Stellar advice on the value of your true fans, and importance of retention before growth.

I like where my mind is at after reading this article. A sell me or shut up mindset.

Now, I consider the potential of blunt marketing. What if we openly showcase the monetary costs of our creation time (products, content, services)? What if we market with a transparent price? What if we speak directly to those with desire AND money, sacrificing social shares of freeloaders? What if we reduce total follower counts, in favor of profit-per-follower?

Tangent: How can quality mobile games be free? They offer options to pay with money, instead of time or skill. Only a fraction of users have to pay, and all get to play. Without the freeloaders participating, the game would be uneventful. There’s a silent co-dependency between payers and free-players.

My question is: How vital are free-players in the world of content marketing?