MAKE MONEY GIVING AWAY STUFF by Kevin Bidwell
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!
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Kevin Bidwell is owner of http://www.all-in-one-business.com
Kevin just finished a complete report on building a passive
income. Grab your copy here:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/passive
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