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Offering a Free Product to Earn Trust in a Paid Product

by dvduval
3 replies
When you are trying to "get on the map" and get some traffic to your site, and build a reputation, I am wondering how many people have tried offering a free product to help build a user base.

In my case, this was one of the best things I ever did. I created phpLD starting in around 2001 for personal use, and shared it with a few friends. Then with some encouragement, I decided to release the software for free. At the time, I wanted to make some money on adsense. I didn't make much, but it helped pay some of the rent.

What happened next I could never have predicted...

Thousands of people started downloading my product. We were getting dozens of post on our forum every day asking for modifications, help, etc. We reached a point where we could no longer keep up with all the requests without charging something.

This led to our paid product, and it is now more widespread than our free product.

Has anyone else followed a similar approach?
Would you do it again?
#earn #free #offering #paid #product #trust
  • Profile picture of the author jayden.fellze
    The word "free" is meant to tempt, and it seldom fails in its purpose. It is upto the marketer to make use of this fact to the best. If he offers quality material in his "free" offer, people will feel more inclined to trust him, and would eventually venture to risk their money to buy his paid products as well.
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    >> FREE Report: 100 Targeted Visitors/Day From Scratch In 2 Months <<

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  • Profile picture of the author Ric Raftis
    There are very few List Subscription boxes around that don't offer some sort of ethical bribe AKA Free Product in order to tempt subscribers. I think that more and more these days in any business that the old adage "You have to give to receive" is proving very true.

    But free products are just not enough in many cases. The market is well aware of the amount of freebies sitting on many people's hard drive and it requires very little effort to "give" these away. Quality information on a site and in blog posts and also in AR messages can go much further in building trust and establishing relationships. Social media sites like Twitter can also help in building networks and relationships where nothing is actually given away but people build up trust through "knowing" you on the network.

    Cheers,
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    Yea, one thing that I DON'T see on these free offers is them being so good that they become viral. When the free offering is good enough that people will like it and tell others, then you have something. Otherwise, there is very little value in "free", right?
    Signature
    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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