Upsells in a free report?

That's a great point. If someone promotes your stuff, than stealing might be helpful.

You should be alright offering the link or you can just collect their email and do a follow-up offer, Either way is fine. Just including the link makes life easier. You gave some free material, so I think it is acceptable to get a little something back.

You could of course take this one step further if you wished and actively promote people giving away your report.

The reason I say this is the potential of introducing a 'viral' element to your marketing. Firstly if the information is good (Which I'm sure it is) people are going to read it, and if the clickbank product is closely linked to the material (Which I'm sure it is), some readers WILL buy. So at this point it's a matter of 'mud on the wall' i.e. it's a numbers game and of course this is where the viral element of this gets interesting.

Let's say they your report goes to only 2 people who in turn give it 2 others, and so on, we can quickly see that at each level the number of copies of your report out there doubles and hence so does the visibility of your affiliate links!

So you are getting the initial subscribers AND high visibility of your report.

Anyway just a thought

I have to disagree with you. I can't prove it without a test, so everyone, as always is free to ignore yet another untested opinion, but I won't ever be testing the theory that more profits might result from placing the irritating and unnecessary barrier of requiring a second opt-in, between an interested prospect who has already opted in, and the sales page they are interested in reading after finding value in the gift.

I won't be testing it, for the same reason I won't be testing dark purple text on a black background; I am pretty certain it will dramatically reduce sales, and I think there are always 1000 other ideas to test that are far more likely to increase them.

Assume for a moment, that I'm one of the prospects; let's look at what my buying process might be:

1) I read a squeeze page for the report. It convinces me that there is a possibility the report could be of value to me, so...

2) I reluctantly opt-in (reluctantly, because although the report excites me, if I'm one of the vast majority of IMers who suffer from the IM pandemic of "OCIS", or "Overwhelmingly Crowded Inbox Syndrome", so it pains me a bit every time I sign up for an increase in the overwhelm).

3) I read the report, and that is when the author, assuming the report is high quality, and a good match for me, really sets the hook I was nibbling at when I started reading. I start to look upon him/her, as a good trusted source of excellent money making info. Everything in it makes sense to me, and it fits with what I know, yet contains a couple new, promising sounding gems, so I start feeling glad I signed up.

4) Now that I read it, am excited about the info, and can see the author is no slouch, I become excited about what the person is selling. I think we are all familiar with the thought process that goes "if her/his free stuff is this good, how much more value might there be in the paid offer?"

5) So now, fueled by excitement about the valuable tips I just got, but greedy for a way to do the same thing only in a much bigger, better, or easier way, I happily click the link, anxious to hear more about the benefits hinted at in the ad.

6) So I read the sales page, learn more about the benefits of the offer, and...

7) Decide to buy or not.

8) Regardless of my decision, the value already received is remembered, and I'm still grateful and open to further offers which I know will be arriving shortly. I feel more comfortable that I got on a new list because of the value I received. (asking me to opt-in again would kill that feeling pretty fast; as I still have a cluttered inbox, and was just getting comfortable with my decision to join yet another list, but now we're just revisiting the original discomfort, and adding the irritation of wondering why the first opt-in wasn't enough for you).


The only difference between that and your suggestion, is that you are putting an unnecessary barrier between step 5 where I am excited to check out the paid offer, and step 6 where I get to read about the benefits. If the report and the ad did their job well, I am excited and curious about benefits; not excited to opt-in a second time, and I expect you to deliver what you warmed me up for, an exciting sales page; not go back to making me opt-in again, interrupting my buying process. Once you have an agreement, it is time to stop asking permission to market, and get on with the marketing.

Exactly; I was going to mention that too, but forgot. This advice is what makes the difference between good marketers who really are trustworthy advisers that help people and really earn their commissions, and the other 90% who will rent themselves out as anyone's shill if they like the commissions. It seems those who'll sell anything if they think it will make them money, include some big names, so I guess it works for them, but I think it's highly unethical to sell worthless garbage, and I have dropped off a few lists over the years when I discovered that my "trusted adviser" selling crap put out by crooks. I can only hope they lose a lot of good people from their lists that way, and perhaps a few of them learn to do better.

I remember when reading the original post, thinking it sounded like the op hasn't seen the product, so your advice is a must.

because i need something for people to recieve when they optin, and the thing im selling will make me $5 anyway.