Selling not working for you? Try giving it away.

Agreed. Typically, bloggers giveaway a ebook and then start an email marketing campaign. The ebook may or may not have a link back to the website. Those that do have a link back to the website gives bloggers the opportunity to make a sale, join a membership, etc. Like you said "get people into your funnel."

One thing I have learned from testing is niche bloggers need to create new incentives regularly to create repeat visitors. In my testing the majority of visitors will return to the blog via the link in the ebook, but if the blog content is stale then the visitor clicks out. However, even if the blog content is stale a new niche ebook creates a new incentive. The return visits often lead to sales.

The whole process is really interesting or at least I find it interesting.

Jeffery 100% :-)

Funny how it works sometimes like that and interesting. When I was a younger I worked in a gift shop. There was a big fish bowl of marbles next to the cash register. They were priced 50 cents each and they never sold. The owner of the shop changed the price to $3.00 each and we sold out inside a few weeks. Perceived value was the explanation he told me.

Jeffery 100% :-)

@m00d that's the power of setting your price higher (yes higher). Read Dan Ariely's great book Predictably Irrational, it has some great examples of psychological triggers that you'll likely benefit from.

When you priced your product at $9.99 you were saying 'I'm cheap and not worth a lot' when you priced at $147 you were saying 'I have so much confidence that this product will bring you masses of value, it's worth it's weight in gold'. Same product, different price, different message to the buyer.

The higher the price the more desirable the item. You do have to deliver on the promise though.

Same reason people will drool over a gold plated iPhone (pennies for the plating) and pay crazy prices for them, when a standard iPhone comes discounted with a contract. Perceived value.

Yep and it also turns paying customers into repeat customers. Some of the ebooks I used to sell got a bit outdated, so I learned to frequently update them and give them away to past customers. That always creates a stream of traffic to my sites and a renewed interest in my newer products.

Lots of ways to like you say "gain rapport with your readers"

Jeffery 100% :-)

If selling is not working for someone, then I'd recommend
that they focus instead on improving their selling skills.

That way, they can build the value and get paid more in
return too.

People don't really value what they get for free and they
tend not to use or benefit from the free information.

Instead, prove the value of your information and people will
pay and benefit more from it (and so will you!).

Sure, give away some information for free but do it very
strategically so that it increases the chances that you
turn a prospect into a buyer.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

True. Consider that the freebies can actually be used by visitors to make money. That is how all of my giveaways are designed to work. After they make their first sale...they will come back for more. And when they do come back they see the value of the higher end paid products, also designed to make them money, and buy.

Jeffery 100% :-)

There you go. And it is exactly what a lot of people do. Well done!

Jeffery 100% :-)

If you give a free report of 12-25 pages in length, I can almost guarantee you hardly any of the people who download that report will go through it. The more work you give people, the less likely it is they will read it. Even worse if they have been given it for free as there is nothing for them to lose by not reading it. You'll find most people would see a report like that, put it to the side, and say they will come back to it later... and very few of them every would.

The more information you give away for free, the less likely it is someone will buy something from you. I learnt this lesson the hard way.

Giving value doesn't have to mean giving a lot of information. It means giving your BEST information. Quality not quantity. The people who join your list should be able to consume the free information right away in just a few minutes. Then they can logically look at your OTO. But if you give people a 12-25 page report, they likely won't purchase anything when they know they still have that free report to read and since most won't even get through the report, hardly any of them will ever buy your OTO.

1. Person opts in to your page.

2. Send them to a sandwich page that gives them the exact information promised. Do this in just a few paragraphs or a very short 2-3 minute video. Remember, quantity of information is NOT what's important here -- quality is.

3. They click continue after consuming your free information and are taken to the one time offer page.

Simple.

That's true. But where people seem to get confused is, they think giving value to people has to mean giving something of value for free.

No, not the case at all.

If I sell a tool to someone that does a job in 2 minutes that would normally take them 2 hours to do themselves, have I not provided value to that person and their business?

You bet I have.

You can sell stuff and still give value -- massive value.

In fact most people will value the stuff they pay for much more than the stuff they are given for free. Most free stuff has no value and that's why it's given away. If you have something of value, don't be afraid to charge for it.