Failed Marketing Expose: Make Your Free Content Truly Free

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So this surprised me: one of the “big players” in marketing and copywriting has a really cool, short newsletter that comes out on Wednesdays. It’s filled with info that I would gladly provide a link to on this here blog, because it’s info business owners can implement right away.

Today’s newsletter was no exception, so I hopped on over to her site to get the permalink, and guess what? Her newsletter archives COST MONEY. They are NOT accessible unless you pony up $$ for it and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Now let me remind you: I signed up for her newsletter for FREE. I enjoy the content (it’s one newsletter I’ll read right when it comes in b/c it’s always short). I’d probably rebroadcast her newsletter every week through the blog, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But I can’t because you have to pay for her archives.

I think her archives could be a great way to promote her paid-access areas. Make ’em free, marketing lady. Make ’em free and allow me to SHARE the great content. Isn’t that’s what it’s all about?

Note: I have no problem with the idea of bundling those newsletters and turning them into a book that people pay for. But a cost-to-play newsletter archive isn’t the place to make a buck. Use that content to get more subscribers, to lure people in, and to show people your marketing/writing chops (or whatever type of chops you have).

[Updated: August 2017]