28 – When to give it away vs. when to charge

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Gifts will build relationships in friendships that you have and in business transactions.

There are many different kinds of GIFs, like the actual value itself.

Maybe it's an instructional document or access to a course that you wrote.

Or you might trade that access, like the listener gives you an email and they get access to that course.

It's not free in this case. You got something too. So an exchange happens.

So you can either give it away or you can gate that content, which is the exchange of the email address. But

which one of those things is better? Is there a better? It really depends on what your goals are for what

you're trying to achieve. Because if your goal is to build up trust or to become a voice about something,

gifts are often the way to go here because you'll reach new people. And those gifts, which are often content

or teaching, can help you meet a

people and make that connection in the first place. But if you want to like qualify someone, you want to work

with them or something like that, you might want to look for some kind of commitment. And then that's when

these trades is a way to go. And it can be really specific to your audience too. Like I've offered a few

paywall items, but I choose to structure the free stuff that I just give away versus the stuff that I gate

because I knew in this case that the free content would be enough for most people.

Great for casual conversations.

But the need for the gated content was more from people doing paid work in this space.

So I knew they'd be more committed to that content.

They might need that, whereas others wouldn't.

And they'd also be probably using it in their own paid work.

So it made sense, at least for me at the time.

So one framework can be to treat your podcast or the video episodes that you make as content that's a gift

with open access to anybody.

And that lets people get to know you. They get to know the kind of things you want to offer. And you can build up

that trust to a wider audience. And then treat content like those more detailed written work things or

templates or maybe even direct access to you as items for exchange with that gate on them because they

require something in return, like the email or cash money. So this is for people who are ready to take that

next step. Maybe they have a pressing need or something.

some timely need for that stuff. Your content though really needs to earn you the right to make that kind of

exchange or trade and you've done that work with the free content that you've made. So it's harder to ask

somebody for something like their email if you don't have any relationship built up at all. You haven't

really given them a reason yet like why are they going to subscribe or why are they going to pay for that thing

that you have. It's harder for them to find you too if you only have that gated content.

But when you can ask for that exchange, it's going to continue to build up that relationship in a more

intentional way than if you just gave everything away for free. So you might want to have both of these

strategies in place and use them thoughtfully. So figure out how and where that divide is for what you make.

I'm Jen deHaan. This is a Credibility Minute. For more episodes or to get in touch with me, go to

stereoforest.com slash minute.