How do you decide when you've given too much information?

You can never over deliver if you product is good they will be it and if you over deliver you will earn their trust.

What you don't want to do is to confuse them make only ONE point.

I think if you really have a lot of great knowledge "within" yourself, overdelivering would be good as it implies that what is in your paid product is gonna be much more valuable.

I think the answer is probably "With quite some difficulty".

The problem is that what's "too much information" for some people can be "not quite enough information" for others. The better and clearer the picture you have of your traffic demographics, the easier it is to judge - but having that isn't always easy, in itself. :p

Erring on the side of over-delivering in a paid-for product is certainly a good idea. The credibility and trust that customers have in you is one of your business's greatest long-term assets. When you have a reputation for over-delivering, people are happy to recommend you.

There's something in this, too: you don't want to give away the farm, in a freebie. A freebie is part of your "continuity process". Make it create credibility and trust from the audience, certainly, but don't forget that it's also a salesperson for you.

Well Alexa nailed it. There is no hard and fast rule as to over delivering, but you do want to set some limits on what you give away. I am guilty of sinking too many hours into a freebie. Ugh.

The answer to your question depends on what you are selling:
an information product or a service?

Generally speaking if you are selling a service you can give away
the farm knowing that this information would build your crediblity,
but most people would not want to DO the service for themselves
but would turn to you for that service.

When selling information product you should give away a few
secrets (meaning they are not commonly known in your market)
but leave the rest for the main product.

So if I had 10 Ways to do _______ . I can safely give away
3 and sell the remaining 7.

-Ray Edwards

I think you should just give them everything you've got, or at least give them everything but leave room to expand if you bring out a product.

I've been thinking. I posted a great podcast from Social Triggers last week. It was about why people would pay for something they could get for free, and apparently lots of people are happy to do this.

I was concerned about giving to much away because I wanted to write a book, then I realized a few things:

If I give away all my great information, people will like visiting my website more.

If I give it all away to build my visitors, by the time I build up a following I'll have great content in the archives I can direct people to.

If I bring out a book, some people will be happy to pay for all the great information to be packaged right there in front of them, plus you can always expand.

This is really tricky to answer because it's very subjective but generally the more information you have the more you can feel comfortable giving away up-front. You want the freebie to show plenty of "cleavage" of what you can offer without revealing the jewels. To extend the analogy just show as much as you think is necessary to entice people to the point where giving away any more would leave you feeling slightly "dirty".

You have to make clear what your product is all about, don't tell them the exact methode, just a briefing on what it is all about.

I make a mindmap then when I cover everything that is the mindmap I stop. Hope that helps.

The only real answer can only come from your market testing. Any other answer is merely speculation, conjecture and quesstimations.

The only dependable way to tell is through meticulous market testing. Everything is merely speculation, conjecture and guesstimates.

Set a rule of thumb for yourself. We all know that 250 word content can be more valuable than 500 word content. But alot of people equate bulk with value. Test minimizing good content as opposed to giving out alot of content. Whichever one makes you the most money, use that concept.

In one way or another you are trying to sell a solution to a problem. Therefore the key is not to give them the solution for free.

When you solve the problem for them, then they have no need to buy.

Now, this doesn't mean that you can't give them a solution. It just means don't give them the solution that you are selling.

If you are selling wheels for go karts, then give them "free plans" to build a go kart. You have solved a problem for them, but now they need to buy wheels, which you are glad to provide.

On the other hand, it may be that you are selling an information product. This is trickier. If you give them information that solves their problem or satisfies whatever they are searching for, then they have no need to buy.

For example, if they want to know how to get a girl and you tell them, then why would they buy from you? So what to do?

One way is to highlight the problem: the frustration, the lonely nights, the longing and the yearning. You can let them know that they don't need to continue to suffer. That something can be done for them.

But the actual solution to this problem? That they have to pay for.

If you give someone enough information he will want to buy more from you and you gonna build a good reputation...

On my mind "over delivering" means to give a little bit more information about main products. There are not strict rules. Just when you will finish your product think about your inner happiness rate. Add 2-3 bonuses and rate it again.

For example you have eBook "How to make a WordPress website in 10 minutes or less". What is the logic step to make customer happy? To provide 2 bonuses: report "How to accelerate my website" and your custom "Super-Duper" WP theme. Your customers will be more than happy.

Make your sales dialog become a script and it become guide for you to not telling too much information.
Or you might study human behavior that help in sale. So you might know much you should speak and share with him .

Well, you're main goal should always be to over-deliver to your list. There's a difference between over-delivering on quality, than it is to over-deliver on rubbish. Over delivering is not about quantity, but QUALITY.

Are you over-delivering by sending your list ebook after ebook for free, or are you over-delivering by giving your list a $100 product for $20...there's the difference right there.

The best way to tell is through meticulous market testing. Everything else is merely speculation, conjecture or guesstimates.

Great advice from all. Thanks

Choose items that you know are good, but don't have enough time or current interest to pursue yourself. That way you are delivering quality, but not feeling so guilty about creating competition for yourself. If people see you share quality content, they will be more inclined to buy from you, so over-delivering is never bad as long as you hold onto some great content to make money with.

Afraid of giving too much is a mentality of stingy marketers who see their subscribers as a number of $$ instead of real people. You must give value in order to receive (the sales). Unless you live in my country where copyright has no value and plagiarism is rampant, you shouldn't be afraid of giving before selling.

The "too much information" limit in me is when the topic is branching everywhere from the main theme that it could distract the reader's focus. But you can overcoming it by dividing the large content chunk into smaller, digestible chunks. No one says you should give everything at once . But the point here is to keep your readers from distracted or confused or info overload, entice their curiosity, and make them engaging for a longer time.

Overdelivering here is giving more than you promise.

If you are selling your own product, then yes you don't want to give everything or to much away otherwise there will be no point for anyone to buy. You have to cover the broad outline of the product, give as much benefit detail as you can, answer the buyers questions "What will it do for me" look at it from a buyers perspective. they want to know what your product is going to do for them.

Just look at some of the best crafted sales pages and videos, you will soon see just how much information you need to give away to make a compelling sales pitch.