|
| RESOURCES |
| |
| THE CHRISTIAN
NETREPRENEUR |
Subscribe to our mailing list and download "How
Do I Get Started"and 2 otther gifts FREE. |
|
| MARKETPLACE |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Creating Your Own Internet Marketing
Success Story
Part Three: Giving Freely, Before
Receiving
By Marty Foley
Another common thread among
a majority of successful cybermarketers is the use of the concept
of giving something away for free - yes, without cost - before
receiving anything in return.
Even the "founding fathers" of the Internet
designed it as a collaborative networking tool for freely sharing
information among scientists, military personnel and government
officials.
More recently, adventurous entrepreneurs
have started to venture online. Many have discovered that giving
things away for free can eventually lead to sales and profits.
TYPES OF GIVEAWAYS
One of the most common strategies
Netpreneurs use is to give away useful information (content)
of interest to their target markets.
Valuable free information can encourage
visitors to stay longer on your site and bring them back repeatedly.
But they can be turned off if you hit them too early with a
blatant sales pitch.
The tools for dispensing free content
also vary widely: ezines, web sites, email and web-based discussion
groups, downloadable e-books, etc.
Other common giveaways include software,
web space, and a wide variety of other products and services.
New ideas and ways of sharing freely are being dreamed up all
the time.
Many times the freebie is just
a sample that gives a foretaste of what a person can get by
becoming a full-fledged paying customer.
Shareware is an example of this.
Many features are disabled. If you want all the "bells and whistles",
you must upgrade to a paid version of the software.
Also consider one of my own offers
as an example. I have a password-protected directory containing
increasing amounts of material from my upcoming handbook, Internet
Marketing Goldmine, for which I charge a reasonable subscription
fee to gain access to. Details at: http://ProfitInfo.com/img.htm
.
People don't have to take my word
for it that they'll find value there for marketing their businesses
online. I also make other free articles like this one available
on the publicly accessible areas of my web site, at: http://ProfitInfo.com/articles/
.
All visitors are free to absorb
as much information from those articles as they like. At the
same time it helps them get to know me better, and gives a small
taste of what's available to paid IMG subscribers, if they happen
to be interested.
THE REAL MOTIVE
Let's face facts: This concept
of sharing isn't totally benevolent in motive. Almost invariably,
the intent is either to attract prospects in the hopes of eventually
gaining a paying customer, or to draw traffic for selling advertising
to other commercial enterprises.
No successful cybermarketer is
an entirely charitable "guru" that sits atop a mountain in Tibet
somewhere, giving away advice, content or other freebies, without
a direct or indirect commercial motive of one sort or another.
In other words, if it didn't somehow eventually benefit them,
they wouldn't - and probably couldn't afford to - continue doing
it.
After all, entrepreneurs like you
and I are out to earn an honest profit - even a living - from
this wild, wild web. We can't reasonably be expected to "give
away the (whole) farm" without any compensation.
BENEFITS OF GIVING FREELY
Giving away a good freebie can
create a win/win situation. The giver builds trust and goodwill,
as well as likely gains a repeat visitor and a potential future
customer, and the recipient gets something of value at no cost.
Unfortunately, with many things
given away for free online, you get what you pay for. They offer
little or no real value. The trick is to find one or more freebies
with real perceived value to your prospects.
By sharing freely online, before
asking anything in return, you'll find that it pays off better
than the opposing concept of "all take and no give."
Article by Marty Foley, author
of Internet Marketing Goldmine: http://profitinfo.com/catalog/v3.htm?rb
His ProfitInfo Newsletter reveals proven, often overlooked strategies
to build your Internet profits now: Subscribe@ProfitInfo.com
|
|
|
|
|
