Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Never Underestimate The Value of Free

January 12, 2010 | Marketing

This is a guest post from Sharron Field from KKomp.com.

Do you get the feeling that internet marketing is becoming difficult? These days, unless people know and like you, it’s harder and harder every day to get started.

If an unknown internet marketer offers a product that guarantees to make the customer a millionaire overnight, without any effort on the customer’s part; everyone, probably quite rightly, shouts “SCAM!” and walks away. If that same unknown person offers a product where the customer needs to do something themselves in addition to leaving it all to the product to do for them, everyone shouts “CRAP PRODUCT”, moans that they have to get off their arse, and they walk away. Result = no sales in either case.

If the product claims to do everything for the customer with no effort on the customer’s part, the customer sees it as a scam and doesn’t buy it. Yet when a product turns up that asks the customer to do something more than sitting on their arse waiting for results, the customer complains because they have to do something rather than having the product do it all for them.

Sometimes you just can’t win. It’s heads they win or tails you lose. But, if you’re already known, it’s a different matter.

You’d be surprised how many people still judge a book by its cover too. While I was promoting 3Day Money, a top-quality product from David Risley, I saw a girl on Twitter asking for business opportunities. I gave her my affiliate link to 3Day Money, which she immediately said was a scam as nobody can get rich in 3 days without lifting a finger.

If she’d have bothered to read anything or watch the video then she’d have seen that the course is designed to last a minimum of 3 days, and is a guide to setting up an online marketing business which involves her doing something. A lot of work in all honesty.

The thing was that she didn’t know me and she’d never heard of David Risley. She didn’t know about David’s reputation for a quality product every time. Also, I was a new Twitter contact who could easily be another scammer for all she knew.

No internet marketing strategy seems to work without some previous kind of relationship with the potential customer.

Well, in that case, since it appears to be so difficult for any internet marketer to sell anything, how come a few internet marketers are making a six-figure income?

I’ll repeat the last thing I said before that question was asked:

No internet marketing strategy seems to work without some previous kind of relationship with the potential customer.

The answer is… by building up a reputation, and by building up relationships with people as a consequence of that; on social media, on lists, on forums, on other blogs.

Once people get to know and trust the marketer, they start to buy the marketer’s product. As a thank-you, or even as a precursor to any sale, the marketer gives things away. The customer and potential customers continue to get value from the products they’ve bought from the marketer, and also from the free products that the marketer has distributed via their blog or otherwise.

Suddenly people are actually queuing up to buy the marketer’s latest product! They were sold by the quality of the free stuff being given away.

They haven’t seen what’s inside the product. However, they know that it’ll be of great value because they’ve never seen anything less from the marketer.

The marketer now has a reputation. The marketer is known, liked, trusted, and people will buy the marketer’s products. All because of the value of free content / value-packed giveaways.

So, what valuable information are you giving away for free?

Sharron Field is a tech-blogger of 18 months, and a BlogMasters student. She uses her blog to share computer and electronics knowledge, as well as for marketing purposes.

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  • Whether it's great content, marketing like crazy, building one great blog or 10 great blogs you really do have to have the reputation to make it out there. If this weren't true everyone would be making the big bucks.

    Get known for the person who delivers great products and fast and does it well. keep adding value without question. Just some things to remember.

    I'm new at all of this and blogging in general but I'm working my way up the ladder slowly.

    Great post, Sharron! :)
  • Dear Sharron

    This is applicable in your day to day life as well why only in blogging world. You never bought any product of a company whose name you never heard. Once they established themselves you will ask their products.

    So this is applicable everywhere ... not only in blogging.
  • I have exactly the same experience when it comes to affiliate marketing. I struggled for the first year or so. I tried to sell affiliate products, but few bought, even though I told them that it was a legitimate product.

    Now, after I've written two ebooks (I like to think that they are of high quality) which I am giving away for free, and after I have posted hundreds of posts on my blogs, written many articles, posted hundreds on various discussion forums, and participated on many blogs, things are really happening.

    It's a lot easier, in fact it's easy to sell when you know people.
  • Your point about the relationship between buyer and seller is spot on. That's why list-building works so well. And you're absolutely right that you have to prove you have something of value to give, by giving it away for free first, before you have a right to expect anyone to pay for it. Seth Godin calls it building a tribe. It's why social networking works so well, if used properly - because it allows you as a marketer to build a relationship with your future customers.
  • To answer your question, I practically and pretty much give everything for free on my blog!

    I have something like 2-3 gigabytes of hard drive occupied by useless, junk and waste-of-time internet marketing and money making ebooks on my hard drive. However, there are a few light spots in all that darkness - useful ebooks that don't just spread the b.s. and hype. And, if that particular ebook has resell rights and giveaway rights, I simply upload it to RapidShare and upload it.

    Since I don't get much traffic, I don't see a lot of downloads, but I've seen a few people download some of the ebooks and I am sure that if they just tried following what's been written in those ebooks, they must have experienced at least some progress.

    Practically all of the useful ebooks and products, even software, I have on my laptop I downloaded for free. I can even say that best things are almost always free. It's paradox actually...
  • ChelleWrites
    Great post, thanks! This is how I feel when buying one of my favorite author's books. If I've been reading them for awhile, I don't care what the reviews say, or what the hard cover price is, if I feel sure it's going to be a good story, based on the books I've bought in the past, I buy it.

    However, an author is only going to get one or two chances to produce the product I'm expecting. If I get burned too many times at a hard cover price, I'm probably going to wait for the paperback, and eventually, I may even wait for a used copy or stop buying completely. But, my expectation of the quality I can expect will always determine the price I'm willing to pay.

    Thanks again!!
  • I'd like to echo Sharron's post above...

    Personal branding is extremely powerful in the word of marketing, whether traditional or online. You have to show your potential customers that you are willing to give them the value they seek before you can ever expect to gain something in return. Give without want in order to have... For some, it is a difficult concept to understand, yet when you do, you'll find that your personal brand becomes much more valuable to others and eventually they will reward you for it!

    Thanks for sharing David & Sharron!
  • Nice post .. and yes it is true to the fact that one's it is one's reputation that can really help to sell stuff online especially for early and new bloggers like me .
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