It's a business like any other.
Advertising free readings will only get you people who want something for free, usually addicts or a when is he going to contact me situation. It's one thing to do a free reading for someone who really needs some guidance and can't afford your price and quite another to get the same people asking the same thing like a broken record. Don't cater to those people because like someone else mentioned, they will suck you dry. They aren't interested in personal or spiritual growth and won't ever invest a dollar on trying so why should you invest your time and effort on them?
In my office, we don't do free because that would be all we would be doing all day long. If someone has a quick factual question, ok, it doesn't hurt to answer but chances are it's going to get more involved with a bunch of details and no one is going to spend time on that. Answer the question but if they need to go into details make an appointment and have them pay for it. Free doesn't pay the bills. Our education, experience, licensing, rent, insurance and on and on is not or was not free.
Sometimes someone with a compelling situation will either show up at the door or call and yes, one of us will help them out of compassion, special interest or just a gut feeling that it's the right thing to do. Be more discerning in who you choose to spend your time on. They aren't owed a free reading just because they showed up. A friend of mine, a well respected reader, used to read for free every day on PalTalk. This was a looong time ago. People would take up hours of her time per week and never send a small "donation"'. None of these people would do shit to help her if she needed it but they had no compunctions about monopolizing her time.
You can always start talking and do an on the spot mini read on a comment, not a question.
There is an expensive reader I have been to on Long Island who is the real deal. Every once in a while he does a FB Live and will pick a couple of people to read for free. Private is $550 to $700 and he is worth it. He gets people on FB live who can't afford him but need him and people who are thinking about spending the money to go see him but are on the fence along with people who go around to every reader they can find begging for readings. Who do you think the people he chooses to read for are? They aren't the beggars.