{"id":509,"date":"2014-11-27T18:03:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T02:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nexthop.ca\/?p=509"},"modified":"2014-11-27T18:03:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T02:03:54","slug":"what-does-your-free-content-cost-you-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nexthop.ca\/it-news\/what-does-your-free-content-cost-you-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does Your Free Content Cost You Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Didn\u2019t your dad tell you that nothing in life is ever really truly free? That’s never more true than when it comes to marketing. There is always; I say again always, a cost to be paid<\/a>, whether it is dollars and cents or your valuable time.<\/p>\n

So how can you get a accurate picture of the real world costs of a free marketing promotion? First is by understanding the hard costs you are incurring to create and ship, and then by factoring in your time.<\/p>\n

What varieties of \u201cfree\u201d are we talking about here?<\/b><\/p>\n

The most obvious places we see free work its way into our businesses is with the act of gathering email addresses. Offering a freebie is standard operating procedure, and won’t be changing any time soon. Most of the time we are offered a free ebook, report, video series, e-course, webinar or email series in exchange for our email address and other contact information.<\/p>\n

What you need to realize is that there are costs associated with the creation of these freebies. Let\u2019s take a look at several of the actual hard costs you\u2019ll be forced to deal with in the creation of your freebies.<\/p>\n