Why giving away 90% of your value is no longer enough
Are you giving too much free value?
How much value is enough?
”Give away 90% of your value for free, charge for the 10% that‘s left.”
Do you think the person saying this wants you to make any money from your writing business?
Sounds like they want you making 10% of what you could be earning.
Imagine your business is a bucket. Every drop that goes in is revenue that your writing generates. Now punch holes in the bottom until only 10% of the surface remains.
How much water would you need to pour in just to drink a glass?
You’d be thirsty most of the time. Yet this is the advice new creators hear all the time.
And giving away all your value for free isn’t even the worst thing that can happen. The content creation space has changed dramatically in recent years, and the advice floating around doesn’t work in this new competitive environment.
So pour yourself a glass of water. In the next 3 minutes, you’ll discover exactly how this advice is damaging your brand and the simple technique that’ll fill your bucket to the brim.
Why Does Free Content Feel Good But Convert Poorly?
Free samples work. Free meals don’t.
In some supermarkets, they’ll offer you a small cube of cheese on a toothpick. You taste it. You like it. You buy a chunk. Simple. But what if they handed you the entire wheel? You’d eat until you were satisfied, say “thank you very much,” and walk away.
That’s exactly what you’re doing with your content.
Have you ever poured your heart into creating a complete guide where you share your best frameworks? The comments roll in: “This is amazing!” “So much value!” “You’re the best!” But when you check your bank account? Zero.
Here’s what happened: you were feeding people the entire meal. They left satisfied but never needed to buy. Why would they? They already got what they came for.
Your job isn’t to give your value. Your job is to sell your value. There’s a difference.
When Should You Actually Give Real Value?
Once a month maximum. Use it as an authority punch, not a habit.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying never share real value. I’m saying be strategic about it. High-value content works as an authority demonstration, not a sales strategy.
Here’s how I use it: Once a month, I send something genuinely meaty. A complete framework. A detailed lesson. Something that could easily be part of a paid product. People respond exactly how the gurus say they will: “Wow, if this is free, what’s the paid stuff like?”
That’s the authority punch. It shows you know your stuff, but you don’t have to give all your knowledge away for free every time you write.
Here’s where most creators mess up—they do this every single time to feel validated. The likes become addictive. People tell you that you’re amazing. You’re the best. So generous. And if you’re not careful with your ego, you’ll keep chasing that feeling.
As JK Molina says: “Likes ain’t cash.”
Standing ovations don’t pay your rent. Last year when we tracked my client’s data, we found that the more “valuable” the content, the lower the conversion rate. People loved it. But it wasn’t making any money. You have to decide what’s more important to you—likes or cash.
Give one authority punch per month to demonstrate expertise. The rest of the time? Entertain, engage, and sell.
Why Don’t People Act on Your Free Value?
Because they’re distracted, tired, and scroll past educational content.
Even when people genuinely appreciate your free lessons, they don’t implement them. The feed isn’t a classroom. People aren’t taking notes. They’re scrolling between meetings, waiting in line, or half-watching TV.
Your carefully crafted lesson gets the same attention as a cat video—maybe three seconds before the thumb keeps moving.
Free content isn’t valued. Even when someone comments “saving this!” they won’t. Even when they say “this changed my perspective,” they’ll forget it by tomorrow.
Can you recall a single note you read yesterday?
Free viewers just feel good temporarily. But the people who actually do the work—the ones with skin in the game—are your paying customers. They pay to access the right environment that creates the transformation they’re after. Save your valuable lessons for them.
Let me show you how this works in the real world.
What Happens When World-Class Value Goes Unrecognized?
Even genius goes unnoticed when the context is wrong—just like your free content.
In 2007, the Washington Post ran an experiment where they placed Joshua Bell—one of the greatest violinists in the world—in a DC Metro station during morning rush hour.
Three days earlier, Bell had played to a sold-out concert hall in Boston. Tickets were nearly $100 each. People dressed up, arrived early, and sat in reverent silence as he performed.
Now he stood in a train station with his $3.5 million violin, playing the same pieces from Bach that had earned him international acclaim.
2,000 people walked past during his 45-minute performance.
Six people stopped to listen briefly. Twenty tossed money but kept walking. When he finished, there was no applause. No crowds. No recognition.
Less than one percent of people stopped for more than a minute to hear one of the finest musicians on Earth play priceless music on a priceless instrument.
Think about that.
If Joshua Bell can’t capture attention in a train station, what makes you think your free guide will stop someone mid-scroll?
This is your content in the feed. The context is wrong. People are in commuter mode, not concert hall mode. They’re rushing somewhere else. They’re not there to appreciate genius—they’re there to be entertained.
Bell himself said it perfectly after the experiment: “It takes an appropriate setting to help people appreciate a performance.”
Your appropriate setting isn’t the feed. It’s not the inbox of someone who’s never paid you. The appropriate setting is the paid environment, where people arrive ready to pay attention. Where they’re not commuting. Where transformation actually happens.
You’re playing world-class violin in a train station and wondering why nobody’s listening.
Stop Playing in the Train Station
The path forward isn’t more generosity. It’s strategic positioning.
Save your best work for people who pay for it. Use the occasional authority punch to prove you know your stuff, and the rest of the time? Promote yourself.
People won’t value what you give away. They’ll value what they pay for. That’s just how human psychology works.
Want a quick test? Look at your last ten pieces of content. How many were teaching versus promoting? If more than one was pure teaching, you’re giving too much away.
Your expertise is worth paying for. Create the right context for it. Stop performing in train stations and start selling tickets to the concert hall.
That’s where people will actually listen.