been selling photo prints at $5 each and while he got lots of hits, he got no buys.

He then raised the price to $25 each and while fewer people were interested, he started getting sales.

There is a perceived value when something has more cost.

Josh Millers last blog post..Just One Reason for Consumer Decline

@Kelly – That’s awesome to hear. I think it’s so important to define what you’re willing to give away and what you need an exchange for. This is a huge business lesson on so many levels.

Dawud Miracles last blog post..Are You Being Misled By How Much Traffic Your Website Is Getting?

On the other hand, it depends on how you’ve chosen to monetize your work. If you sell advertising, then “writing for free” really isn’t free, is it? You are selling your visitors’ eyeballs. So yes, they don’t have to pay for the content. But they do view your ads and therefore contribute to your success in that way.

I think you’ve come up with a grand solution: add value that your users can’t get by perusing an article, while still providing excellent content to your readers.

Sarah Brays last blog post..The Five Biggest Things I’ve Learned from My Blog Failures

I have sat down to write a blog post only to realize what I have is better suited to a free report that I could offer in exchange for someone joining my mailing list.

I’ve also ended up with small ebooks that I’ve sold for a price.

As a web publisher I evaluate my ideas and topics and ask myself where it can be best used. Blog post? Distributed Article? Viral freebie? Low cost product? Bonus for higher priced product? New product for my membership site?

Some folks have content that I would have used for all of the above on their blogs… and maybe they have monetized it just as well there, but in most cases I would guess not.

Thanks for starting this discussion I look forward to hearing other people’s thoughts.

Kelly McCauseys last blog post..Vote For Your Favorite WAHM Blogs!