http://adventuresontheriver.com - The place where you can learn how to earn a full time income using the power of Amazon and the rest of the internet! http://lifeandtimesofzerofatz.adventuresontheriver.com/traversing-the-free-line-every-piece-of-free-content-you-publish-has-a-paid-counterpart/ - Check out the rest of this awesome article HERE Traversing the Free Line As a person who creates content online regularly for free as well as for money, I have grown pretty familiar with something called the "Free Line." It's the idea of providing free content up front in an effort to draw people's interest and funnel them towards your paid products. The funny thing about the "Free Line" is that it's easy to get it wrong. I feel like it was very aptly named because it's a lot like walking a tight rope. If you give too much cool and valuable information then nobody is going to buy your paid content. On the other hand, if you cannot interest people in your free content, and I will go a step further on this one, if you do not help people in an entertaining way with your free content, no one is going to care about your paid products. So truly you are walking a tight rope. The FREE LINE balance beam...step right up lol! So how do you traverse the free line successfully? How do you give great free information on the front end and still have something even cooler on the back end that people are willing to pay for? Well for me, I can tell you it's always a game of chess. Pure strategy. I always start with the idea for the free information. This information needs to be valuable but it also needs to be entertaining. In fact, ALL your information needs to be valuable as well as entertaining. If it's good information but it's not entertaining, you are NOT separating yourself from others. The entertainment value will extend the life of your customers. It is that thing that is unique unto you. Okay, that's all fine. But how do we differentiate between what should be free and what should be paid information if it ALL needs to be great? Well, before I publish anything, I already have a paid version of it in my mind. Whether I publish the paid version or not, I already have the "VIP" version of every single thing I publish, in my head. An example... Here is a post that I published to facebook the other day: "working on the next thing after Easy. I can't say what it is because competition is a little stupid right now. It will most definitely help alot of people. That's all I want to say about it." Also I put a picture with this post (for entertainment). It was designed to peek interest in a product I am working on. So what's the paid version of this content? It's easy. In my mind the paid version of my content would be much more information about the product I am working on. This would be information that I would release to members of a membership site or people on my buying email list. The point is...it's automatic. When I released the free version. I already had the more valuable paid version in my mind before that free version ever hit the street. Whether I use the paid version or not is irrelevant. Every single piece of content you release should have a paid for "VIP" version that could hypothetically be released. Thinking like this will do two things. First, it will make you more prolific. Second, it will make you think more strategically about the content that you are releasing. Now all of that is very well and good but the problem is that when I tell most people about this they tend to really skimp or hold back on their free content because they are saving it for the paid content. Do what you want but understand this fact; If they don't care about your free content they won't buy your paid content. The free content has to be great. The paid content has to be the VIP version of that great content. If I publish a piece of content entitled: "How to make your first thousand bucks a month on autopilot" then that content needs to be actionable and it needs to be entertaining in some way to separate me from whoever is doing similar content. It needs to be great content that can help someone make their first 1,000 bucks a month. However...before I ever publish it, I need to think to myself, "Okay self...what the hell is the VIP version of this content?" In the case of "How to make your first thousand bucks a month on autopilot" The VIP version of it could be 3 stories or case studies of real people and how they did this very thing. It could also include video, and a mind map of my personal story and case study. Okay, what else? Free Version? First 20 minutes of an interview on youtube. (something valuable and interesting must occur. Remember all content must have a greatness factor to it. Paid Version?

• published: 19 Oct 2015
• views: 256