Will sharing free tips & information hurt or help my business?

Are you writing blogs to share your expertise, sharing tips on Instagram, and posting how-to tutorial videos on YouTube? Are you happily sharing this information or are you wondering if you should charge for all your knowledge? Or maybe you haven’t started sharing it because it is a lot of work for you and you don’t really see the point to give it out for free? After all, it takes you a lot of time… right?

Don’t give up. Sharing free tips and information can certainly serve your business. Let’s take a deeper look into this and see how you can make money by sharing free content.

-          Why shouldn’t you charge for your expertise?

We are in an era of free information. You don’t even have to look for free workshops or tutorials anymore. They are all over the internet and all over your face.

You may see some information out there and realize you can give a better value to it. Then you sure should as you do have the expertise and experience. Your information is valuable.

But why is it important to give it out for free then?

Giving out free information helps you to create something really important with your clients: TRUST. Trust is crucial to grow your business. Your future clients won’t sign a contract without knowing you, without understanding who you are, and without trusting you. Now, who would you trust more? Someone you have been reading their content for the past year, applied some of their tips here and there, someone you almost feel like you already know them… or a total stranger?

Creating and sharing content is really important to establish your business and your expertise.

-          What type of content should you share?

Share tips and information that are relevant for your business and your customers. Let’s say you are currently renovating a house and you have to pick new colors. Share the process of how and why you selected these specific colors. Give useful resources for them to use.

Be complete in your information. It is tempting to only share a tiny bit to tease people and invite them to invest in you. Be careful, you want to make sure that after consuming your free content your audience gets something out of it. Don’t transform it into a sales pitch or the trust will quickly be broken.

Having a clear plan and strategy on what to talk about and when will be also very helpful to create content that makes sense and supports your goals.

-          How to share your content?

Choose the format that you enjoy the most: blogs, Instagram stories, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, a podcast, or a mix of multiple of them. Do you enjoy writing, speaking, or being on camera? Find a medium where you feel comfortable to start with. Then start exploring other options. Showing yourself on camera for example is going to be stressful at the beginning then it will get much easier with practice. Give yourself some time to learn and adjust.

-          What should you charge for then?

Ok great, now you are giving away all your information and you are starting to get worried and wonder why someone would invest in your services when they have all the information for free. Don’t worry. Sharing your knowledge and even giving a step by step plan won’t make working with you less valuable. In an era of free information, what we are missing is accountability and real actions. Customers like the idea they could do it themselves or at least understand the process behind it. But they don’t have the time to do it. What they like the most is to understand that you know what you are talking about, that you are generous about sharing and supporting your community but most importantly that you’ve got their back.

So at the end of the day, yes maybe you will help a handful of people to do it on their own. Those people will be forever grateful and will be great supporters of yours. But most importantly you would have established yourself as a person that doesn’t just talk about the fact that they know stuff but share what they know, a person that is generous and genuinely want to help and support their community, a trustworthy person that would be great to do business with.

If you are ready to share your information but don’t have too much time to do it, check out our easy-to-use packages including templates to help you streamline this process.