When others only care about profit, share your content for free

If there's one thing I learned from one of my favorite books called "Are you Indispensable?" written by Seth Godin is the fact that giving things away for free and creating content out of love and not looking only for profit is one of the best ways to get attention from people.

I thought about all that last night while I was on Medium trying to get ideas for what I could write today, and I noticed the fact that 90% of the articles that were recommended to me were "premium".

For those who don't know, Medium has a subscription-based system where, if you pay around $5 a month, you can read any article you want on the website, be it premium or not. If you don't pay, then you can read only 3 premium articles a month and as many "normal" articles as you want.

Obviously, not all articles on Medium are premium. Most of them are free. The reason most of the recommendations I received were premium articles may be because I finished reading, just a few days ago, the three premium articles I can read this month.

Anyway, that made me think about what would happen if Medium would not allow free articles. What would happen if everyone would have to pay to read what those authors are writing? And, most importantly, would people who post free content have more success?

The answer is, like always, "it depends". It's not always easy to guess what's gonna happen on the Internet. However, if there's something that is generally known is that most people prefer free content, especially if it's online, over paid content. Why? Well, first, because it's free and second, because it can easily be accessed.

Just look at YouTube and the success it has. Will another similar website experience the same success if it would only be subscription based? I don't think so.

Look at Steemit - would this website experience so much success if it would all be "pay to read"? I don't think so.

And the same thing applies to a lot of other websites.

That doesn't mean that only free content or free services can succeed. However, it does show the fact that free content is quite important, and by creating it, you increase the chances of getting noticed, especially if what you do is really good.

So, while others are constantly looking for profit, trying to make money and make people pay for the content they want to consume, what you can do is find all kind of ways to create the best content you can, and give it away for free, especially if you're just starting out.

It's hard to make money at first, no matter what you do, especially if what you create is not amazing. But giving things away for free just for the sake of it, and not expecting to make a profit as soon as you start may get you some attention in a relatively short period of time.

Sometimes, all you need to do to get people to notice your creation is to simply give it away for free. Don't worry too much about making money or about getting something in return. Just give your creation as a "gift" to those who want to receive it, and, after doing it enough times, people may decide to give something back to you.