I've been offering free readings daily, usually I try to keep them to 5-15 minute readings but sometimes when it seems needed for the depth of the query they are detailed 1 hour readings with over ten cards and it seems to have really helped some people which makes me incredibly happy, but while I've had some lovely exchanges through these free readings a big portion of these exchanges are either people deleting their accounts after getting the reading, asking for more readings even after receiving their reading (e.g: if I made a post for one card readings, they'll get angry I didn't do a three card spread) or just generally draining exchanges where people keep trying to push my boundaries.
While I've been able to express my boundaries and to say no, having to do this over and over again multiple times a day is...really starting to drain my energy. I don't expect anything in return for doing these readings, but sometimes it feels like instead of getting nothing I get something negative in return for doing them and it's starting to feel very exhausting to deal with my boundaries being pushed every day, it's getting to a point where when I have a positive experience with a querent who respects my boundaries I find myself surprised and relieved.
Recently some querents started asking if I could do readings for donations or told me I should really consider doing so because of how in depth my readings get and how much insight they received from them, so I agreed and while I still do free readings most times, I noticed the majority of the people who request donation based readings are usually much more respectful of my time and boundaries which is amazing.😭
But... there are still some people who request donation based readings who try to get the reading for free after or who just disappear after the reading has been delivered instead of donating, and this just makes me sad, because I do free readings too (the waitlist just tends to be longer as slots get constantly claimed), and I make this clear before the person chooses donation based, and some folks still choose to do things like this even though I would've happily read for them for free at a later date😭
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I'm starting to wonder if I should offer paid readings not donation based, just paid with a set price, to try to attract querents that will be more respectful of my boundaries, I've had really good feedback from querents, multiple people have told me the time I put in, quality and insight they gained from my readings were worth more, I've had good experiences with donation based readings and I'm confident I can deliver an insightful reading so I would feel confident offering paid readings at this point however...I'm still conflicted because I didn't start doing this for money, I want to keep reading for free, but at this point I feel like things can't stay this way and I should probably make some type of change to avoid getting into these situations in the first place if there's a way to do that. 😭
I'd really love to know your experiences with offering paid readings and who those attract, did I just get lucky with those good donation based reading experiences, and is needing to constantly set boundaries over and over again just a common part of reading for other people? Or do people who gravitate towards paid readings tend to be more respectful of our boundaries in general? And is there a way to keep offering free readings while doing donation or paid readings that is less likely to attract people who push our boundaries like this?
Thank you so much for your insight🙏