How to know if your amazing content should be free or paid

October 9, 2022

GIVE AWAY THE BANK...OR SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST?

THAT is the question!

In fact, that's the question a neighbor of mine asked me just a few days ago.

Ellie and I sat down to chat after she'd been introduced to my site from another neighbor. (Yay word of mouth!! I'm going to be the next J.K. Rowling...I KNOW it!!)

Ellie, who is just about to launch an online version of her female empowerment business, wanted to learn more about creating a subscription product...so we decided to have a coffee date!

We talked about everything from success paths to tech...but one of the FIRST questions she asked was "How do I know what to put up on the blog and what to put inside of the membership? I don't want to jip the members."

PEOPLE AREN'T PAYING FOR YOUR CONTENT...

"Your customers AREN'T actually paying for your amazing knowledge. They THINK they are. But yeah...they aren't."

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It took me a while to really understand this in my own business...but your customers AREN'T actually paying for your amazing knowledge.

They THINK they are...

But yeah...they aren't.

Amazing information is EVERYWHERE on the internet.

Have a question?

Try Google. Or maybe YouTube. Wikipedia anybody?

Point is...if someone needs to know ONE thing, they'll have ZERO issues finding that information online.

YOU WANT THEM TO FIND YOUR CONTENT

THIS is why you want your future customers to find YOUR amazing, free content FIRST.

THIS is why you always here the big guys saying "Don't hold back!! Give them your best information! Solve their problems!"

THIS is why you should be doing just that.

If you create a video all about "How to teach Wendell (that's your dog's name...or your boyfriend's) to sit"...but you save the "sitting" part for your paid subscription, you haven't PROVED to your audience that you can solve their problems!

You've only sent them back out into the big, wide, digital world on the hunt for another professional.

SO...WHAT DO PEOPLE PAY YOU FOR?

There are THREE primary reasons your customers are going to pay for your amazing subscription product.

You've already helped them solve a problem. Back to that little paragraph above? Yeah...you've already given them PROOF that you know your shiz!! If you can teach Wendell to sit, you can DEFINITELY teach Wendell not to bark! (Raise your hand if you're imagining yourself yelling at your BF "NO BARKING!" *snort*)

I can't hit home HOW important it is to prove to your readers that you're the best!
They are looking for community. Even if your product doesn't have a community component, your reader is looking for at least ONE other person they can send questions to! Simply KNOWING there's someone on the other end of that email with an answer you need is HUGE.

This is why the phrase "They come for the content, but they stay for the community." is so huge! Your subscribers want to feel like they aren't the only pirates rowing their boat.
They are looking for an organization. Finally...and this is probably the biggest one. The easiest one to miss. Your readers are looking for a little hand holding. They're looking for ORGANIZATION with the solution.

If you're putting out a TON of information, you're probably using a lot of different platforms...and different media. You're posting emails, video, blog posts, podcasts, guest posts, summits, etc!

You're getting your message out anywhere you possibly can.

But that information isn't in order. There isn't a starting point..or an endpoint. There's just a bunch of information all over the place.

Your customer is going to join your community BECAUSE you're giving them a success path. A plan to solve their overall problem.

SO...WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?

You're going to be big. I can feel it.

And the BEST advice I can give you, is to wow your readers with some seriously kick-ass content.

So get out there, create a quarter content schedule, and get to postin'!!

Even more important...don't. hold. back.

This is so true. You aren’t selling information as much as you are selling ease and community. I wrote several computer books that did quite well. There really wasn’t anything in my books that given enough time you couldn’t find in a help file. Why did they buy my books? Because of the way I explained things and because a book was easier to deal with than the help file.