Happy Blog Tip Tuesdays lovelies!
Today I am going to get a bit controversial, and probably tick a few people off. Because today I am going to be calling out the inner tight-ass in all of us, that little voice that says “Hey, I am sure if I spend the next three hours looking really hard, I could find something that works almost 70% as well as this $5 thing, but for free!”
Come on, admit it. We’ve all done it!
Whether it’s an image editing tool, a photo we want to use, a plugin, a theme, an app, or a social media scheduler. You name it, normally with all these things you will have the choice at some stage to pick a FREE option, or a premium one. And most of the time, most of us will go for the free (even if the premium one is way, way better!).
But actually, a lot of the time, free stuff ends up costing you a lot more than the paid one does. Because maybe it doesn’t work quite as well (so you don’t grow as fast), or maybe it doesn’t save you as much time (so again, you have less time to do the important stuff… and you don’t grow as fast!), or maybe it’s a bit shonky and not supported, so you end up wasting more time, trying to figure out how to fix it (or even worse you need to hire a developer to undo something your free tool breaks!).
Now this isn’t always the case, there are a lot of amazing free tools and resources out there for bloggers, and I am not saying don’t use them.
But what I am saying, is the next time you find something that is going to work perfectly for you, but it’s not free. Before you go wasting hours of your very valuable time trying to hunt down a non-paid equivalent, maybe just ask yourself this; ‘Will this make my blog better, save me time, or do I just really love it? And if yes, will that benefit be worth the $X I have to pay for the premium version?’
And if it is, pull out that credit card, guilt free! Because this means you are starting to treat your blog like a business, by investing (wisely) in it’s growth. And from my experience, these investments normally pay you back many (many) times over in the end!
Image via Dollarphotoclub.com
