The magic of giving away your stuff for free

Chris Anderson is not mad. But the title of his 2009 book might make you raise your eyebrows.

“Free: The Future of a Radical Price” argues that if you are working online you should give your stuff away free.

“Free” followed an earlier book entitled, “The Long Tail,” that suggested the internet has provided a host of opportunities that did not exist before.

The argument for giving stuff away free is less controversial today compared to how it was received in some quarters when the book first came out.

Maybe you get this. Maybe not.

The book review sums it up well:

In his revolutionary bestseller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company’s survival.

As Chris Anderson points out, the costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate.

SO WHAT?

Why should this matter to you?

If you are providing digital products and services online, chances are you have developed an email list of interested followers or potential customers. Week after week you will be providing a newsletter, blog posts or videos that provide value to your audience.

‘FREE’ IS AN IMPORTANT ONLINE MODEL
Today, giving away this useful content is a “no-brainer” – we understand how it can engage our audience. And we can go further and even provide e-books or short courses for free.

It is a strategy that has clicked for online marketers. And for a host of people who run a business online. Give stuff away for free and you build trust. Then, when you get to the point where you might provide an online product for a price, your followers might be more inclined to buy.

Though it is hard to obtain an accurate assessment, it is arguable that the online business person who give tons of good stuff away is more likely to be able to then go on to sell an online product at a reasonably high pricing point.

BRENDON AND JON
Take these two very different guys. Brendon Burchard is multimillion-dollar self-help guru. If you sign up for his newsletter, you will get a lot of good advice, even short series of video training, that comes free. He does it well. He knows his stuff. So when he eventually does offer a course at $200, $500 or even higher, a significant percentage of his email list subscribers will buy.

This works the same with Jon Morrow of Smartblogger. Jon is a wizard at blogging and helping bloggers up their game. He provides tons of value for free. He has established himself as somebody who knows how to successfully blog and make a good income from it. So when he charges a substantial fee for an in-depth course, a sizeable number of followers pay.

Both these guys have taken the idea of “free stuff” to heart.