Who are content producers?
The advantages and disadvantages of providing free content for academic and research purposes as well as social and business purposes are vastly different.
Curiously, my research has led me to the understanding that academic writers do not usually get paid for their writing and might actually need to pay to publish them(Michaela Panter). Why do people still write academic articles if the publishers are often the ones who are paid? The writing is often a part of their academic duties to advance the field. These writers usually have a grant or salary that funded the research and will work for honour as well(James Fallows, 2011). Hence, I feel that there is limited exploration in this aspect and would like to focus my discussion on content producers who make their materials freely available for their business.
But first, I would like to bring your attention to contents like photos, creative works and music found online. Chances are, many of these content are copyrighted and are NOT freely available but may instead require payments or the owners’ permissions. For example, the video below explains if you can use the image you found on Google.
In the table below, I will compare the benefits and drawbacks for content producers providing freely available content for business purposes.
As seen in the table shown above, providing free content as content marketers is extremely advantageous for the business. The video below shows some examples of effective content produced by various companies for their content marketing.
Also, as I am typing away on this blog, I am also a content producer that is offering my work freely online. However, the content I am creating (if done right) helps build up my online portfolio, something extremely important as discussed previously in my post here and it is definitely an advantage for me. There are many blogs out there like Playstation and BBC’s The Editors’ Blog that value-adds to the companies by anchoring their culture and displaying the professionalism and knowledge of the respective companies.
Looking at it from a business aspect, the advantages for a content producer who makes their materials freely available online definitely outweighs the disadvantages. Be it for a company or for ones personal professional portfolio, the focus should not be on monetising your creations, but on the long term benefits it will bring instead.
Word Count: 399 Words (Excluding citations)
References:
Michaela Panter, Understanding Submission and Publication Fees, http://www.aje.com/en/arc/understanding-submission-and-publication-fees/, [Accessed on 15 November 2016]
James Fallows, 22 Feburary 2011, Read this Academic Journal Article, but Prepare to Pay, http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/02/read-this-academic-journal-article-but-prepare-to-pay/71536/ , [Accessed on 15 November 2016]
Chris Garrett, 16 July 2015, How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free, http://www.copyblogger.com/sell-or-give/, [Accessed on 15 November 2016]
Neil Patel, 14 April 2014, 15 Types of Content That Will Drive You More Traffic, https://www.quicksprout.com/2014/04/14/how-these-15-types-of-content-will-drive-you-more-traffic/, [Accessed on 15 November 2016]
T E R E S A 
Hi Teresa,
Thank you for an interesting post! 🙂
As seen from your Infographic, one of the advantages would be “showing your value” through free access to materials. In your opinion, would it be better to consider Paid Access for it once people know about the “value” of your content? For example Skillshare, adopts both Free (https://www.skillshare.com/) and Paid Access (https://help.skillshare.com/hc/en-us/articles/205221237-What-does-a-Premium-Membership-include-). Would this be a better option than having entirely Free access?
You mentioned Blogging, I do agree with you that we are self producing the content made freely available online. Does this mean posting content through other Social Networking Sites such as Facebook, Instagram etc. makes one a content producer since it is found under their name? If so, does it mean by leaving any digital footprints, we are all considered content producers(definition: https://www.google.com.sg/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=content+producer)? Or Social Networking Sites are tools used to help gain more exposure for content produced as seen here: https://audiense.com/the-brand-as-a-content-marketing-producer-where-does-social-media-strategy-fit-in/
(150 words)
Cheers,
Juls
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Hi Juls!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
Yes I definitely agree that certain content should have paid access. The emphasis I made on providing free content is for people to market themselves or their businesses, but it is also important for these providers to know when to start charging for their content, especially when their livelihood is based on these content creation. Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com/sell-or-give/) suggests that you should start charging your users when the information you provide has significant value or is difficult to acquire. The free content you give should not be too ‘complete’ or reveal too much of the ‘how’ in the case where you are teaching something. When you have attracted their attention, it is then time to charge for the ‘real’ substance.
Yes, I do believe we are all content producers as long as we create and upload something on the web. Like you said, I would regard social networking sites as the platform for producers to display their content so that it reaches out to more people and hence helping the content producer to attract more traffic to their work.
Cheers,
Teresa 🙂
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Hi Teresa!! You brought up a valid point that allowing free contents online could also help build a company’s reputation!
However, if it’s as what you mentioned that making online contents free is more advantageous for a content producer in the business context, why then are some companies using paywall and still succeeding?[1][2] Do you think that the decision on whether it’s more advantageous or disadvantageous depends on which factor the content producer deems as most important?
For example, you find making your blog posts public more advantageous as you believe it’d help achieve your aim of improving your image. But a business, especially if it already has a good reputation, might not wish to make public their materials as they prioritize plagiarism prevention above improving their reputation.
Also, do you think paywall might actually bring long-term benefits e.g. giving content producers the credits they deserve hence motivating them to produce high quality contents, etc.?
[1] http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/03/after-the-archive-came-down-the-new-yorkers-revamped-paywall-is-driving-new-readers-and-subscribers/
[2] http://blog.getdrizzle.com/everything-need-know-paywalls/
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Hi Huijuan!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
The approach I took for my post was for content producers to provide their content freely so that they can attract more traffic to their work. Perhaps I should have made it clearer that I do think business content should be paid up to a certain point in time! I do not completely disagree with the concept of paywalls, in fact i agree that it should be used for content that is significantly of value of are hard to acquire. For example, Skillshare, as mentioned by Juls in her comment, operates on both Open and Paid Access. This is a good example of offering free content to attract traffic and requiring payment for the more unique content.
I too agree that businesses may have reservations about publicising their materials. Like you said, it depends on the content and the importance the producer places on it. I believe that there are different reasons for different productions of content, some may be for content marketing, while some offer substantial and valuable information that should be well-protected. There really are many factors to consider before deciding where one should allow open or paid access to their content.
I do believe paywalls will bring long-term benefits, but again, it varies on which content it is for. I lean towards NOT having paywalls for academic journals and articles because their research is often funded and even if users pay for the content, the money often goes to the publisher and not the producer. However, I believe that for creative works, like music or art work as these payments often contribute to how much the creator gets to earn. They deserve the credit for their hard work.
Thank you for your comment again! 🙂
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Hello there, Teresa! Thank you for the interesting read, as in my post I’ve discussed mostly about Open Access in academia, your post talking in the point of view of a media content producer intrigues me.
I would like to know what do you think of cases, such as, a content producer not being able to fund their works. They wouldn’t have any choice but getting subscribers to help by paying access to their content. Even Youtube, which was a free online streaming site, now has introduced Youtube Red in late 2015. The feature charges users and gives them the benefits of using Youtube without ads and enjoying some of their original productions. What is your opinion on the paywall system?
sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/oct/21/open-access-myths-peter-suber-harvard
http://www.youtube.com/red
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Hi Maureen!
Thank you for your comment 🙂
The approach that I took for my post was to allow free access to some content in order to attract more traffic to your work. It is my mistake for failing to mention that I think content producers should charge for contents that are significantly valuable or difficult to acquire! Hence I am supportive of content producers using paywalls as well, however, they must decide careful what content to charge for and what to allow free access to. I understand that for many content producers like photographers, youtubers and online teachers, the funding they require often comes from payment made to their content. I believe that it is important for them to create paywalls for their content. However, another spectrum of content producers are people who conduct content marketing. In their case, the content should have open access as that is their tool to attract more people to their work.
Thank you for your comment again 🙂
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