Get Rid of FREE-What Do You Think?

I agree... this free thing has gotten out of hand, and
I believe it has led to less and less sales for us!

personally, i'm trying to implement a full ebook for $2 (or some other single digit number, like $7 or something) and selling those front end customers to a higher priced back end product.

completely eliminating free isn't the way to go though, IMO -- the free line just has to constantly be moved and giving people more and more value for free. check wired's article on the concept of free.. which is also going to be the topic of chris anderson's new book (author of the long tail)

also i'd like to add that i'm not in the MMO niche, i have products in a lot of different niches. it's a whole lot easier and less competitive.

I think "free offers" are most effective when used sparingly. When confronted with offers for 19 free products just for buying one, most people assume that the free products can't be very worthwhile if they're giving that many away, sometimes this leads to skepticism about the quality of the item they're paying for too. Offer quality products for sale, and quality products as freebies on a limited basis and it allows you to keep that aura of respectability and trust.

The word free will cost you big time in your Pay Per Click campaigns. Bonus is a good word . I have actually started stating that all this will cost you is a first name and working email. Keywords went down in cost considerably .

I still use free a lot on list I build from 2.0 avenues.

I have often wondered how many opt ins I could get with

" I will give you this report for the right to send you my buy my sh!&^% emails "

Might test that ....nah

Yes I should change FreeFitnessGuru to SevenDollarFitnessGuru or even just SevenDollarFitness and make it clear that I am after buyers.

Then get em into the funnel with $7 reports - no free stuff

Free, giveaway, its an attraction to your site like the samplers in a grocery store. You take the sample and may not buy then but if you like wat you taste you'll consider it later. The reason they do this is the same reason we do it on the internet it gives potential clients a sample of what you have to offer and if they like they will come back to see what you have to provide.

The upper advantage is that we have autoresponders to keep track of our customers location and lets us know what giveaway they liked so we know what new product updates to send to their emails.

Giveaways are essential to leads you can charge a dollar but if everyone has giveaways for the same competition you look a little desperate unless you have a giveaway and a dollar product on the same page, that could spark interest.

Regardless of how many times people say they hate "Free" they will still sign up and get free stuff if the offer is killer.

Did you catch that..? I mentioned "The Offer"..!

Everything from conversions to sales to success in anything you do is all about the offer!

Mike Hill

Well, free is great is a great motivation to make people go to your list, just give enough quality information to validate your expertise, I said "enough" so they will want more, and wanting more equals sales.

Let's get something straight when it comes to the free line.

We are not seeing 'samples' or 'teasers'

We are not even seeing 'a proven business model'

What we are seeing is a lemming like rush over the cliff edge while newer marketers are conned into thinking that they have to create several new products to give away before they actually try to sell something.

A sample is NOT $2,345 worth of bonus products for a $47 purchase and it is not 100 marketers giving away $87,654 worth of free products (although I am grateful to giveaways for providing me with stuff that was/is being sold for more than I can afford).

The proven business model does not include selling a rooster and giving away the farm for it to live on - but that is the lunatic proportion the 'free' arena has acquired.

Like I say, I am really peeved that I can't go in to my local book store and be given $2,345 of extra stuff because I bought a $47 book.

The whole system has become a monster and it is gobbling up those marketers who try to compete in the 'free' zone. (I think so, any way.)