So I was thinking literally a couple hours ago on how to leverage freebies for traffic. Here is my plan: 1) Build a really awesome product one would be willing to sell for 15-20 bucks. 2) Take said product to all major forums of the niche and offer it for FREE with NO OPT IN.......but only for a WEEK. Promise to charge $20 bucks for the product at the end of the week, no exceptions. If they missed it, they missed it. 3) Heres the good part.... require everyone to post something like "count me in!" before you PM them the link. Then you individually message them the link to download it. So, this keeps your post extremely high on the board for all seven days, because everyone is posting in the thread. 4) Once you provide the link to product, make it go to a page with the opt-in form prominently displayed. Then give them the super epic product for free. 5) Within the super epic free product, basically tell them their knowledge of the subject matter is going to be incomplete unless they opt in......So obviously, since your making a sellable product, it's gonna have some legit content in it so you gotta make sure that the info they get when they opt in is also valuable but not exactly the same. 6) FOLLOW THROUGH! No matter how much people wimper whine and cry to get it free, once the seven days is up, it's up! Ok i really hyped that idea a lot. Lol. So I have some questions...... -Would this be considered spam on a forum??? I would hope not since its free, and the traffic is generated by others??? -Do all forums rank by views/number of posts? -do most forums have limitations on the number of PM's you can send? i guess once it got ranked high enough long enough you would just post the link?? maybe at the very end if u didn't get to everyone? -Would this actually work????? I plan to actually do this if it's feasible without getting blamed for spam.
Hey Thales63, This is actually quite an old technique that does work, but make sure you read the TOS and Rules of the forums VERY VERY Carefully. Some forums actually are against small post like "count me in" or "awesome info" due to the fact that they see it as a way for others just to raise their post count. The other downfall is that if a new member decides "hey I want that info" but can't PM yet and they don't want to disobey the forum rules by posting a small comment then they could be kind of screwed. Like I said just make sure to read the TOS and Rules <- normally all the info you need is in that. Then if you can do it without getting others in trouble then by all means go right on ahead. Just make sure to cover yourself and others by reading the Rules. Also, see if it would be better to put it in the sell and buy section instead that way after 7 days you can just start selling instead of moving it there then. Because if you try to sell outside of there then there can be some serious repercussion that could follow. Sorry if I sound like a bad news bandit or an overly cautious person, but I am just trying to look out for you and help save you a headache. So like I mentioned just check the TOS and Rules and if you are within both then go right on ahead, but make sure you aren't violating them. Hope I helped, - Jeff K.
Jeff, Thanks for the advice and the caution. I really appreciate it. I wondered if it would be something that has been in use and/or be less effective. But I'm glad to hear the technique is effective, even though there is a caveat. I'm hoping, in the minds of the other forum posters in that niche, that the thought that I will charge for the product for the rest of eternity after the promotion is over will get it in their heads that it's actually worth however much I charge for it, essentially making it dumb for them not to take it, since it will be no opt in necessary. Thanks for the advice about the terms of service. Which part is most likely going to be under threat by the terms of service? The give away itself? Or the posting of a link to the give away? Or the post count part? Also, what will happen to me if say I accidentally mess up and it does violate the TOS? Will users get kicked off for what I do, even if its one post from each of them? Thanks, Dave
Dave, I am not to certain about the TOS or Rules on here, but I would read them very carefully. More then likely all the info will be in the Rules for the Forums, but just that small percentage that a problem could be hiding in the TOS is enough to give it a read as well. Also, the biggest threat is the giving away of the link. Some forum moderators could see it as advertising or spam and actually delete your thread or ban you. If you did accidently mess up then I would think that only you would be punished which could possibly mean banned from the forums or something along those lines. The only way I could see the other members getting punished is if they had already been warned about posting small replies on threads before. The method does still work though please don't doubt that. I mean your method is that you are giving away free material. Even if the person never opens and reads it but once people love getting free stuff. So that is an easy way to get the opt-ins you want right there, and most new comers don't know what an opt-in actually is so they have no problem giving up their name and email for a free pdf or guide. I should know because I did it for the longest time when I first started. So like I said please don't doubt the method because it can work very well for you if you have a good product, but also another thing to consider is at the end of the product or on the end of your thread put a comment asking them to provide feedback on your book and not just leave a comment like "good info" or "I loved it". Ask them for an actual review of the product without giving away any specific information. This way you can start to build a better reputation if your guide is good enough and will make it easier to sell in the future. Hope I helped answer a few questions, - Jeff K.
Jeff, So would you recommend giving away the product for free without any opt in required at first, but instead push the opt in using links within the product itself? Or should I just direct people to the squeeze page right from the forum and get the email right then and there? I figured with the "no opt required" approach, I would get wider exposure and the people who actually cared to read it would opt in because I would persuade them to later on, and have links in the product itself to the opt in page. But perhaps they should offer email to get the free product right up front? I once heard that free material can either be with or without opt in, the latter providing wider exposure with less opt ins, but the former providing more subscribers. So I figured why not have best of both worlds and drive traffic with a "no opt in required" product, but then encourage them to opt in within that product by motivating them with yet another product which they then have to opt in for? Or perhaps I am overcomplicating the issue. I am in the dating advice niche (marketing towards women), so I will be posting on dating related forums. In the past with any business type thing I have done, the thing it has always come down to is lack of traffic. I can produce decent content, its just the traffic issue that trips me up and slows me down. Thanks again for your insight. It's very helpful. Dave
Dave, First if you where giving it away on the forums I would try and say give it away without an Opt-In, or provide 2 different products. One you give away with no Opt-In, but inside your first product you put a link at the end to the second product which does require an opt-in. Such as two products: First - Give the gist of the info and enough to get their appetite wet so they will want the rest. Second - Goes more into detail, such as the type of detail that the reader is dying to know. The first you just give free with no opt-in (this covers you from having to worry about moderators that go to your site to see if you are trying to collect any info) and ask for their reviews of it on the thread. Then like I said put the link to the second offer at the end of your first offer. Like if its a book, then put it on the last page and tell them why it would benefit them to get it. Keep in mind this is just during the free week. Once you start selling the product you can put the Opt-in up on the first product so that you can get your info for your email marketing and then on the page to get the second offer you could put something like you can have the second part for a small fee of a dollar or something. Just remember to make the mark up fee cheaper then the first product. This will insure more people buy it. Sorry if it's hard to read, my ADD is acting up and I am having a hard time staying on task at the moment. If you want ill turn AIM on and you can IM me, or we can keep talking through here. I hope this helped you, - Jeff K.
Jeff,<br><br>Thanks. Those sound like good ideas. Yeah I think I will go ahead and do that with the no opt in free product first on the forum, then in the product itself use a link to get them to the squeeze page for the second offer. Hopefully, the TOS won't get in the way. I appreciate you bringing that up though, because moderators are the last people I want to anger, especially if I want to show up to the forum again and give more stuff away. Ultimately, my marketing strategy will be this: every time a make a new product, I will give it free for first week as a special offer on a few forums, but not others. That way, everyone doesn't have all the freebies (and thus have all my products), so I can still sell stuff I gave away free to one forum and sell it to people who opted in from another. Hopefully this will build large list. But at first I will offer free product as many places as I can.<br><br>Thanks for the feedback it was a good heads up with the TOS thing and good to see some other ideas that could be good as well. I appreciate it. I should probably be heading to bed now though. <br><br>Thanks,<br><br>David W.
Thanks for the PM. Not sure if my reply went through to you or not, because it says no sent messages, even though I submitted it multiple times. Anyhow, thanks again. I will probably be back on the forums sometime soon, but not sure when though.