Free information is a great way to get unlimited traffic to your website. My friend Rebecca Happy wrote a blog post recently about “moving the free line”. This made me think deeper about free information. Here are my conclusions so far:
First of all, I know that the primary reason people come online is to get information. If asked, everyone will say that they want the information they are looking for to be free.
But let’s think about this for a minute. Information online has been free from the early days of the internet. There are millions of articles, free reports etc. There are three main reasons why all these resources are free:
- Early pioneers online could not figure out a viable way to charge for it. The resistance was enormous, because the payment options were not very secure.
- At the end of every free article and woven into a free ebook are “offers” for paid products or services.
- As a bonus for a paid product or as a gift to entice people to buy their products, expecting prospects to think “wow, if this information is free, how unbelievable will the paid product be.
Free information resources like teleseminars, audios and videos often have an offer at the end. That should not surprise you. There is no business model that is viable without collecting money for products/services provided at some point in time.
This business model is very similar to the time sharing business, where you get offered a vacation for free or very little money if you are willing to sit in on a presentation that takes maybe 10% of your vacation time. Some people love it, others hate it.
Believe it or not, this model actually can help you in two ways. First of all, you can enjoy some high quality advice at no cost and secondly, you can learn from the way others promote their product(s) and apply it yourself.
When you take notes, you can learn from all aspects of the call. For example, listen for the lead-in to the offer. Listen to the description. See if they offer a reduced price just for the call. If they do, how much of a discount do they give. Are they offering bonuses? If so, what bonuses do they offer. What is the value of the bonuses (compared to the price of the product). How do they create a sense of scarcity. Is there a time limit or a number of products limit.
I could go on and on. By taking notes on these free presentations you can learn a lot from your competition. Take notes and in a few short sessions you can get a good picture of what works in online internet marketing.
As Rebecca pointed out in her article, the quality of the information provided for free is improving every day. It is incredible what is given away, just to impress the buyer. It obviously works in a lot of cases. So, next time you see advertising for a free webinar, report or other free event, sign up! You will get great information and you can apply their sales techniques to your own business.
Are you one of those people, who are not listening to teleseminars because there is a sales pitch at the end of the presentation? Or do you love these free seminars despite the fact that there always seems to be a sales part at the end. Share your views with us. They are much appreciated.
