Profiting from FREE efforts
May 28, 2008
Part 2 of ‘The FREE Transaction’
Profiting from your FREE efforts
“I never turn down a meeting” is a common phrase we hear from our business partner, Justin Foster. The meeting may never be turned down but we are judicious about how long that meeting may run. When you are in the business of consulting and brand development, golden bits of wisdom seem to trickle out into your conversation with those around you; free advice if you will.
However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Where it becomes a problem is when you can’t control the outcome or feel that you are being hustled for information. From marketers to the doctors, professionals are constantly hit up for advice and direction.
Plain and simple, whether they’re paying for it or your are giving it away for free … they are all transactions. The best thing to do is take control of the transaction; make it work for you.
Homework
The best gauge of someone’s determination is to see how they respond to a challenge. The world is full of people with good intentions and ideas seem to flow freely, but the number of people who are willing to do something about it is a very small fraction of those people.
Recently, I had lunch with a guy who had quite a concept, I was intrigued by his zeal and his desire to see it turn into something. But zeal and desire have a hard time paying the bills when starting up a new venture, work has to be the key ingredient.
Before our lunch was over, he asked me what I could do to help him turn it into something. My response could have been that I’d go back and do some competitive market analysis, or outline his concept and look for flaws, or pass the general idea around to my network and let them beat it up … but instead I gave him some homework. I told him to go back and write out 4 or 5 paragraphs on what the core idea of his concept was and what made his idea unique from what was out there already.
Within a week he was back with his write-up and a new appreciation for what it was going to take to get this thing off of the ground. The experience of putting his thoughts on paper convinced him that he would have to make some changes in his career to make it happen … and he seemed ok with that. That’s a good start.
Homework can vary from industry to industry. But in any regard, it adds value and depth to what before was just free advice, it acts as a barometer for one’s intentions; if it returns completed there’s something else to talk about, to move forward with.
No Strings Attached
I posed a question to Brian Gardner, the creator of the Revolution wordpress themes, about how starting out by producing free content for the open-source WordPress development platform could end up as a profitable career? Is it possible to make something for free without any expectations for a return and have it end up profiting you?
Brian says, “Yes, developing free WordPress themes for the community definitely made a difference in my business – it led to exposure, which in turn landed me the opportunity to create designs for high profile sites such as the Blog Herald and Daily Blog Tips. What began as a hobby, when I first started and offered free themes, now has become my full source of income.”
The key is controlling where you spend your time when it comes to giving away your time and efforts. In Brian’s case, his reputation as a top-tier web developer through his original efforts providing free content to the community of bloggers, has enabled him to become one of only a few developers who have produced a product that people will gladly pay for in a market (WordPress themes) where the majority of the offerings are free.
In other markets it may be as simple as contributing your time to a cause you align with, offering to sit on a board of directors, or a myriad of other opportunities to give of yourself while opening yourself or your company up for more visibility.
Just remember, your audience can smell insincerity a mile away. It is critical to find ways to give without it smelling like cheese; the successful transactions will be based on your transparency and your ability to maintain the relationships generated through your free efforts.
Audience Herding
Transactions are produced when we enable behavior. Whether monetary, or an opportunity to educate, you can control the path of that transaction.
Be patient, monetary transactions can emerge from well-developed relationships.
Distribute your digital content.
Ensure that your audience has access to you and your content.
For a couple bucks you can get a leader card made up, like the one above, that allows you to get your online content into the hands of those you meet. Keep the card simple in design; blank lines and simple URLs.
The reason behind this, it gives you an opportunity to fill in the blanks, hand out relevant links to content you’ve written to those you meet up with. It also provides you with a blank canvas for writing in simple homework for people to do.
Because the content on the card is personal and more relevant to the person receiving it, they are more likely to hold onto it and do something with it.
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I like to be reminded to keep things simple. It’s easy for me to get carried away. You’re simple card design is a great idea.