I can see the shift happening where people are trying to monetize their knowledge and advice. I used to be a Brand Manager at P&G and get asked all of the time for marketing help for their small business. I don’t mind providing a few “pointer” but it starts to turn into a full consulting session too many time. We all have to make a living, so I completely see you point.

On the other hand, I just started a new blog to help with helping churches become more effective (strategy, marketing, etc.) While I’d like to turn this into a nice income generator, the churches that need the most help are the ones with the least ability to pay. While I could turn this to a more profitable audience, I will follow my passion first and look for revenue opportunities as they present themselves.

It is going to interesting to see what the market will bear for the expertise many great content providers bear. Will this end the “egalitarian world” of social media and get back to the marketing “haves” and “have-nots” or will there still be sufficient free quality content to meet most people’s needs?

I would definitely pay a couple of bucks a month for “Managing the Gray”–at least if it meant I could be sure of getting at least one episode. (I understand: clients come first.)

More than a couple of bucks, though, and I’d be in trouble, with the number of podcasts I subscribe to.

Cheers,
Sallie

PS What kind of expectations did the publisher have for Seventh Son? The average book sells 500 copies!

I wonder what you thoughts are on the “free-mium” model.Give people part of the service for free, but offer more features as part of the paid package.

Personally, I think this is the way to go for most businesses. As long as they are up-front about what does and does not come as part of the free package, no one can complain, right? (Suuuuurrrrreeee… )

As far as how much money people make, who cares? If someone can find that sweet spot of charging a little more while keeping enough clients to make it worth it, go for it.

Heck, I’ve donated money to podcasters just because they had a rough 2009 and to them December didn’t seem as festive as the year before. Not because I felt sorry for them, but because I appreciated what they did, wanted to do something in return for all they did, and hopefully see a smile on that face.

Now if many will formalize that into a paid subscription I wouldn’t mind. Good content is worth paying for. At least it’s worth it to me.

We don’t want situations like we had in the last few months of 2009, where people, despite a frugal lifestyle, had to sell their possessions to be able to continue podcasting.

My 2 cents.

My question is… what do you think about audio drama groups in that context.

Thanks again!