Lessons, Tips and Tricks for Selling Online Content

Back in early 2008 I wrote a post called “Internet Famous, Dirt Poor” that got a fair amount of traction in the blogosphere. I wrote it because I was tired of hearing bloggers bash anyone who tried to make a living with their content.

The idea that “content should be free” always sounded like nonsense to me, yet a very vocal group whined of “sell outs” every time a fellow blogger tried to sell an eBook they’d written or, heaven forbid, used an affiliate link in a post.

Here is part of that post:

In the “old days” anyone who was famous in the media had the big bucks that naturally accompanied that fame. But these days, there seems to be a whole lot of folks that are “Internet famous” because of blogging, podcasting, Twitter, flickr, etc. and yet need to ask their audience for donations in order to buy a better microphone. It’s a bizarre and ironic result of the ability for anyone and everyone to start producing content and gather an audience.

Sure, there’s a great deal of talk about how one can leverage fame into fortune with speaking gigs, book deals, TV appearances and jobs with Fortune 500 companies. But how many people have actually turned their fame into real dollars? Not many, simply because great content creators are often terrible marketers. You can say that great content will open doors all by itself, but in reality it just doesn’t work that way.

Twitter, blogs, podcasts and new media in general have created a wave of “famous” people – people with a “wealth” of attention and inbound links, but can’t pay their bills at the end of the month. Worse yet, some seem to think that if you do find a way to make your living successfully, you’ve “sold out” and are no longer true to your audience. That’s a shame and it needs to change.

The “link” and “attention” may be the currency of the Internet, but until someone can show me how to pay my mortgage by linking to my bank from my blog once a month, that just doesn’t fly with me.

There has always been a large divide between the Internet Marketing crowd who were the “evil capitalists” and the “socialist” bloggers who shamed anyone who dare make a living in their world. I must admit, I relate much better to the Internet Marketing crowd. I always have. The socialist bloggers who want to live in a commune for the purity of their work are completely alien to me.

Thankfully, more and more bloggers, podcasters and content creators are realizing that they don’t have to be ashamed of making a profit. In fact, they can be proud of the fact that they want to make A LOT of money while providing great content through eBooks, membership sites and subscription content. So when I saw that veteran bloggers Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse and Sonia Simone started a membership site called The Third Tribe, I signed up.

Welcome to the dark side, guys – you’re going to love it.

I do still sense a tinge of guilt from them, though. The “Join” tab on their site answers the question, “Why not free?” and goes on to explain why they are charging for membership and the value of the content. It stops short of an apology, of course, but the very fact that they feel they need to justify it says there is still work to be done. Anyone who needs an explanation will never join…ever. You’re simply letting them know that you do indeed feel a little guilty for making money from your expertise.

My only advice – change the answer under “Why not free?” to simply: “If you have to ask, this site is not for you.”

I’m looking forward to their monthly content as a paying member.

Tim starting a membership site