In today’s Q&A with S&J, Sheldon Primus asks us:
“How can you get people to pay money for information that they can find free in other places on the internet? Even if it’s free but mediocre, wouldn’t people rather pay nothing than something?”
Shane: What’s going on, guys? Welcome back to another Q&A with S&J. We’re at an indoor water park. Our kids are over on the slides and in the kiddie area, so we thought we would knock out one of our patron questions. We do this every week, our patrons on Patreon ask us a question, and we answer it right here on YouTube, and on our Q&A with S&J podcast. We’re actually using a cool new toy we just bought. It’s a little microphone, and it goes right on your phone.
Check this out. Right, so we’re recording the audio here, and we’re going to sync that up with the video later. Today’s question comes from Sheldon Primus, and he asks, “How can you get people to pay money for information that they can find free in other places on the Internet? Even if it’s free, but mediocre, wouldn’t people rather pay nothing than something?”
Jocelyn: Alright, Sheldon, well, this is a question that a lot of people have. A lot of people want to know why should people pay for content when there is a lot of free content out there? Well, the reason why is simple: everyone is not going to pay for information, and that’s okay. We want to find the people who are willing to pay. Maybe it’s to get a shortcut, maybe it’s to get some type of expert advice that only you can offer. Maybe they just know, like and trust you. A lot of times, that’s the case online.
Don’t get so hung up on paid content versus free content, and people aren’t going to pay for it. There are thousands of free lesson plans out there, and people pay me every month for library lesson plans, so try not to get so hung up about that, don’t get upset about it. People will buy content. Not everyone will buy free content, but enough people to make it worthwhile will buy content.
Shane: In general, you’ve got to remember, Sheldon, that content is free. It wants to be free. Content is out there. If somebody really wanted to learn how to do something in Physics, they could probably go to the library and study it hard enough and figure out the math, and they could go do that. But they don’t. They go pay for a university degree, they go pay to go to college to learn how to be a physicist. It’s the same thing with anything that you’re learning online.
People actually are drawn to you because of free content. That’s why we teach, try not to lock up all your content. Let it go out there, let it be free, let people find you. And people do come for content. Yes, people do pay for content. But it’s not just random content, it’s content that you’ve organized. It’s content that you’ve experienced and you’re telling them how you did something, A-B-C-D, so that they can trust this is a way that works.
People pay for that organization. They pay for the system. They pay for curation. Most importantly, people pay for leadership, they pay for continued coaching. They pay for community, and being surrounded by people and things that they want to be surrounded by. Don’t get caught up in this, ‘it’s all about the content’. Content is just the gate, the gateway that brings them in. They’re going to stay, and they’re going to keep paying for a host of reasons. It’s like Jocelyn said.
You know when I first wrote my football playbooks, I mean, why would anybody pay for that? You can go out and find tons of playbooks for free. But can you pay for someone to guide you through it? Can you pay for someone to take you and organize that information step by step to figure out how can I take the playbook and teach it to my players, and can you find someone that’s experienced enough to come in and show you how to do all that, and someone you can ask questions to.
You can’t ask a Wikipedia page questions. You can’t ask a random blog post questions. But if you’re the expert and you’re the leader, and you’re selling that content, they can ask you questions. This is a fear that you should never worry about online. One hundred percent, if you’re solving a problem, and you’re a real person, and people can see that, they’re going to give you money for what you’re selling.
Jocelyn: Alright guys, that wraps up another episode of the Q&A with S&J. If you would like to ask a question, you can head on over to flippedlifestyle.com/patreon to learn more, and to support us and ask your questions so that you can be featured on the next Q&A with S&J. See you guys later. Bye.
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