NO Free Lunch

By Jon Acuff

When you launch an event, book, or product, you have to decide whether you’ll charge for it. Popular rhetoric will argue that it should be free. That makes sense in theory. If something cost $10 and something else was free, the free item would be more popular. More people, realizing they don’t have $10, will jump on board with the option that costs zero dollars. That’s a nice theory, but reality doesn’t always work that way. In fact, I’ve learned just the opposite. I’ve been holding meetups in cities across the country. During the meetups, I teach about bravery and hustle. It’s essentially an hour long event and it’s free. Of the people that sign up online, only about 30% show up. Contrast that with the paid events I’ve tried. When I charge for an event, 90% of the attendees show up. Why does this happen? Because if you pay $10 for an event, you have skin in the game... People don’t value things that don’t have value. If you want to increase the number of people who sign up for something, give it away for free. If you want to increase the number of people who show up and are invested in what you’ve created, consider charging. If you believe that what you’ve created will actually help someone change their life, you dramatically increase the chances of the person actually using it if you charge them money for it. You think you’re doing them a charity by giving it away for free but you’re actually removing reasons they’ll use what you’ve created. Remember this: When something costs us nothing, we tend to invest the same amount in it.