Which is best for list, free or paid product

16 replies
You know I have a lot of people argue with me on free products to capture contact information. I will argue forever on this.

Now I have never given this out but for the sake of not arguing any longer I will tell you how I do it real quick.

I have two autoresponder services. I have listwire which is a free autoresponder and I have aweber of course.

Now I will give away products that cost me from 20.00 to over a thousand dollars away to capture emails.

I will be posting fake numbers, The numbers can be anything, just want you to understand the process and how important free products are.

First thing I do is use listwire for all these new emails. Okay I have a great product to give away, I want emails So I start giving the product away to capture them, Lets say I get 1,000

So now I have 1,000 non buyers on a email list and I name it freebyfiverrbot
Now I start working that list and Im ready to throw out the first sales pitch for a better product.

I send out a blast and sale a product for say 49 bucks, no oto on the example. I get 100 people to buy or 10 percent which won't happen but humor me.

Now the link they click will be captured with aweber and the list will be called freebyfiverrbot49

Now I have two lists. I take the 100 off of listwire so I have 900 on listwire and 100 on aweber,

I keep working the 900 and now ready to send out another blast, I send one out for a product for 39.95.

Lets say I have 50 buy it. So now I will have three lists, freebyfiverrbot, freebyfiverrbot49 and freebyfiverrbot39, now I have a 800 list, a 100 list and a 50 list.

Now you get the idea and I do a 29 then a 19 then a 9 dollar product, I can even take it further and do a 4.99 product and I have in the past did a .97 cent product just to see what happen.

Well lets just say at the end of this I get 10 percent to buy something, did I get more than the first product cost me, I usually always do and if I don't I do in the long run with the ones that did buy.

Now what happens with the remaining freeby seekers that didnt buy nothing. I keep them on listwire and do the same exact thing, the only thing I change is the subject line and sales copy but the product stays the same, You will be surprised at how many times you can market the same product to the same people and still have sales over and over, I have had some buy products twice of the same product. Lol

I hope you can see how this works and how easy it would be to track your success and end my arguing.

Thank you.
#free #list #paid #product
  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    This is a completely new way for me personally when it comes to list building.

    Yeah I can see though why it would work, especially when you are giving something away of complete madness generosity.

    This will create instant relationship success with your subscribers as they will be completely overwhelmed with the value you have given them.

    Do you follow up just with offers or do you offer further value down the line aswell.

    Thanks for sharing this useful information anyway it has been a pleasurable read indeed!!!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6662912].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    I am over careful with a list. I will offer value for nothing many times. Free seekers are becoming less and less buyers, but they are still there.

    I work my lists. I will have everything in place when I give that first product away, I send otu about 33 up over 100 emails to the list a year, I will have at least a few months put in already to go out every three to five days. about every third to sixth email will be a promotion. At least every three to ten will give them something of value again.

    I answer the emails I get from the emails I send which alot do not. I take it personally with customer service even on the net, and even if they only have a free product.

    I have gotten a free product had trouble, emailed the creator and been told its free so no support. I drop them at that point.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6662954].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author joedirtsmullet
      i have tryed free ones before but i do find that the payed ones are better & no ads as well
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6662968].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Robert H Cwik
    Seems like an interesting way to segment your list into "good" and "not so good" buyer and freebie seekers. Then you can offer 49-ers more expensive products than those offered to 7-ers.

    However, this may disrupt your funnel. I would start the other way round, i.e. with the cheapest price tag, and then offer higher price tag products to the buyers later on.

    Anyway, I'd like to hear from you about your results once you carry out the plan your way.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6663003].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Sounds brutally complicated to me. And do to the hypothetical nature of your post (you clearly state your using fake numbers) this statement jumped out at me.

    Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

    Now what happens with the remaining freeby seekers that didnt buy nothing. I keep them on listwire and do the same exact thing, the only thing I change is the subject line and sales copy but the product stays the same, You will be surprised at how many times you can market the same product to the same people and still have sales over and over, I have had some buy products twice of the same product. Lol
    So are you saying that your basically taking advantage of people? Again, hypothetically I don't believe people are dumb enough to buy a product twice, even if you changed the sales copy. That said, if you are doing this, I definitely feel your taking advantage of your list.

    If I personally had discovered that a user had purchased the same product twice, under the guise of a different sales page, they would be receiving a refund promptly for their second purchase. I'm in the business of relationship building... not ripping people off.

    As for the brutally complicated part? I've built all of my lists providing free things. In fact most of my online income is generated from those who signed up for receive a freebie, and are buying through my weekly links.

    This seems like shuffling my list through a bunch of hoops until I milk a buck out of them. Just not a method for me I guess.

    BP
    Signature
    You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6663022].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    if this works for you hustlinsmoke thats cool

    as they say, theres always more than 1 way to skin a cat :-)

    personally i like to find out who the buyers are even if it means selling a $7 - $17 product

    once i know who my buyers are i then segment to a new buyers list and continue to transfer them deeper into my funnel with the more expensive products which they buy

    i love working on my sales funnels i find it fascinating and really good fun :-)

    paul
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6663056].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Larbi Rahmani
    I think it depand on the people you are targetting and the quality of that "free" product,
    freebies capture more emails but only if they were well advertised.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6663662].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
      Originally Posted by Robert H Cwik View Post

      Seems like an interesting way to segment your list into "good" and "not so good" buyer and freebie seekers. Then you can offer 49-ers more expensive products than those offered to
      7-ers.
      Ive tried that and I just see more benefit from the higher to the lower side. How do I know if that one person would of clicked on a higher amount.

      Originally Posted by BloggingPro View Post

      Sounds brutally complicated to me. And do to the hypothetical nature of your post (you clearly state your using fake numbers) this statement jumped out at me.


      So are you saying that your basically taking advantage of people? Again, hypothetically I don't believe people are dumb enough to buy a product twice, even if you changed the sales copy. That said, if you are doing this, I definitely feel your taking advantage of your list.

      If I personally had discovered that a user had purchased the same product twice, under the guise of a different sales page, they would be receiving a refund promptly for their second purchase. I'm in the business of relationship building... not ripping people off.

      As for the brutally complicated part? I've built all of my lists providing free things. In fact most of my online income is generated from those who signed up for receive a freebie, and are buying through my weekly links.

      This seems like shuffling my list through a bunch of hoops until I milk a buck out of them. Just not a method for me I guess.

      BP

      You a little bit a ____ aren't you, I never said I never gave them a refund, I never told you what I do in my spare time but sure you have an answer for that too don't you.
      I also believe in software and scripts. It's only complicated if your Not smart enough to do it right. But of course you wouldn't know that as you do everything the old fashioned hard way right.


      Originally Posted by Larbi Rahmani View Post

      I think it depand on the people you are targetting and the quality of that "free" product,
      freebies capture more emails but only if they were well advertised.
      Originally Posted by paul nicholls View Post

      if this works for you hustlinsmoke thats cool

      as they say, theres always more than 1 way to skin a cat :-)

      personally i like to find out who the buyers are even if it means selling a $7 - $17 product

      once i know who my buyers are i then segment to a new buyers list and continue to transfer them deeper into my funnel with the more expensive products which they buy

      i love working on my sales funnels i find it fascinating and really good fun :-)

      paul
      Man you guys amaze me, I did not say I'm the master of free-by's I did not say I do this constantly. When I have a product I do not want to sell. I give it to my my lists and make new lists with it. Everything I have developed I do not want to sale. Some items are added to a package, some products are items I had made to uncomplicated my life.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6665588].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
        Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

        You a little bit a ____ aren't you, I never said I never gave them a refund, I never told you what I do in my spare time but sure you have an answer for that too don't you.
        I also believe in software and scripts. It's only complicated if your Not smart enough to do it right. But of course you wouldn't know that as you do everything the old fashioned hard way right.
        Huh?

        Since when are we talking about spare-time? Also, not sure why I need to be alerted via PM that you replied to my post. :rolleyes:

        As I stated at the end of my post, definitely not a method for me. I don't shuffle my subscribers from one list segment to the next hoping to milk them for a quick buck. That is essentially what you described in your hypothetical case study here.

        Additionally, I don't do much the old-fashioned way--unless you consider proper RELATIONSHIP building old-fashioned.
        Signature
        You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6668023].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Smith
    Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

    You know I have a lot of people argue with me on free products to capture contact information. I will argue forever on this.

    Now I have never given this out but for the sake of not arguing any longer I will tell you how I do it real quick.

    I have two autoresponder services. I have listwire which is a free autoresponder and I have aweber of course.

    Now I will give away products that cost me from 20.00 to over a thousand dollars away to capture emails.

    I will be posting fake numbers, The numbers can be anything, just want you to understand the process and how important free products are.

    First thing I do is use listwire for all these new emails. Okay I have a great product to give away, I want emails So I start giving the product away to capture them, Lets say I get 1,000

    So now I have 1,000 non buyers on a email list and I name it freebyfiverrbot
    Now I start working that list and Im ready to throw out the first sales pitch for a better product.

    I send out a blast and sale a product for say 49 bucks, no oto on the example. I get 100 people to buy or 10 percent which won't happen but humor me.

    Now the link they click will be captured with aweber and the list will be called freebyfiverrbot49

    Now I have two lists. I take the 100 off of listwire so I have 900 on listwire and 100 on aweber,

    I keep working the 900 and now ready to send out another blast, I send one out for a product for 39.95.

    Lets say I have 50 buy it. So now I will have three lists, freebyfiverrbot, freebyfiverrbot49 and freebyfiverrbot39, now I have a 800 list, a 100 list and a 50 list.

    Now you get the idea and I do a 29 then a 19 then a 9 dollar product, I can even take it further and do a 4.99 product and I have in the past did a .97 cent product just to see what happen.

    Well lets just say at the end of this I get 10 percent to buy something, did I get more than the first product cost me, I usually always do and if I don't I do in the long run with the ones that did buy.

    Now what happens with the remaining freeby seekers that didnt buy nothing. I keep them on listwire and do the same exact thing, the only thing I change is the subject line and sales copy but the product stays the same, You will be surprised at how many times you can market the same product to the same people and still have sales over and over, I have had some buy products twice of the same product. Lol

    I hope you can see how this works and how easy it would be to track your success and end my arguing.

    Thank you.
    Great way to separate your leads. I do that but a little different. It is very effective to say the least
    Signature

    VOTE FOR MY LATEST REMIX: https://goo.gl/jwHF0j
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6719363].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Campbell
    Give away a freebie - build a list
    Launch a product - build a list, there are countless ways of building a list just like there are countless ways of managing your subscribers, many people will have different methods and funnels and and and, that work or may not work for them, if you do find one that works and you're comfortable with it than stick to that method.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6719508].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ambrown31
    Seems like a good idea. Will have to look into building a list. Are you looking for anything to add to your signature?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6719534].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Walter Parrish
    Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

    You know I have a lot of people argue with me on free products to capture contact information. I will argue forever on this.

    Now I have never given this out but for the sake of not arguing any longer I will tell you how I do it real quick.

    I have two autoresponder services. I have listwire which is a free autoresponder and I have aweber of course.

    Now I will give away products that cost me from 20.00 to over a thousand dollars away to capture emails.

    I will be posting fake numbers, The numbers can be anything, just want you to understand the process and how important free products are.

    First thing I do is use listwire for all these new emails. Okay I have a great product to give away, I want emails So I start giving the product away to capture them, Lets say I get 1,000

    So now I have 1,000 non buyers on a email list and I name it freebyfiverrbot
    Now I start working that list and Im ready to throw out the first sales pitch for a better product.

    I send out a blast and sale a product for say 49 bucks, no oto on the example. I get 100 people to buy or 10 percent which won't happen but humor me.

    Now the link they click will be captured with aweber and the list will be called freebyfiverrbot49

    Thank you.
    love this model. i just noticed listwire and was thinking of doing something similar since the cost being new to list building can add up for an autoresponder. lol
    I mean if you play around with lists and freebies to much it would cost more than what it's worth.

    to the other warriors i love hustlinsmoke's model. why? because I used to sell stuff mainly used books and my experience had been when selling the high price items the customers were responsive, knew what they wanted, and only concerned with getting it. they weren't afraid to deal with me or let me know if the items were over priced. just all around great customers to work with.

    now, the other side of the story lol. with the lower priced items, i found that most didn't read the descriptions, heck even complained about the picture on the cover not reading the description of the books. I would say poor communications, but basically no communications, many didn't even have the correct addresses when placing orders. oh, and if there were any problems with the order expect the lowest score on your review.

    given a choice between working with high end and low end customers, I would prefer to go with the high end.
    Signature
    Use Feeder Sites, Articles, And Social Media Sites To Generate Unstoppable Traffic, FREE! Click Here Now To Get It For FREE
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6719976].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AndyBlackSEO
    It is possible to build a list using free products to attract subscribers. There is no rule that everyone who opts in for a free product will not buy a product. However, if you build a list of buyers, ie - by selling a WSO then everyone on that list has the mindset of "buying" which not everyone has. Some people just do not buy, ever.

    Segmenting your list is a good way of filtering your subscribers, although filtering by topic would probably be more beneficial, ie - SEO, content creation, CPA etc.
    Signature
    [FREE SEO TOOL] Build 29 Effective, High Authority Backlinks that Will Increase Your Google Rankings in 2020... CLICK HERE ...
    ... Instant backlinks that can get you results within 24-72hrs.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6720256].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JayParker
    I understand what you mean, in my experience there are times some subscribers have the potential to become buyers. If you give free quality stuff and create a relationship with you, sooner or later they would trust you and try your product. The only way to get the most amount of subscribers is by giving something valuable for free and then build the relationship. Hope that helps.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6722713].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jillian W
    I would think that list building for paid products would be better since the buyers had already bought your product and it was valuable to them, then they would know what kind of quality you're offering and would buy from you in the future. I've seen people who generated more profit from the list they build.

    So from free product, from experience as well that most people who opt-in just for the free product and nothing more since all they see is the word "free" and would never buy.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6722771].message }}

Trending Topics