If you’re reading this blog post chances are you may also be on my free 10 day newsletter and on several other free newsletters as well from other bloggers where each person (myself included) are competing for your attention.
Unfortunately I’ve observed that statistically with free information your chances of reading that information (let alone taking action) are much lower. Let me explain…
Table Of Contents
Why You Are More Likely To Do Nothing When Learning For “Free”:
On my blog I’ve showed you some of the top tips that allowed me to make tens of thousands of dollars with Amazon’s affiliate program, a real life example of a website I sold in a deal worth six figures, I created a paid information product teaching people how to get better at Halo and earned several thousand dollars doing it (just to prove you can make money selling information about anything), I documented a website I bought for $4,000 that I paid off and earned an extra $3,000 in profit with in under 12 months all without being responsible for it’s content creation. There are plenty of other ways I’ve made money (some shared on this blog and others not). However, even after sharing all of that information I know that the vast majority of people that sign up for the free newsletter on this blog will do absolutely nothing with the information I’ve provided. Sure there are more successful people out there (and I know there always will be), but for a single person business I generate a healthy six figures so I know it’s not the usefulness of the content that prevents people from taking action.
I believe there are several contributing factors. For starters, because the information I provide is free people don’t see it as valuable. (Back in the early 90’s domain names were free to register so many people didn’t see their value either). I believe another more primary reason for inaction is that it’s too easy to quit. There’s no real commitment and any money that is invested in an internet business at the start is generally under a few hundred dollars so the cost to quit is so low. Whereas with a “real business” you might be laying out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in franchise fees, equipment costs, leasing space etc. and you can’t afford to just give up.
Less than 25% of the people who take my free 10 day course stop reading by day 5:
As you can see from my numbers that by Day 5 (message 5) only half of my subscribers are opening my emails and roughly half of those that open the email actually click the link to view the lesson. After seeing this fall off it’s not that much of a stretch to assume that the sub section of people that actually do click to view the lesson will not all completely read the entire lesson or watch the accompanying video either. (I also see this engagement drop off in my other email follow up sequences in other niches as well – so it’s not just the subject matter or me)
One of the challenges in having a 10 day free course is that it’s asking a lot from readers to commit to opening their email every day, reading a lesson and sometimes watching an accompanying video. I wish people that were serious about making money from websites would go through all of the lessons I created because frankly I failed a ton when I got started and in my free course I teach based on my real life failures and successes. Sure I could reduce the number of lessons I provide, shorten the length or do one of many other things, but again the barrier to sign up for the free newsletter is very low (it’s free after all). Perhaps the solution might be to simply charge for the information?
Here’s What A Multi Million Dollar Personal Finance Business Says About Why They Charge For Information
A real life example of a huge business based on information marketing and teaching is Dave Ramsey. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s basically a personal finance guru that says cut up your credit cards and pay with cash or debit because people naturally spend more money while using credit cards. Not saying I agree or disagree with his position, but he also has some premium products that he sells and his focus is on all about paying down debt yada yada yada. Here’s what he says about why he charges for information (emphasis added by me):
Why Do You Charge?
First, our products are an investment that is going to positively impact you and your family for years to come. Think of it this way: achieving financial peace is like starting a new business. In the beginning, an investment is required (like a subscription to the TMMO website, purchasing a Financial Peace University course, or paying for counseling). You have to make an investment up front, but the returns will be immeasurable!
We also feel that our products and services are valuable. If we offer them for free, it diminishes their value and people will be less apt to stick with the programs and principles. However, if it is something people have invested in, they usually feel more ownership of it and will be less likely to drop out of the financial plans they outlined.
Secondly, our company is a for-profit balance of business and ministry with many employees to support. We could not survive in our goal to change lives if we did not charge for our services.
Thirdly, we believe in our products, in Dave and his philosophies, and our company. Therefore, as a business, as with any business, we have to charge for our services so we can continue running a business that we and millions of others believe in.
The point that leaps out to me is this one:
“If we offer them for free, it diminishes their value and people will be less apt to stick with the programs and principles.”
Now the other obvious point is that he’s running a business and businesses like to make money by having products that they can sell, but wouldn’t you agree that by offering something for free it diminishes it’s value?
How many unopened free PDF’s from random marketing blogs do you have stored on your computer? I have dozens.
Another Example: A while ago Steam was offering the game Portal for free. I loved Portal 2 on the Xbox, so I created my Steam account and downloaded the game Portal for free and to this day I haven’t even installed it. (We all do this)
Perhaps I can even coin the term to describe this natural behavior. I shall call it Free Fatigue.
We all suffer from free fatigue.
Is Charging For Information Really The Solution?
Instead of doing a free class through my blog’s newsletter I could shift my focus towards something paid instead. Sure less people will be reached, but the people that do buy are much more likely to take some action (well at least Dave Ramsey thinks so).
I remember reading a blogger years ago (back before I had any measurable success) that was making several thousand dollars per month from websites and he recognized that the information he learned from years of trial and error was worth far more than simply publishing it for free so he shut down his blog and opened a paid membership site instead. Now his information reaches less people because he’s charging for access, but now there is an attached dollar value to access that information and as such the people that join up are more likely to do something with that information.
But again I ask – is that really the solution?
People have busy lives, priorities and tons of other distractions going on. If using another example – people are paying $60 for a video game to play just for fun (no “work” involved) and roughly half of them are not even completing it then I certainly can’t expect that more than half of the people subscribed to my newsletter will read the free lessons I’ve created let alone take action with them. Knowing that it’s human nature to give up or get distracted with something else is disappointing, but it does allow me to just focus my attention on the people that do take action, sending me emails about the first few dollars they’ve made or that they’ve started making several thousand dollars per month from what I’ve shared with them.
I’ll Keep Sharing Actionable Tips – You Can Decide What To Do With Them
When I first set out to write this article I thought about how it was frustrating that people wouldn’t read (or more importantly – employ) information I’ve shared via my newsletter or on my blog. But over the course of writing this for several hours and stepping away for days at a time to think about it, my attitude has shifted and this how I feel now:
“No one can force you to build a business – it’s up to you to decide how you spend your free time.” Click To Tweet This
My hope is that you’ll find the information I share on my blog useful in your quest to build your own job replacing income stream online, but I can’t force you to do anything.
See you in the comments
Very good points Chris. I think that there are a ton of different ways to pursue making money online, which can lead to distractions.
Question for you – Have you tested different followup emails or giveaway products?
I’ve tested all kinds of things. Nothing can for sure guarantee that people will do anything with information they’ve been given. If I said simply do these three steps and press this red button and you’ll make money there is a portion of people that would still not do it (of course this doesn’t exist though but I’d still bet some people wouldn’t even try it).
Chris,
I don’t generally agree with the paid vs. free hypothesis. I think they are not opening your free course emails because after the first few it becomes clear that what you are teaching takes work. I also have a money making website (that got destroyed with Penguin) that I also tried to do something similar to what you do with your course.
It was a massive failure.
I eventually realized (it took me awhile) that people just don’t want to work. They want free and easy. They want a push button system. You know the rest. It doesn’t matter whether it exists or not: they think it exists and they will not stop till they find it or get tired of the whole thing. No matter what you do, that is NEVER going to change.
You can teach a few but the few are the 1 out of 100 and those odds just don’t make it worth it. At least not for me. Whether you know it or not you are probably 1 out of 1000. A vast majority of people just don’t have the time, interest, ability, focus, organization, etc. that you have to do what you do or anything close to it.
I finally accepted reality and I then switched to selling them crap and made some great money doing it (until Penguin).
Jack – you’re back! 😀 (lol some day you’re going to email me and tell me your real name)
Going to share my thoughts on some points from your comment:
“I don�t generally agree with the paid vs. free hypothesis. I think they are not opening your free course emails because after the first few it becomes clear that what you are teaching takes work.”
Agree – mentioning that what I’m teaching requires work should of been a key point that I mentioned in the article. (lol perhaps I didn’t go back and think about what I wanted to write long enough)
“I eventually realized (it took me awhile) that people just don�t want to work. They want free and easy. They want a push button system.”
Also agree – good point
Ultimately I started this blog because after failing so much I wanted to share what I learned in the hopes that it would help people. Of course no matter how awesome or useful something is that I’m saying some people will still do nothing with it (and not saying everything I share is awesome of course)
Chris great point. Sometime people dont follow through because they are alway chasing the shiny object. or even thought you give good advise some folks may not believe that they can do it . I know when i started online marketing there where to many distractions i had opt in too many newsletters and free ebook. Not till i turn everything off and staring focusing on one thing only. I found Success. Thanks for the great advices and always replying back to my emails.
Hey Victor, thanks for chiming in – yah there are a lot of distractions that could be certainly effecting people as well and that’s important to mention as well.
I think you have the right idea here. While MAYBE a few more people would take action from your content and become successful if you charged for your email newsletter content, you would be exposing less people to your brand. Sometimes, while a person may not take immediate action based on the content in your course, he or she will simply take away inspiration, and take action in another area of online business.
But there is only one person who can control whether or not they take action and that is the person themselves. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink…
Thomas
Hey Thomas, yah good points thanks for commenting.
Chris – I find all your content extremely valuable. I took the website buying course and found it well worth the price and I read all your articles and find them to be really useful. “Free Fatigue” is a great term — maybe a kindle book title Chris?
Best,
Chris
Hey Chris,
Hah – yah that could be a book title lol. Not sure how much I could expand it though beyond what I’ve just said here.
Chris
Great article, Chris! Unfortunately, I too am very guilty of not taking advantage of the free information and products I am given. 🙁
Recently, I read something by another Internet marketer who says that he doesn’t buy (or download) anything that he doesn’t plan to actually use within the next two weeks or less. I’m trying to adapt that in my own life, even with the free stuff. I’ve noticed that it has helped me to value the information I do acquire.
I know I may not always open your emails due to general overwhelm–but they are some of the few that I even open at all. Plus, I know that when I do read one of your emails I will actually receive some valuable information and not just another sales pitch. Thanks for that.
Hey Jenny,
Yah that’s good advice for not downloading unless you’ll know you use it. When I do send out emails occasionally I am promoting products (i.e. I’ll always mention when I have a new software product available)
Chris
Hey Chris,
They are surprising results in the open rates of the free course – although you must be able to compare this to the open rates of some of the paid programs you offer?
I think if you started to charge for the information you would find it consuming more of your time as people would feel entitled to ask you questions and let you know how they are going. A paid version may also require a higher standard of production than a free one.
That’s just my opinion anyway.
My son says Portal is as much fun as Portal 2
David
Hey David,
Yah – I only have like 2 paid information courses (with the rest all being software products – and that’s where I’m shifting is towards software). In any case those do have higher open rates in paid courses, but I agree that if I were to ever do a paid membership type option it would require a lot more of my time to help with one on one questions (which would be what I would offer etc.)
Yah – I need to actually play it sometime lol.
Chris
dude I hear you! some of my email sequences mirror those exact same stats too. So much so that I stopped writing followups after 10!
and free is just that, it’s throwaway.
I paid $1999 for a course way back when I decided to launch a product, I studied that course hard! I consumed it until I knew exactly.how.to.do.it and had great success.
since then I have found other courses that I downloaded for free. great big courses with just as good videos and instructions. Guess what? they’re still compressed in zips , not even looked at them after the first couple of videos.
I have hundreds of special offer zips on my hard drive, they were so cheap that I just bought them without thinking and yet I still didn’t open them.
But the course I joined in April that costs me $50 a month? I’m all over that like a rash! I make sure I get my moneys worth.
So it seems the answer is to not just charge for it, but to charge a LOT for it! They can always get a refund. You’re good enough to offer that with your stuff.
Being free also absolves you of responsibility as the creator though, like David says above. If you charged for the course then you’d be committed to answering questions and providing support.
I know you do already but that’s on your terms, they ask a question and when you have time or if you’re in the mood you answer it and they’re grateful for the response.
If they’d bought it, paid you money then you would have to answer them and do it in a professional way. And they’d expect you to respond. You suddenly become a shop keeper instead of a mentor.
I know all about this from answering support tickets from premium plugin customers, back when it was free I used to be bossy sometimes and instead of giving the obvious answer to the silly question, I would try to educate them… now I am charging them money, I just answer the silly questions the same way I answer the regular ones.
(and I get told off by them if I lose my professionalism even a bit)
This was a great article Chris, I may not comment on every one that comes by but I always read them when they arrive in my inbox.
Keep fighting the fight and sharing, some of us lurkers still open your stuff and appreciate the stuff you’re telling us about your failures and successes 🙂
Hey Andy,
Thanks for stopping by and great comments as well. I’ve already pretty much decided that I won’t be doing any more paid information products anytime soon as I want to focus on software more so – but I might do more paid info products outside of the marketing niche though.
Makes sense that if you paid $2k for something that you’re going to definitely try and make sure you learn as much as you can from that though.
Chris
If what you truly cared about was to maximize the total number of people who would finish reading your course, the free option would be the only game in town. Just think about the actual numbers: lets say that 5 in 10 people of 100 finished the paid course, so for the paid version we have 50 people that finished. Then we have a free version, and because of the fact that it’s free, lets say we reached 1000 people, and lets say that only 1 in 10 finished. So what’s the result? Yes, the paid version had 50% completion rate, but you only reached 50 people, compared with the free version which had a 10% completion rate yet 100 people finished.
In the end, it all depends on what you are trying to do.
Yah it’s tough to say. I have seen from the paid stuff that I have offered in the past that far more people actually finish, ask questions etc.
I don’t know we’ll see… I’m not sure just yet what I plan to do.
Really we’re very idle and irresponsible. So, People Fail To Take Action, it’s our bad luck. Though you’re trying to teach us about some thing. Thanks for that.
Amen. When I finish putting together some of the things I’m working on, I’m not giving them away. That said, I’ll also make sure that it is worth it.
Hey Mike, I think there are a variety of different strategies that can be approached for any blog where the blog owner wants to either give away all information freely or charge access for some etc. there are pros and cons to each that’s for sure.
Chris- Like another post here, I think what it comes down to is being successful, in IM or any other business, takes work. Most people are not willing to do what it takes to BE successful, no matter if they pay for the information or not.
For the last couple of years I have been building websites and consulting for businesses. Along the way people have ask about what I am doing for extra income. I have turned them on to some of the free training to get them started. Not one of them has followed through to make any extra money though.
In fact, one of my former co-workers took some of the these courses, and seemed real interested in giving it a go. I encouraged as much as I could, and offered to help if he needed it. Sad to say he stopped asking questions.
So I guess I wasn’t totally shocked when he was arrested for stealing money from our company (a major US retailer). He had devised this very clever method of stealing from the Credit Card processing companies. He took advantage of a completely un-noticed loop-hole in the system. A plan that he had to really think through to make work, and it did for quite awhile, and several thousands of dollars.
See, it was easier for him to think up a way to steal money, than it was for him to make money. Stealing was easy, working was hard.
Providing your free email course adds value to your brand, and gives people the opportunity to take a look at what it takes to make it in this business.
Lets face it, this business is not for everyone. There are lots of ‘shiny objects’ out there to distract them from staying focused on just one method and seeing it through to success.
Thanks for the post, it reminds me it’s time to break out my worn out copy of
Think and Grow Rich, and get focused again.
Keep up the great work. The world is better for it.
de
Hey Dave,
Great comments and well said. You’re right this business isn’t for everyone and equally right that because it takes work some people just aren’t interested. None of my friends were interested in what I was doing while in college but it wasn’t until I left my job and was able to grow my income beyond what I was making in a day job with my websites etc. that they became more interested.
That said I did tell one of my best friends what I was doing (nothing REALLY beyond what I share here – except for the fact that while we were hanging out with friends he’d ask me a question or to). In any case he hit $1,000 per month with Adsense for several months in a row although now it’s a bit lower.
In any case great comments and thanks for chiming in.
Chris
Chris,
I also provide all my content for free. I give away to all my readers a free videos that I could easily charge for. Why do I give them away?
1. I’m able to reach a lot more people. By removing the “Pay Wall” I’m able to get readers that are non-buyers. But isn’t that bad? Yes and no. Of course I want people to sign up for the affiliate products that I recommend and to buy my niche sites, but non-buyers have value that isn’t just monetary…they can share. Some of my biggest fans are people who have never bough anything from me or signed up for any of my affiliate links, but they tweet all my posts, share on facebook, and are very supportive. Social proof is invaluable.
2. Affiliate sales. Instead of charging for the content I focus on providing great reviews of stuff I actually use. I don’t know how many times I’ve been thanked for my posts. It’s a great feeling. Plus if I’m able to do a good job explaining things I make money in affiliate sales over and over again. The user gets the content for free, I get the affiliate sale. Win-win.
3. It makes you stand out. Why do what everyone else is doing and sell information that should be free. The more you share and help your readers the more they will want to help you.
Great post, Chris.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I wanted to address each of your points as well…
1. I think what you’ve said here is valid. The question becomes can you make more money with a pay wall, reduce the amount of questions you get (because less people are buying than would be for free) etc. – then again if you’re not interested in selling the information even if you can make more money then it’s sort of a moot point.
2. Yes, I can see that with review based blog posts you’d have to make those free of course – I’m talking other stuff perhaps i.e. case studies where you’re showing live websites you own and opening yourself up to competition etc (charging people to read a review of a product that costs money doesn’t seem like a winning biz model so I’m not really referring to pay walling that type of content)
3. See that’s where I think we may have a fundamental difference in our philosophies. When you mention “Why sell information that should be free” it tells me that if someone spent years figuring out some marketing tactics, strategies or whatever they don’t have a right to charge for access to that information. Yet when you look at anyone who writes a book I assume you probably don’t care if they charge for information (regardless of niche) right?
To me, the problem is not that charging access for information is wrong or that all information should be free. The problem is that at least in this space of online business strategies / internet marketing there are people that will bundle up information for sale that isn’t based on anything they actually have tried out and know is valuable. I’ve seen people that literally just research the steps it takes to make money with some method – not actually do it – but then just sell access to it. I believe that’s wrong and not the right way to do it.
Chris
Excellent points here Chris!
I think this happens to almost everyone at times. When you get something for free (or at a low cost), it’s easy to get off track. There’s a feeling that it didn’t cost that much; so there’s no pain attached to giving up.
Personal example…
I recently paid $2500 for an extensive mobile app course. This amount really *hurt* to pay, so I made absolutely sure I followed the lessons, step-by-step.
I think if I got the same information for free, then I wouldn’t have taken action. The price itself was a huge motivator to make sure I get a result from my investment.
Anyway…great stuff Chris!
Hey Steve, thanks for the comment appreciate you sharing.
I agree with the basic concept that if you tend to pay for something you end up actually reading it and following it through. However, at the same time I believe that depending on what you ultimate goal is, you have to tailor your delivery mechanism appropriately.
For example, I have started a new site myself to help others learn how to do a wide range of tasks related to build a business online. I have started and continued with the concept of providing all I do for free and providing links to affiliate offers, in a soft approach. I’m not throwing ads in front of every viewer and running them off. I’m including those links here and there throughout the site. The ultimate goal I have is to build trust with my readers and to create a relationship. It’s not about the quick money, although that would be nice.
I know of quite a few other people out there that are doing the same thing and I am using their example as an encouragement to continue. I do plan on offering ebooks in the future that are related to my niche but in the meantime I’m giving all that information away for free.
Thanks for the deep thoughts and I appreciate and read most of the emails and information I find from people I trust and you are one of those people. Those who are doing nothing but selling to me get the cold shoulder.
Chris! This article touched on many important point that I’ve been thinking about myself. It never sees to amaze me the ungratefulness some people will express for paid information but that shouldn’t stop you charging for it. An example is an iPhone application I created called Bike Doctor that shows you how to repair your bike. I had someone email me asking why it wasn’t free? I said bike maintenance manuals are $10-$15. A bike repair in a bike shop is $15-$20 – it seems to me than $2.99 for that information is incredibly good value. It comes back to the principle of you can’t please everyone and you should never seek to as it will quickly drain your willpower, energy and you’ll spend less time helping out those great users.
I believe you may find some answers to your questions by following Ramit Sethi’s email sequence – he works hard on fighting people’s resistance to take positive steps. Perhaps you could inject some of that in to your newsletter?
Does Ramit have a blog post he’s written about that perhaps?
Well I’m on day 3 of your 10 day course and I’m planning to finish it. So far it’s great. Thanks for that.
Thanks for sharing the numbers…I’m both not surprised – and a little surprised. I guess I figured that people that were interested in making money would be more prone to following through.
Anyways, thanks for sharing – interesting info. Charging for information past a certain level makes sense to me.
Really people are very helpless,Because they’ve no power actually. But they want to do some thing.
Its a win-win situation as far as I can tell and I especially love the idea earning money by selling information. I’m personally the other way around, I never buy information since you look hard enough and are very determined you can find everything you need for free, online.
I’ll already started doing stuff like this but in this article you’ve opened my eyes to a lot more ideas for future business! Thanks for sharing!
I too got “free fatigue”, but looking back…it was really because I wanted to do the least amount of work, for the greatest amount of reward. Even using syndicated articles has made me not want to write articles myself more, so I’ve had to force myself to writing again…which in turn has led me to becoming more interested/involved in my sites again. I love to write, so that’s how I stay connected.
Another thing is that whenever someone new is researching this great industry, they need to figure out what exactly it is that they want to do, then find someone that can be a mentor to them. I wanted to be engaged in a variety of niches that I already enjoyed, so that I could pass along valuable content to others, both from personal experience, and new information that I find out as a result of the research that I did myself.
Of course, having a mentor such as yourself doesn’t hurt either…keep the great information coming!
You very correct Chris! free online information make money online information simply has its end product on its consumer as “information overload” which eventually get its victim gradually incapacitated with in-action
What more can i say, heavy doze of free info esp. in doing online is very contagious and action-debilitating
You do have a point Chris. Charging for information may be a good solution, but it is also true that people are always looking for freebies. Don’t know how much that works when it comes to information.
Hi Chris.
Thanks for all the wonderful stuff you’ve been putting out there. Unless I’m mistaken, you’re also active on the warrior forum.
My take from personal experience:
Some people want to kick the day job or even just earn some money on the side to augment their income. But I think there’s a lot of information overload and “paralysis of analysis”. There are so many ways to make money on the internet and lots of people promoting their own way as the best (and usually fastest!) that at a point, people that are inexperienced just get confused and in the end, just do nothing.
In trying to expand my horizons and not put all my eggs in the “Google basket” , I’ve often found myself pulled in several different directions at once. Sometimes I just have to reign myself in and try and concentrate on one thing at a time.
“Making money while you sleep” requires work and a lot of it – blood, sweat and tears actually. But there’s freedom too and that is priceless.
To borrow a line from a Quincy Jones song (forgotten which one) “….. keep doing what you’re doing man.” Lots of people like this Nigerian mum are very grateful.