Content: What to sell and what to give away?

4 replies
My local mastermind group got into a discussion about content for our sites and I thought I'd ask here.

When creating a new business/niche site you need content for blog posts, auto-responders, ebooks, videos, podcasts etc. And you probably want to sell info products both one time and continuity.

How do you decided which content should be which?

Ron
#content #give #sell
  • Profile picture of the author Ronnie Nijmeh
    Hey Ron,

    Personally, I find a mix between unique content and PLR content. It's too expensive to develop everything yourself (or outsource everything) so that mix has been key to my success.

    In the Personal Development niche (which appears you're involved in!), I find that in order to build a name for yourself, you need to give away LOTS of content, but set them up to do *something.*

    For example...

    Landing page: "Get this ebook, just give me your name/email..."
    Auto-responder: "Want to read the full article? Just visit my site..."
    Video: "Want to learn more about ___, go to: www.site.com."
    Blog: "If you want a copy of XYZ, leave a message in the comments..."

    Whatever the case, personally I'd recommend training your visitors to take action. Sounds pretty common sense, but I think a lot of coaches/businesses in this market can be a bit timid to get their users to take decisive action.

    If you train people so they need to take action to get something, then they'll be more likely to take action to *pay* for something.

    What I've done in the past is give a teaser... i.e. a free report that gives people all the answers, but not the actual solution. For that, they'd need to buy. (Example: How to Hire Experts to Create Your Web Content for Less Than $1 Per Page )

    You can do the same with your videos/podcasts - give them a teaser but cut it off right as it gets to the juicy part.

    An example of what I did with one of my YouTube videos is ask a question at the end to get people to visit my site.

    Check it out:


    Hope this helps with your decision making!

    Ronnie
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  • Profile picture of the author write-stuff
    I'm a firm believer that you should give something away OF REAL VALUE. Most of the freebees I've seen have generally been pretty weak. If they seemed weak to me, they probably will to others, too. It's a real turnoff to me when I download my "free ebook" and find out it is really 60% sales pitch and 40% common knowledge. This does nothing to make me feel secure about making the purchase.

    My time is valuable, and I suspect most people feel the same way about their time. If I give you some of my time to look at your freebee, I don't want to feel that it was wasted. I want to be better for the experience. If you tease me, but don't give me anything useful, I feel dirty and used. ;-)

    I know plenty, perhaps most, of IM folks think the teaser approach is the way to go, but I remain totally unconvinced.

    - Russ
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    • Profile picture of the author Ronnie Nijmeh
      Originally Posted by write-stuff View Post

      I'm a firm believer that you should give something away OF REAL VALUE. Most of the freebees I've seen have generally been pretty weak. If they seemed weak to me, they probably will to others, too. It's a real turnoff to me when I download my "free ebook" and find out it is really 60% sales pitch and 40% common knowledge. This does nothing to make me feel secure about making the purchase.

      My time is valuable, and I suspect most people feel the same way about their time. If I give you some of my time to look at your freebee, I don't want to feel that it was wasted. I want to be better for the experience. If you tease me, but don't give me anything useful, I feel dirty and used. ;-)

      I know plenty, perhaps most, IM folks think the teaser approach is the way to go, but I remain totally unconvinced.

      - Russ
      Write-stuff's absolutely right. The bottom line is QUALITY and VALUE for sure... of course, in order to deliver quality and value, you have to know your market inside out. Getting into their head and delivering their deepest desires.
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      Personal Finance Loophole (Get on Page 1 of Google for FREE... making shed tons per lead)
      Bread Money Method (IM & Weight Loss = Peanuts compared to this MONSTER niche)
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  • Profile picture of the author Teenage Genius
    Good advice in the above post.

    From what i have learnt it is a good idea to teach the customer about something in a FREE book, then SELL them what they need in a paid book.

    For example, you could give a FREE book out informing people of how IMers make money by doing things like Affiliate Marketing, then you could SELL them a book which has a Step-By-Step method to Affiliate Market and make money from it. If you see what i mean.
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