Does Free Make You Excited ... Or Suspicious?

FREE does makes me excited when I see it's a great value. When I read from great people I will get it for money, for an opt in or whatever. But free has different classes.

If you trust one then FREE is great, otherwise it's something you won't like to have.

Last week a new local cable company offered me a free for life internet, I said what's the catch and refused it.

I believe "Free" still works with the masses, but me personally, I run from the word. I have found that "free" nearly always means "no cash out of pocket up front". Most things that are free either come with less benefits and features or will eat into the profits you could have been making.

Just my experience.

Benjamin Ehinger

I will always expect some offer to come up whenever something is being offered for free.

But if the freebie is good or it gives good content, I wouldn't mind getting more details on the main offer that they are promoting. Haha it has work on me and I am sure it will work on many other people too.

In my own opinion, this "Free" marketing strategy will continue to work as long people are around.

Just my humble opinion

Zack

At least by offering something "free" you're giving people a chance to make a more informed decision which is a good thing to do.

Unless the "free" offering is just some cheap sales pitch with nothing really worth checking out which is bad practice anyway.

The more I watch, the more I see that Free can be used to great advantage. Unfortunately there are people that misuse free and have all sorts of strings attached, or don't give anything of value, but some may just say that you get what you pay for.

On the other hand, if you give away your best information for free, then people will usually trip over themselves to see what you will actually do for them when you pay them.

If you give away junk for free, then you will have a reputation of giving away junk. If you give away great information, then you will have a great reputation that you can leverage for much greater success.

Bill

when I hear the word free just makes me think they want my email and then sell me something, but sometimes is worth it because they really offer good content and good services!

If it's something I'm interested in, I'd pay money for the information let alone getting it for free. I think it's all about good marketing.

When it comes to the internet, free always makes me suspicious. I would suggest offering it just for $1 instead of free.

For many folks , when they see something free , loses value and they on't give it a real try.
When you add a price you add value to your stuff.Is been tested and makes sense.
After all...nothing really good is for free.

It all depends on what is 'free'. Like if Im out and they offer me a free hamburger that is awesome!! But if I am online and they offer something for free after trying to upsell me 4 times then spam my email... no so awesome

Free definitely still attracts. Another good alternative that I read
about in an Influence and Persuasion was to give it a value.

At no cost to you. (Value $17)

It's all opinion until you test. Give it a test.

FREE?

why not, I am asian after all ! We will take FREE all day long :-)

I believe free still attracts the masses, but for me personally it sets off alarm bells coupled with glossy sales copy and broken promises. If you saw my spam folder you'd know why!

Perhaps offering a sample at a lower cost to build buzz before a full product release is a better idea?

It depends on what I'm looking for and the value of the free item.

If I am searching for something and I find exactly what I'm looking for and then find out I can try it for free for a long enough time to actually see results, I'm thrilled.

I think free is still very valuable to most people when under those circumstances.

I used it very successfully in my offline businesses because it gave people a chance to find out more about my services without making a financial committment.

Have the initial free services lead me to a 95% conversion rate offline.

Online, currently, my conversion rate is 51% as of this morning for the last 2 weeks and I think that is due to the factors of a very targetted audience and a high value for the free items.

:-)

It's funny you mention this because I to was starting to wonder if the word "FREE" was being overused in the IM world.

I conducted my own test on my squeeze pages for the words "FREE" and "COMPLIMENTARY" Both proved to be effective with a slient advantage using the word "complimentary."

Perhaps give it a go on your pages and see what happens... Im still a strong believer in giving away something of value to my prospects to build my lists...

I guess you referring to the fact that "free" stuff is the mainstay of list building, lead capture and the front end sales funnels. Taught by every guru and non-guru alike.

If I had a $1 for every time the words "free report" has been published on the internet I wouldn't need IM for sure.

Maybe it is still effective when targeting newbies in IM or markets out side of the MM niche but the more savvy IM'r is definitely more wary.

From recent experience with WSO's for example I have found that paid offers actually out perform free ones. I mean when offering (in my view) a comparable quality product not a "free report". (Wow another $1 ).

My belief is that free WSO's are believed to be lead generators and so the expectation of the product quality may be lower.

However conversely, if I send out a free offer to my list (and I send high quality products consistently) I can expect a higher than average open rate. Again I believe this is due to the expectation.

So I'm pretty sure "free" is here to stay for the foreseeable future but you need to look at where, when and how it's used.

At the risk of being "verbally beaten" I think the free stuff will always have some level of audience in IM, from same group who struggle to have enough faith in themselves and other to make a financial investment in their own futures. The very thing that will hold them back and make success seem so difficult and elusive.

I think for the non-techie people, the word "free" still catches attention.

When I see 'free', I get skeptical. Two days ago I got an email telling me about a product that his subscribers would get for free, and in reading the email he said it was just $1. So already we know it isn't free.

First off the link didn't work, then I did some hunting as I knew this seller. I found it just minutes after it went live. The price was $7, not $1 and not free. I wrote the seller to express my displeasure and he gave it to me for free. So I guess it turned out to be free for me after all. But if I had not complained, even the second higher price would not have been available.

But so often when I see 'free', there is always a catch. There isn't any free lunch. So I am always wary of what the catch is.

I think that FREE is expected... BUT I myself understand that TRUE value must be paid for...For most that are ALWAYS looking for FREE STUFF... Let me just say...You are missing out! RISK Equals REWARD

There is no such thing as free lunch.

Free always make me suspicious. And almost always it's with reason.

It really just depends on the product and if it seems like a gimmick.

When I see the word "free" I look for reasons that mean it is a bad deal. That may be a touch of cynism in me. The word "free" leaps out at you and all the ad writers know it.

Free for IM usually means rehashed junk. The adswap guys killed the usage of that word "free" and its entire meaning by giving away garbage that is far from "free" (Full Disclosure: I built my original list which started my WSO business from adswaps...though quit when it got saturated with people who couldn't market sex to a sex addict)

I avoid using it unless someone has been presold on "me" such as forum posts, guest blog posts, an interview, or some other piece of content where they've seen me in action and know my "free" report/product will actually help them.

Cheers,

Brad

Sometimes using the word Free can be good but depending on the context, it can be considered spammy and suspicious. In those situations, I prefer to use "at no cost" or "at zero cost" or something along those lines.

Yeah Free has value to me when I got them from a trusted site or trusted person.I never avoid a free stuff offered by an IM personal like Chris Farrell.

Free does absolutely nothing for me, but I suspect it's still quite a powerful word. I've trained my mind to scan that word, much like banner ads on the sidebars of a website. I don't even like discounts. I want value, whether it's free or expensive. Wow, after writing this I realized that I'm actually turned off by the word!

Kind of sets alarm bells in my head, especially if you see the word on the internet. I automatically think that they're saying it's free upfront but there's always a catch behind it.
Probably better to paraphrase.

I don't think it matters what we think!

Time and time again, marketing studies show that FREE is one of the attention-grabbing words that people respond to when they see or hear an ad.

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I LOVE "free" as it gives me a RISK FREE peek into what the value is that I COULD buy into.

if the free stuff is great ---> then i'm acutally HAPPY when a pitch is attached as "free" gets me ready to buy.

works on me ... works on my prospects.

If somebody says free then I'm instantly weary.

Nothing in life is truly free. If they advertise it as that, like many here have said, I'll probably stay clear of whatever it is. But that's just me - many still jump on the free bandwagon and many will continue to do so in the future.