“The Free Stuff Craze is Over”
Yeah, I heard that too. Good thing I didn’t believe it.
Really, free stuff on the web has gotten a bad rap. Here’s why: Five or more years ago a few businesses popped up on the web with the idea of giving away a small, inexpensive product or service free, then get those “free” members/ customers to actually pay for the NEXT product.
At first, this worked very well. Pretty soon, however, a marketing phenomena called “adverse selection” kicked in.
Adverse selection basically means this: If you are offering a product that is rare–like giving away something of real value–then you will attract a disproportionately large number of “bad” customers. In real terms this means that if I give away, say, pocket knives, I will have a ton of people who will visit my site and get a free knife and do not have the will or the means to become a “paying” customer.
So, I give away a bunch of knives and gain very few customers.
This is one of the reasons why so many of the dot coms who did $100 million IPO’s in the 90’s are gone today–they depended on the freebie seekers becoming paying customers and it just didn’t materialize.
But there are ways to use free give-a ways effectively to generate not only visits but tangible results for your own little dot com. Here are some strategies:
1. Give away something that costs you nothing in order to gain non-qualified subscribers.
I have a couple dozen things you can get free on my site– good stuff–just for subscribing to my newsletter. Almost all of them cost us little or nothing to produce, and give us an ever growing list of new subscribers.
Here are a couple examples:
http://all-in-one-business.com/coops (A resource to give you free subscribers to your own ezine)
http://all-in-one-business.com/affreport (A complete book–100+ pages–on how to create a flow of affiliate checks into your pocket)
Granted, most of these are not in any way targeted–they might all be 9 year old kids–but chances are some of these not yet qualified subscribers will eventually become good customers. Since they cost us little or nothing to get, any business they do with us is a plus.
2. Give away something with a free trial, collecting the billing information at the time the trial begins.
This can work very well. Corey Rudl used this promotional technique back in February and had unbelievable response. I personally received my largest check ever from him as a result.
http://all-in-one-business.com/imcfree
This is also a great way to promote a subscriber site. Since you already have the billing information, everything becomes automatic at the end of the trial period.
3. Give away something free in return for the prospect completing some “qualifying” action.
This can be very effective in getting people to view an affiliate site–offer them something in return for just visiting. Another way to use this is to get a possible prospect to give you important qualifying information. This is what I did for a client in the insurance business several years ago.
I had a client who was an Allstate auto insurance salesman. He needed to qualify his prospects according to who they currently had as their insurance carrier and when their current insurance was due to expire. He also needed complete contact information for each person.
We put together a series of brochures and offered them free to anyone who requested them. Over a 1 week period he was able to collect over 400 new qualified leads and eventually turn over 100 into paying customers.
4. Give away a booklet or eBook that actually “sells” the product.
This is a pretty common way to sell products. The value laden free eBook you download is, in reality, a veiled (or not so veiled) lengthy advertisement for a product. This works especially well when you can get many other people to give this away for you too.
My friend Chuck McCullough does a great job of this using his Affiliate Mistakes eBook. Unlike some of these “give away” books, his really has some meat! Chuck has made thousands of dollars in sales for my affiliate program as well as many others. He really knows his stuff. You can get a copy of his report here:
http://all-in-one-business.com/chuck
5. “Give” away a product for just “Shipping and Handling.”
This is making millions for Video Professor here in the US. Basically you give away something tangible that must be shipped to the recipient. The product is free, but there is a $4-$8 charge for “shipping and handling.” As long as the charge seems reasonable for the product being shipped, people will actually PAY you for your “free” product.
6. Gets tons of visitors for a “free” giveaway, then make money from the visits.
Ad revenue can really “add” up. Recent reports from various webmasters (who must remain anonymous since Google prohibits them sharing details) show a very good “per-impression” return for Ad Sense program. Get enough visitors to pick up your free product and you might generate hundreds of dollars a week. Other ad revenue sources can be just as lucrative.
These are just six of dozens of ways you can turn free give-a ways into real income for your site and business. Put on your creative thinking cap and you will likely come up with many more.
Your free promotion might just be YOUR free ticket to the bank!
Kevin Bidwell is owner of
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/cg-bin/at.cgi?a=274293
Kevin just finished a complete report on building a passive
income. Grab your copy here:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/cg-bin/at.cgi?a=274293&e=/pi
