Don't offer free stuff if you have nothing to sell

In my opinion, it depends on what your final goal is.

For example, I am using small free products (templates, guides, etc.) to test my audience's needs. I launched a few free products and blog posts, which led to them.

2-3 months later, I checked the data on which one from them was most subscribed (you need to give me a mail for the free products), and then I just wrote to these users with some offer.

If the response is positive, it's a good indicator that this way can be viable to explore and build a paid product. It's market/user research.

This is a very absolute statement in my opinion.

Let's say we are starting a youtube channel.
If we were to start it with an aim to sell something to people, we are most likely going to quit halfway through.

Because we won't see results.

If we start a youtube channel with the aim to produce quality content and quality videos and satisfy ourselves with small wins and growth, chances are we are going to stick to it for much longer.

Eventually, our viewers can become fans and would want to learn more about us.

This creates a market for us to dominate it and perhaps sell exclusive content, info products, email lists, etc.

However.

Let's say we are building a Saas solution and we have an amazing feature ready to be deployed into the proven market.

Then we have something to sell. We have something to offer.

Then the statement makes sense. We provide something for free, free webinars, free one month of usage, a trial period, etc.

In a matter of personal growth, I think we have to produce a lot of value for free until the market recognizes we have something truly worth paying for.

This statement "A PDF you found on some website is quickly forgotten but chances are high that you’ll actually read the book you bought for $49.99." I definitely agree with, but it's not a black & white thing. That free PDF gets you an email address, then you have opportunity to test out some things to sell. You can test out your book concepts at $9.99, see what fly's and then move on up the value chain.

So, i think the point is to get from free to paid ASAP. If you're only creating free content, then the argument in the post is valid. Otherwise, not so much.

But. What about audience-first? Should you make something to sell and then find people to sell it to or should you target a market, build an audience and then make something to sell they tell you they want/need? If it's the latter, then free-stuff seems valid.

Please enlighten me as to whether or not this shop's mask is any good. https://ranboomerch.net/category/ranboo-mask/

great read, thank you :)

Thanks for sharing the link.

Completely agree with this. I feel like there's been too much of this 'give stuff for free' message lately, and you're right to question it. There's a balance to be had for sure.

Thanks so much for writing this. I always appreciate and respect your views, Jakob. It just shows that we should always question everything in business.

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