When do you stop with the "Free Advice"?

[marknpablo]

We have a technical gig converting people’s fixed-layout books for kindle and Google Play etc.
However, we always get people wanting a tonne of free advice on everything with the vague promise that they might book the gig when we’ve answered all their questions.
Obviously, we aren’t Google and much of what people need to know would be more educational if they went and found it out for themselves.
Does anyone here have the same problem and do you have a nice way of telling people that you don’t want to spend half of your life offering free advice?

[eoinfinnegan]

Once you have established and shown that you know what you are talking about, offer them a consultation for a certain fee, perhaps at an hourly rate.
Some will gladly take it, others will moan and whine or tell you that you are only “in it for the money”, as one person told me after I had spent 20 mins answering questions for them. I just agreed with them.

[jonbaas]

Add a gig extra for advice, and when people ask for too much advice – outside the realm of your gig service – send them a polite email, and encourage them to purchase your additional advice services. 😉

[thecreativeguys]

I would provide a 15 minute free consultation and once it’s “used” I would send them a custom offer with something along the lines of “Please purchase this offer which entitles you to 1 hour of advice from an expert.”

Don’t forget, it’s always worth it to provide potential clients with advice because they very well may become a buyer of yours.

At times I would spend over an hour learning about someone’s new venture before they’ve purchased anything from me.

Also, I’m happy to help so even if I don’t convert them into a buyer, I’m happy I shared valuable advice.

[marknpablo]

Awesome, I like the idea of putting advice as a gig extra, does anybody else do this?

[thecreativeguys]

Awesome, I like the idea of putting advice as a gig extra, does anybody else do this?

I personally don’t offer consultations however I’ve thought about it and really consider it.

You’ll have to have the gig approved by CS if it includes Calling/s***e/Outside communication though.

[marknpablo]

I wouldn’t offer any outside communication, it would be “we will answer all your questions regarding pre-formatting” and I’d set the price at $100.
We did something similar for another gig and it was an excellent move.
We also offer social media marketing for book promotions but we don’t take advance bookings, simply because we don’t need to (or want to keep a diary), we do them as soon as the gig comes in.
We plastered this all over the gig but people still went ahead and booked in advance, when we added it as a $100 extra it stopped immediately with no loss of custom.
I think many buyers seem to think we are all cheap-labour-slaves whereas I see it the other way, I’m on Fiverr to work at my convenience, not theirs.

[thecreativeguys]

I wouldn’t offer any outside communication, it would be “we will answer all your questions regarding pre-formatting” and I’d set the price at $100.

We did something similar for another gig and it was an excellent move.

We also offer social media marketing for book promotions but we don’t take advance bookings, simply because we don’t need to (or want to keep a diary), we do them as soon as the gig comes in.

We plastered this all over the gig but people still went ahead and booked in advance, when we added it as a $100 extra it stopped immediately with no loss of custom.

I think many buyers seem to think we are all cheap-labour-slaves whereas I see it the other way, I’m on Fiverr to work at my convenience, not theirs.

Okay! Let us know how it goes and if the consultation gig works!

[san_barrionuevo]

Add a gig extra for advice, and when people ask for too much advice – outside the realm of your gig service – send them a polite email, and encourage them to purchase your additional advice services. 😉

Great idea! If you can’t just send them to a blog article or something like that, a gig extra could do the work.

[misscrystal]

People don’t want to pay for consultations in my opinion. They want you to explain and teach them things for free.

I don’t do it. I tell them it’s part of the service when they place an order.

[mariokluser]

Send them a link to a google result page. They will be busy for a while and hopefully dig the hint.