September 11, 2005
paid content is a mug’s game
The first lesson is that free ebooks spread FORTY times faster than ebooks that cost money. That should give you pause if your goal is to spread your ideas. It seems to me that it’s really difficult to imagine that the $9 or $12 you can charge for an ebook is more effective than reaching forty times as many as people for free.
I concur with Seth completely. Unless you’re at THE VERY TOP of the foodchain (celebrity, NBC anchorman, rock star etc), paid content is a mug’s game.
Forty. Wow. That’s a lot.
[Loosely Related:] I just finished reading his new e-book, “Who’s There”. All to do with blogs and how it affects your business etc. It looks like it was written for people who don’t know a lot about blogs, or why blogs are important. Not a bad read at all. If you’re new to this whole blogging thing, I’d certainly recommend downloading it etc.
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Don’t you think though, that while people are more likely to download it, they’re not more likely to read it?
I find that people are more likely to read something that they attach value to i.e. they paid for, sometimes free isn’t the best plan.
For example, and I know that this is a survey of one, I read every one of Seth’s books after I bought them. I’ve not yet read “knock knock” or “who’s there”.
I download a ton of change this manifestos, I’ve read 3.
I wrote a post about this here:
http://www.helloworldblog.com/2005/08/free_blogger_tr.html
My point basically is that you cant gauge the success of content by the downloads…!
Sure Rich, but I can think of a ton of books that get bought but never get read (especially by me).
Point taken, though.
PS I prefer just posting things up on my blog, via HTML.
“How To Be Creative” was read on my website by how many people? Half a million? A lot, anyway.
Seth has an penchant for PDF I don’t share, but hey, different strokes for different folks.
I think the only problem with posting things on your blog vs the pdf route is that blog posts while still there in your archives, often become like yesterday’s newspaper. I often find new bloggers I like, I subscribe to their feed, but rarely go through their archives. However if they had a link to a specific bit of content as a download, I just might.
Of course whether I read it or not is another question altogether…!
The way to get old posts read is to link back to them often, or have them on your sidebar… like me and The Hughtrain.
Of course, I had my stuff posted in HTML and a PDF (via ChangeThis) so I had both bases covered.
The one thing I didn’t have is money needing changed hands.
As an all but full time ‘blogger’ who’s experimenting with the paid content model, I find this all very interesting. One of my blogs IF is a filter of all marketing ideas great. Much of the content is only available to paying subscribers.
The argument above suggests that my blogs will be truly successfuil only if all content should be free — but when do I start earning? Through consultancy from reputation earned by content?? For IF, content and consultancy are no longer seperate though.
The big questions are: When does content end and my job as a consultant start? Is content in fact my job? Is consultancy in fact content?
I’m thinking aloud really, but if content should be free and my job is to create content, how do I get paid for what I do?
Who says your job is to create content for money?
Of course, there’s no law saying content has to be free. But methinks the drawbacks of paid content are not as well documented/understood as the advantages.
I’ve read a lot of of Hugh’s stuff for free, and think the linking on the side to important posts works nicely. I think the free thing works very well, as ancillary things presumably add up. As, for example, I recently received my newly ordered Gaping Void Tshirt.
Hugh, you avoided Piers’ question. I am wondering the same thing!
How do you make money if all your content is free? Particularly if what you have of value to offer is your content!
AdSense to the rescue? Adverts? Affiliates?
Seems like small money…
Jon, I didn’t avoid Pier’s question.
“If what you have of value to offer is your content” is an artificial, self-imposed limitation. It has nothing to do with reality.
Huh? I still don’t get it!
You sell either products or services. If your product is information (e.g. writer, teacher) or your service is providing personalized information (e.g. consultant, coach), then where do you make money if you give said information away free?
Are you saying that information delivery itself is not a sufficient product or service?
Sorry for being so obtuse, but I would love to understand what the heck you are getting at! Please provide me with some free information! Ha, ha!
Thanks!
Jon, your argument assumes that what’s being sold and what’s being bought are the same thing.
The world doesn’t work that way.
.
“Ahhh, I am beginning to see the light,” said Jon brightly.
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