To lead magnet or not to lead magnet

During a conversation with my friend and podcast mate Julie Prichard about an in-depth article I shared on The Hungry, she advised me to take it down immediately because it was “too good to share.”

Instead, she offered that I should turn it into a free download and use it as a lead magnet to attract new subscribers. I acquiesced and took the article down before I shared it publicly with the newsletter subscribers.

The thing is, I have several of these posts, and now I’m questioning: should I turn them all into downloadable guides or only pick specific posts to turn into lead magnets?

I am reluctant because I’m a firm believer in not gatekeeping information. Even though I’m not charging people for the information and only asking for people’s email addresses and permission to communicate with them in the future, it’s still an exchange.

On the other hand, I’m producing this content for free, and it would be nice to have some reciprocation for those efforts.

I don’t know the answer yet, but since THIS space is about sharing the process and building things in public view, the current solution is that I’ll test and tune the offers and share my thoughts on the results.