Why I stopped believing in the free line…

(And why you should too)

Why I stopped believing in the free line…

So in marketing and online business circles, there is a term known as “The Free Line.”

“The free line” is an invisible intangible line that represents the point at which you stop giving away stuff to your audience and you start charging for stuff.

For example, let’s say you have yourself a keychain business.  And you sell keychains for $5 each.  You have all different types of novelty keychains.

However, to get business in the door you give away the first keychain for free.  

So in that particular situation, the free line would be 1 keychain.  Anything more delves into what you charge for.

Another example:

Let’s say you run an information publishing business (like myself.) And you say, well I give all my short 5-page special reports away for free, to attract customers and build an audience…

…but then I charge for my more in-depth 20 to 40-page special reports.

Well your free line would be at those 5-page special reports.  Anything that you deem more valuable than that, is passed the free line, and into paid stuff.

So that’s the free line.  It seems like a cool concept for trying to figure out how to price your stuff, and what goes where.  However…

…eventually, in my business I stopped thinking about content in these terms.  

I’ll explain why.

I don’t see free content and paid content as the same kind of thing.  They are different and follow different rules.

Why are they different?  Very easy.  And if you have read my book on value then you probably have an idea but…

…they are different because of the perception of the people consuming the content. 

Do you look at a free book that you got at a church rummage sale the same as you look at a book you paid a thousand dollars for (a high ticket book?)

Of course not.

They might be the same book, but it doesn’t matter.  The way you see them is different.  The way you respect them is different.  The cost was different.

So I say all that to point out that the book you paid a thousand dollars for will immediately have your attention.  You will be ready to listen to the instructions within, and you will be very interested in what that book is telling you.

Ultimately, you are trying to recoup the cost of that book.  Whether that’s in money, or in some other form of value.

With the free book?  It might sit on your shelf for a year, and you may never read the book.  You haven’t lost anything.  You have nothing to recoup, but space on your shelf.

So if the way we perceive these 2 pieces of content is different, solely based on what they cost us then…

…these 2 pieces of content operate under different rule books.

It’s not that I stopped using the free line…

…it’s that I stopped believing the free line actually exists.

I believe free content and paid content exist separate from each other.  They are not on the same line and never were.

It’s like comparing cats and dogs.  There is no imaginary line where a cat becomes a dog.  That sounds ridiculous…

…and I believe it to be the same when it comes to free and paid content.  They are different.

Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t pull options from free content to create paid content, or vice versa, but it does mean that free content and paid content exist in two separate places, with different rules in each.

Now…we come to the interesting part.

What are these RULES for free content, versus the RULES for paid content?

I’m glad that you asked, because it completely demonstrates my point.

Those rules, I would consider paid content ;)

So let’s get into it then…