Why do so many people expect you to do things for free? What hides behind this mentality?
I have been managing several communities and doing marketing for over 3 or 4 years, and I have noticed a pattern where about 80% of people "test" you to see if you will do things for them for free.
I also notice that people from certain countries tend to do this more often. For example, Central and Eastern Europe + Southeast Asia.
On the contrary, people from the USA and China are willing to pay.
Can you tell me what is behind this mentality and economic model, and how to approach non-payers?
Personally, I adhere to these principles:
– Give free content that I consider appropriate.
– Ask for money for more work that is not in my "plan." ("above planned work")
– No free consultations or advice (a lot is included in my free content, and some people don't even bother to do the research).
Replies
There're a lot of reasons for people not wanting to pay for things. I can’t speak to areas outside the US, but here I think a big driver is cultural expectations around what should be free vs low cost vs high cost. For example, the tech industry has made so much software and content “free” by monetizing our data, that "free" has become a cultural norm in some areas. That makes it much harder for app developers, designers, authors, journalists, etc to charge for those products/services.
But, that tech, no-payment culture only hit some things. Lack of tangibility seems to play a role. No one ever goes to a grocery store and expects the food to be free. Even with services, no one expects a plumber to fix leaking pipes at no charge. But when the product is delivered digitally, people’s thought process often flips to think things consumed digitally shouldn’t cost any money.
Also, one simpler answer to why someone would “test” you, is just that they think they can get away with not paying. If anyone thought there was a chance their local car dealer would give them a free car if they just asked nicely, everyone would try that first before offering to pay money. The only reason people don't try at a car dealership, is that they know it's an impossible ask. I think one of the most practical things we can do with non payers is to just stand firm on our pricing and make our income from the 20% of people that realize marketing services can no more be free than a car can be free.
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@kilpatrick IMO, when the service is more abstract or your work is abstract (or output), they are less likely (willing to pay). When I say to someone that I am a marketer, many people do not know what they can expect from that, what is the output, so they do not consider it worthy of something.
IXORD
I see two types of people in this situation. First, those who are genuinely interested in your services and simply want reassurance that the services provided will be of high quality. Second, those who do not actually want to use the services but instead try to extract as much available information as possible so they can avoid using them. I recommend handling such people through a structured set of questions in order to ultimately understand why they are requesting this. If the reason is that they want more information or reassurance about the quality of the services, it is better to offer them an alternative option rather than providing part of your actual work
minimalist phone: creating folders
@ixord Sometimes I feel like they want only to harvest things for free. 😬
This is such a critical discussion, Nika. Thanks for raising it.
As a maker preparing to launch SupplementIQ—an AI platform in the health space—we wrestle with this constantly, especially since trust is crucial in health.
We operate on a freemium model (Free vs. Premium Lifetime Access). We view the free tier not just as content, but also as a trust-building and educational tool.
Our approach to Non-Payers:
1. Gating the High-Value Features: We give basic profiles and limited AI consultations (3 free uses) to show the value. The truly transformative features—like unlimited Barcode Scanning and the Full Scientific Profile with research citations—are gated behind the Premium paywall. If they want to replace their daily research, they have to pay for the efficiency.
2. Making the Premium Offer Irresistible: Since it’s a one-time payment for lifetime access ($49.99), the value proposition is extremely strong against a recurring monthly fee.
The mentality is often rooted in the belief that digital goods have zero marginal cost. Our job as makers is to define the boundary between the necessary free utility and the paid expert intelligence.
Great post!