Free content is great for online users, but it may be a recipe for disaster for your organization.

That’s the argument Julie Dietz makes on the Socious blog. She notes that while offering some content for free is good and may attract potential professionals who appreciate the subject matter, giving away too much will remove a major incentive for people to join your organization.

“If they can get your information for free, why should people bother to become members? Your association, its members, staff, and expertise are valuable, so treat them as such,” she argues in her blog post.

Dietz suggests finding the right balance, offering some content for free to the public but using it to drum up interest in what’s behind the member paywall. She urges associations to make use of the latest AMS tools to implement this strategy.

“When you can have it both ways,” she asks, “why let your organization and your members down by not doing something that’s become very easy?”

Check out her blog post for more details.

MM&C Cheat Sheet

Check out these must-see #MMCcon sessions! #assnchat #assnprofshttps://t.co/qaWiSW6Ykg

— Dave Martin (@15davemartin) June 12, 2016

Attending ASAE’s Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference this week? Awesome! Hope we spot you in a session. If you’re looking for the right sessions to hit, check out this list from Dave Martin, chief marketing officer at Aptify. Oh, and if you can’t be with us this year, keep an eye on our live blog, going strong on both days!

Other Links of Note

“Your blog is built to capture the attention of the people you hope to serve and help in some way. You might not have to write a post daily to earn people’s attention, so instead, focus on making that which you write more useful.“ — Chris Brogan, CEO of Owner Media Group, speaks up in favor of creating your own blog, rather than simply writing on Medium or Facebook.

Apple is one company famous for its speeches. How did they become so adept at them? This interview in The Atlantic with the company’s first full-time speechwriter offers a clue.

Ad blocking stymieing you? Instead of seeing it as a bad thing, try paying attention to the lesson it’s trying to teach, NewCo founder Darren Herman writes on the LinkedIn blog.

(iStock/Thinkstock)