Here’s a lesson I learned from Eben Pagan, who is one of the business people who had a big influence on me lately.
“Give your BEST stuff away. For free!” is what he says. And he explains it very interesting.
It won’t work for ANY business, I am sure, but here’s my 5 cents:
It is always a challenge to figure out what to give away free. You do have to explore the art of giving away more for free but at the same time attract more in return. It is an interesting mental exercise and doing business online takes the whole ‘chicken and egg’ riddle a step further.
Now you must be wondering as how “give things away for free” concept goes with the ‘you get what you pay for’ mantra. Therefore, you must be thinking, if you are going to get something free you are about to get a lot of headaches trying to make things work. But amazingly some of the best online services are free and they have wonderful customer service and products. Now, let us see how they make money and sustain their businesses over time. What is it about the web that makes giving away things for free so necessary and easy?
The Free Line..
The idea is that there is a line, a point on your sales funnel where you distribute free value, and below the line comes all the paid-for products, moving from front to back-end.
In the world of Internet marketing the concept of the sales funnel is well known. The process of moving customers from free resources, into paid front-end products down to high margin back-end items, has made millions for many Internet entrepreneurs.
The whole of process begins with some free resources and nearly everyone online has experienced this part of the sales funnel, like a blog you read. A blog is a “free resource” that the owner offers to the world that at least in some part and the blog contributes to bringing people into his sales funnel.
So, propel readers away with free content and then sell them on your paid stuff once they trust and value you!
How it can help your businesses.
Moving the Free Line
If you ever talk to an Internet marketer, you will know the idea of the free line moving further and further down the sale funnel. What was previously a front end product you had to pay for becomes a free resource sitting above the free line.The argument generally put forward is that moving the free line ever further down is one of the techniques you can use to beat the competition.
If you have a well constructed sales funnel that enables you to distribute more value for free, then you can out-value others and can also offer better commissions to affiliates. This secures more traffic and customers. So, it is about extracting the highest profit from the back-end and provide the most value above the free line.
Give Away Your Best Stuff
The principle is quite simple - you must give away some of your best content in order to capture attention. Content is the force that drives traffic online, and if you give so much quality for free, more links are connected to your site, which means…. more traffic, enhanced credibility, more exposure, and more sales !
Remember that web users expect things to be free. This is why if you intend to do anything online, you better be giving it away for free.
No copying but Innovation
You also need to know that releasing a free e-Book and replicating what others have done is not going to cut the ice. A super-duper content can still draw huge amounts of attention. An e-Book format with old resources and formats will not make a splash. This is exactly why the concept is about MOVING the free line - you need to innovative ways to provide and distribute value.
Sometimes one of the best ways to make a splatter when offering free value is to use innovative delivery methods. , like you can conduct a live web-stream of your event or release a great video content for free as part of your launch process and break the die by asking for email addresses of the visitors.
You should not be surprised if you find membership sites, videos, audios - even physical product like home study courses, DVDs and audio CDs floating above the free line. This can be a good marketing tool to generate more and more business.
Expect the first adopters of these techniques to come from the Internet marketing industry, since this place is already saturated with free content. From there it will seep down into other industries. Imagine how you can do with this concept like the free line if none of your competitors understands it!
How Does Moving The Free Line Affect You?
If you are already in an online business then you already work on some level to provide free resources. If you don’t, you must be struggling to build up traffic. Consider what you currently offer for free and brainstorm how you can go one step further and wow your potential customers with your free content. Always remember to use unique delivery methods and always plan to offer more for free in the future.
If you haven’t yet established enough free resources then your job now is to work on building up a store of value for others. With time, your previous efforts will continue to offer value, while your current activities can move towards producing content for front-end products and eventually back-end offers.
As a blogger, your main free value is the content you publish. The next step might be to build up a free email auto responder course, with five training emails set to go out in a sequence. Free distribution of a catalogue of videos or audios can also be a smart idea to attract traffic.
So, you can see..the options are limitless. What’s important is that you realize the thrust you get of these over deliveries and expect the free line to move further down over time.
You can’t stay in business if you are not driving forward, breaking in new ideas and in return, asking for nothing but attention.
