Information experts are constantly cranking out, well.. information.
Between free products, blogs, social media updates, free teleseminars, interviews and speeches we share a ton of information. There is a limit to how much information you can share before you start to impact your revenue.
The line is based on providing informational content vs. implementation content. Implementation content is the content that really helps you take whatever it is you just learned and easily put it into practice. For instance- if you are sharing information about holding VIP days the templates you provide assist with implementation so you have moved into implementation content. Another example- if you are an organizer and provide clients with workbooks to develop a schedule for spring-cleaning the workbook is implementation content. The information content is why you need to have a spring-cleaning schedule, when to start basic spring-cleaning, some of the areas to clean etc.
Think of information content as who and what; implementation content is how.
Sharing information content freely is good business. That content helps your target market get a sense for who you are, how you view information, what your specialties are and why they might work with you. There is a tremendous amount of value to your market just in your informational content.
Implementation is what separates the casual reader from the client. Clients want implementation assistance. They want you to make the information you shared with them fast and easy to put into practice. Clients will pay big bucks for implementation assistance.
The interesting thing about sharing content is that you can share a process with your readers without sharing implementation information. A quick example: simple guidelines for choosing a great speech topic:
- Choose a topic that draws people in.
- What does your target market want that they don’t have?
- Address people’s pain
- Address Maslow’s hierarchy of human need
That might be enough information for some to move forward and develop a fantastic topic. (Admittedly it kind of vague.) Most will want implementation assistance. That is where your revenue stream begins.
The whole point is to not give away the farm. Give away the information. The farm (implementation specifics) can be shared with the people who really want the help and to work with you.
