The Desiring God blog has highlighted a new article written by Matt Perman that sets out why they don’t charge for anything online – and why they think everyone else should follow suite!
If you don’t know much about the Desiring God ministry you can read my review here, but in a nutshell they are superb at providing high quality resources for nothing. It is a well written article and sums up well the kind of position I have. There are four main points:
- Post all of your content online
By posting all your content (e.g. sermons going back thirty years) free you create a website that is remarkable and users will be much more likely to come back to and tell others about. - Don’t charge for your online content
- It demonstrates God’s grace
- It serves others most effectively
- Far more of your content will spread, and it will spread to far more people
- Don’t make people register to access any of your content
As well as making it less likely people will use your materials, it also undermines that the websites are here to serve - Make your site very easy to use
Simply put, it makes your content more accessible.
They also touch on the fact that donations are more likely to offset any reduction in charges, though this should not be the root of the decision.
This is a great article to read if you are thinking about providing your online content free to make sure as many people as possible can assess it. The Desiring God team is really proactive in what they preach here and have a fantastic website. Perhaps most importantly though – their content is high quality and glorifies God.
Links
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/RecentlyAdded/2458_Make_it_Free/