Your free community, your free ebook and your free summit are not really free.
It's paid with time commitment, with emotional investment, with privacy and mental energy.
Many cretors forget about that and get frustrated when they realize their freebies are not getting the attention they thought they would. But it's free! Why are people not joining, downloading, talking about it?
But few ask themselves what they are charging of their members besides the non existing money transaction. How much time do they need to dedicate? How much are you asking them to share? What level of emotional commitment are you asking from them?
And is it all of it worth it for the value you provide?
Roast & Promote has a lot of value for free, but I'm aware of it's costs, even at the free tier: - It takes courage and willingness to get your work roasted. And although this is basically a free audit made from the most relevant members, there is an emotional investment there. The time commitment for that is low though, as you only need to submit a link and wait for the roasts.
- I greatly reward my most active members that dedicate their time to help other people with helpful roasts by creating ads for them that are pinned at the top. But not everyone likes competition, some are even repulsed by it. And some just don't have the time.
- An open community like mine require the willingness to be open about your projects at a place where others can find your comments. And some people like to search for more private spaces to expose themselves. So there is a privacy cost also.
If you're not charging for money, what are you really charging for?