Give away the tip of your content iceberg.

The Content Iceberg Model

Many of my clients struggle with where to draw the line between paid and free content — but the decisions don’t end there. After they’ve decided where free ends and the paid eBook begins, they must figure out the level of detail with which to cover the topic. How much should you save for a membership site or course?

There’s no cookie-cutter answer (there are so few of those in life, alas) but I find myself repeatedly going back to the image of an iceberg that’s divided into three levels that I’ll call the “content iceberg.” The content iceberg is made up of the information you possess — your knowledge and expertise — that is of value to your audience.

• Tier 1: Free stuff. Free content is the tip of the iceberg, figuratively speaking, but it’s not fluff. Free content is the easiest and fastest to consume and gives a hint of what lies beneath it. While it is often short it should be very, very helpful. I think of it as a super concentrated aspect of working with you — it speaks to an immediate need, scratches an urgent itch, gives a quick boost. In doing so the free stuff whets the appetite for further useful information that may be more complex. Imagine it is the equivalent of a mini-consultation with you on a troubling but fixable problem that you can help solve quickly.
• Tier 2: Paid products. Tier 2 is where you take the experience of working with you, one-on-one, and you package it into a product such as an eBook. It’s you-in-a-box. In a way, it’s an overview of your approach and problem solving style since you can’t go in-depth into each customer’s situation. This is your broadest prescription for solving your audience’s problems or teaching your techniques. There are certainly levels of paid products, ranging from micro-products that are a few dollars to products that costs thousands. The basic concept is the same, which is the product stands in for your direct, hands-on expertise.
• Tier 3: Paid over time. These are transactions that are recurring or long-term, for example membership sites, courses or individual consulting. In these situations, the content is most customized to your audience and you are delivering information but also feedback, interaction and sometimes private consulting. Whether forums, workshops or repeat clients, this content represents the most valuable you have to give because it is tailored to individuals as you work with them.

Tier 3 feeds Tiers 1 & 2.

Pay attention to the work you do with individual clients or people you teach. Can you step back from the specific recommendations you give and create a general rule that almost anyone could apply with good results? Can you focus in on one laser-specific area of concern to address and translate what worked into a worksheet or report? Focus and distill the broad, detailed content of Tier 3 into a super-charged tidbit that will deepen the appetite for more complex information.