A Fellow Content Creator Needs Our Voices

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I’ve posted before about Andrew Warner and Mixergy previously. Andrew does terrific video interviews with entrepreneurs and start ups.

He’s decided to start charging for his archives and the whiners have come out in force to say how they would never pay for content since there is so much out there for free online.

It makes me gag to read some of the comments. As usual, the freebie-hounds are the most vocal and while I would love to reply to every single ridiculous comment, I don’t have the time and honestly it would be like talking to a wall.

I couldn’t help myself on one. To “can we pay you with links instead? That would get you a lot more traffic!” comment I replied, “Great idea! I’m calling my mortgage company right now to see if I can link to them from my blog instead of sending a check next month.”

Here’s the link. It’s exactly what to expect if you’ve been creating great content for free and then decide to charge. And it’s exactly what you’ll need to ignore. If you believe that paid content can be a viable business (if you’re reading this blog I hope you do), please go over and leave a few comments and replies.

Oh and by the way, he’s only charging for older interviews – all the new ones will still be free for a short time. The whiners are still whining…

Andrew will be interviewing me this week about taking a site from free to paid and I can’t wait. I’ll let you know if you’ll be able to watch it live or if the link to the recording when it is ready.

starting a membership site

  • http://mixergy.com Andrew Warner

    Thanks Tim. Looking forward to talking to you about it tomorrow in our interview.

    I built up a lot of trust and I don't want to damage that. At the same time, I want the flexibility to look for other revenue options.

    I'm eager to hear your feedback since I know you're a champion of paid content.

  • http://www.webmums.com Nikki Backshall

    Very interesting, I love the content that Andrew puts out and the interviews are jam packed with great info. The quaility of information is far superior than what you get in a lot of 'paid for' products so I think it's right that Andrew should start charging for access to the archives.
    For the whiners out there, they can just make sure they catch the fresh content and the rest of the decent folks who understand that research, interviews and Andrews time shouldn't be a free commodity can opt in to view past content.

  • jeffteschke

    Your interviews are great, Andrew. Go with your gut and you'll be fine!

  • ryanh

    Whiners or concerned fans? I question the effectiveness of charging for aged content to make money, as have others, but that's hardly whining.

  • http://www.MemberCon.com Tim Bourquin – MemberCon.com

    That's OK ryanh. You're welcome to question the effectiveness. But ultimately it's up to the content creator to do what they feel is best for the business.

    My argument to content creators has always been, “do you want to be popular or do you want to make money?” Either choice is fine, but those who bash content creators simply for monetizing their hard work aren't prospects anyway so don't concern yourself with them.

    I'm not here to have people love me, have 100K twitter followers and lots of comments to say my free content is great. I'm here to run a business.

  • http://monocat.com/essay-on-mixergy-subscription/ Essay on Mixergy Subscription |

    [...] full of mixed opinions filled with emotions of anger, joy and insurgence. As one blogger posted: …the whiners have come out in force. This strange phenomena takes me back to Magento’s upheaval battle with the community when [...]

  • ryanh

    No argument here. To this point, Mixergy has followed the free but popular path. Switching gears to paid changes the value proposition for all parties (host, viewers, guests), and I am curious to see how they react if he pulls the trigger. I don't see much value in limping into paid in this fashion though, besides as a signal to his viewers of what's the come.

  • http://www.MemberCon.com Tim Bourquin – MemberCon.com

    Good points Nikki – thanks for the comments!