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How much information should you give away for free?

Guest post by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: I’ve always been one for giving information away for free. Some people tell me I shouldn’t do it and other people say that it’s a great thing to do. I’ve tried both. Generally though, I find that giving something away for free does help my business.

How much information should you give away for free?

I’ve always been one for giving information away for free. Some people tell me I shouldn’t do it and other people say that it’s a great thing to do. I’ve tried both. Generally though, I find that giving something away for free does help my business.

Here are the reasons why I think giving away information for free is a good thing:

1) It helps establish you as an expert
2) It lets people experience what you do without any risk
3) People start to like and trust your approach
4) It allows you to build up a relationship with people

I think most business owners would agree that giving away some free information is good. The difficulty is when to draw the line and stop.

There was a time when I gave away nothing at all (after some advice from a business contact of mine who thought I gave away too much), but it was an approach that just didn’t work for me. So, when I decided to start giving away information again, I thought very carefully about what was free and what I wanted people to pay for.

My guidance (that I’ve set for myself) is that I’m happy to give away knowledge in the form of article & tips, advice on forums and sometimes advice to people in meetings – more about this one in a minute. But, all the advice I give away is general advice that applies to anyone. My rule of thumb is that if someone wants specific advice and help that applies to them then they need to pay for that.

There are of course exceptions to this. There are times when I’ve been feeling very generous in meetings and given away lots of help and advice to the person. When I do this I have to check with myself that I’m happy to do that and I’m not going to walk away from the meeting feeling bitter. As long as I’m ok, then I’m happy to do that.

I don’t however like it when I feel that the other person is taking advantage and then usually I won’t give away anything and will refer them to an article that I’ve written. In a meeting the other day for instance, the person I was with told me that they had real problems with time management and with feeling confident on the phone – she then asked me for some advice on helping her with these issues with no intention of paying for it. I may be bad, but I skirted around the issue and left as quickly as I could.

At the end of the day, when faced with this question, you have to realise that you’re not a charity and do deserve to get paid for the product or service that you provide. Set your own guidance about what is free and what people will need to pay for – only if you’re clear about what’s acceptable, can you make other people clear about what’s acceptable too.

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  When Free Is Just Too Expensive
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  What should your free giveaway be?
  The Fastest Way To Create Buzz For Your Small Business

Article Tags: business contact, business owners, exceptions, guidance, relationship, rule of thumb



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Re: Brag: 100 Confirmed email opt-ins - Hi Michelle - the biggest change came from offering a lot of free downloads in PDF format that is relevant to what they are searching for... and putting that information behind the opt in. I used to give away the content and then ask people to join the list - now I switched it so they have to confirm their email address to get the free download - it made a huge difference in terms of # of signups and, using yesterday as an example, I had 101 confirmed signups and only 2 unsubscribes.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book? - [quote="litekepr":1x32rraa]You can't really guarantee a positive review although many people do make the effort to find something positive to mention in the book. Even paid reviews don't guarantee a positive review. Well, you could pay someone that is willing to "sell" a good review, but those don't carry any real weight. I always hate waiting for the first few reviews. I don't send any of my books to the publisher until they are the best I can make them, but you never know what reviewers will say. Sometimes I do limited free book giveaways and in the tours I coordinate, we do a free book for a random commenter during the month. But, I created a promotional e-book for each of my book series and I use those to giveaway. They give plenty of information about the books in each series, the first chapter, introduction, background information and much more. Its a great way to give readers more information, without giving books away. There are some Yahoo groups where 20-30 books are given away every week or more. That doesn't really help any of the authors. Bad reviews are definitely done -- one big problem with reviews is that you're at the mercy of a reviewer who just doesn't like a particular style or is being rushed by a deadline or that is just having a bad day. Shri[/quote:1x32rraa] Hi Shri, So how much does it typically cost to pay someone to take the time to read and write a review on your book? (i.e. for a review without the guarantee of being positive)
Create a niche - I think it's all about focusing on the smaller niches... not such a broad 'marketing to the masses'... leave that to the big players and their safe and boring marketing messages. If the product or service is ideal for the masses, that's great, but tailor it down to smaller niche bases. Have a localized approach. When they find you, their already qualified because they did a specific search for your niche. Then create a personalized experience, and yes, make it ALL about solutions for them. Be the expert in the niche, give information willingly via articles, case studies, or reviews... give away a free mini-course, or ebook, get them on your mailing list. Create intriguing follow-up messages that encourage them to buy. Give, give, give... If you're creative and you can tell a story about it, all the better. Who am I fooling here... you guys know this already...
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book? - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":36e553mt]Hi Everyone, Thanks for the great responses! Does anyone find that giving away free copies of your book to reviewers or as "prizes" produces a high return on investment? Or is that route just a waste of time? More importantly, if you send a reviewer a copy of your book, does that guarantee a "positive review"? Has anyone every heard of reviewers who have given poor reviews after authors sent their books to them?[/quote:36e553mt] You can't really guarantee a positive review although many people do make the effort to find something positive to mention in the book. Even paid reviews don't guarantee a positive review. Well, you could pay someone that is willing to "sell" a good review, but those don't carry any real weight. I always hate waiting for the first few reviews. I don't send any of my books to the publisher until they are the best I can make them, but you never know what reviewers will say. Sometimes I do limited free book giveaways and in the tours I coordinate, we do a free book for a random commenter during the month. But, I created a promotional e-book for each of my book series and I use those to giveaway. They give plenty of information about the books in each series, the first chapter, introduction, background information and much more. Its a great way to give readers more information, without giving books away. There are some Yahoo groups where 20-30 books are given away every week or more. That doesn't really help any of the authors. Bad reviews are definitely done -- one big problem with reviews is that you're at the mercy of a reviewer who just doesn't like a particular style or is being rushed by a deadline or that is just having a bad day. Shri
Re: How Much Of Ourselves Should We Give Away...? - Hi there, [quote="ideasuniversity":32kncrni]People love free stuffs a lot and sometimes most of the free loafers are not always buyer,but this should not stop you from giving away free stuff. Give as much as possible and some of them one day will buy from you and you should be abler to monetize the free stuff by loading them with links and advertising your product inside[/quote:32kncrni] I agree with ideasuniversity, its like sowing and reaping. When it gets into good, fertile ground there comes a time it will produce fruit, ie financial reward. It is very true, that there are people who regularly go for free stuff only. I have been an addict in the past. I think this creates an issue of finding it later on. How can we categorize it properly? Quite often I remember having downloaded or copied some information, but can't remember how to open it up. Any one knows how that feels? Am I the only one? How can we overcome 'information overload' and retrieve without wasting a lot of precious time?


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