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Creating Your Own Internet
Marketing Success Story

Part Three: Giving Freely, Before Receiving

© 1998, 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 on my ProfitInfo web site 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 several articles like this one freely available on the publicly accessible areas of my web site, at: http://ProfitInfo.com/artindex.htm.

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 for everyone involved: 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, because they offer little or no real value. The trick is to find one or more freebies of real 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."

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TRYING TO REINVENT THE INTERNET MARKETING WHEEL?
Discover how to increase your web site's profitability, effectively use spam-free email marketing, get tons of free publicity... and many other profitable online marketing strategies. Details at: http://ProfitInfo.com/img.htm

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