Giving Away eReports for Website Marketing

[Jonleehacker]

I have just finished creating a new eBook (it's short so I called it an eReport).

I don't know how many WordPress bloggers there are on this board, but if you are a blogger or just curious, you can download the report here:

http://www.ninjablogsetup.com/blog/wordpress-tags-report/

Why I'm posting here though is to open a discussion about using free reports (also known as whitepapers) to drive traffic to your websites.

The gist of it is to give away some valuable information for free. This builds trust with your readers and because the report is free, hopefully it will go viral and generate a ton of traffic to your site.

Inside the eReport I say clearly that readers are welcome to pass the report along, email to friends and give it to their email lists.

List Building

I've seen people use a simple report like this to build a huge email list, you can make people opt in before downloading.

Affiliate Marketing

A report like this can be used very effectively as an affiliate marketing tactic. Write up a killer report with great information, and put affiliate links in the report to tools that are naturally used in the content of the report.

Here's an example of an affiliate style free report that I think has done very well for the author:

http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/niche-sites-wp/

If the information is very good quality, then you can approach big blogs with massive readership in related topics and ask them to give the report to their readers.

A lot of the time they will be happy to and the influx of traffic (or affiliate sales or email signups) can go through the roof.

Any comments or questions on my report or the technique in general, I'm all ears!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[royemunson]

this has been a huge tactic for online marketers forever. depending on what
niche you're in i really like doing this strategy.

the only drawback that many ohers have said is that when you start giving
stuff away for free you get freeloaders.

however this is a great way to build and market to a list, overdeliver and build
trust as you stated, and get a viral campaign going.

I will get to the report and see what it says. Great post+++

Joe

 

[NoMoneyDown]

Very nice. Rep++

Looking at the table of contents for the Wordpress eBook you gave, it looks like 95% of the content can be found on Wordpress' own site (altho, I'm sure the author finely tuned it). However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as I've found many times that I have needed to get information about a subject, but had to go to several many different sources to "fully" understand the whole thing. Consolidating information on a subject (especially something complex for many readers) into an easy-to-read document is defintely soemthing profitable.

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

Alot of folks are not familiar with (or are intimidated by) digital products.

Language that says it's 'delivered instantly into your computer' may
help with that. Some folks need the beginner orientation before
they'll allow themselves to be interested.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jonleehacker]

Very nice. Rep++

Looking at the table of contents for the Wordpress eBook you gave, it looks like 95% of the content can be found on Wordpress' own site (altho, I'm sure the author finely tuned it). However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as I've found many times that I have needed to get information about a subject, but had to go to several many different sources to "fully" understand the whole thing. Consolidating information on a subject (especially something complex for many readers) into an easy-to-read document is defintely soemthing profitable.

Thanks for the rep NMD, my point with the eBook was more to convince people why they should use tags, than to break new ground with the instructions.

That said, I haven't seen anyone take the time to produce the step by step how to videos that i included.

Alot of folks are not familiar with (or are intimidated by) digital products.

Language that says it's 'delivered instantly into your computer' may
help with that. Some folks need the beginner orientation before
they'll allow themselves to be interested.

Thanks Mrs. BRKb, it's a very good point. I usually "wife check" stuff like that, but for this ebook I emailed it to her directly so she didn't provide that feedback

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

"Wife check" is good.

Great term.

 

[Jakko]

Hey Jon,

Very nice and helpful videos. Thanks! and reps ++

I have a question, though. I've seen a lot of internet marketers having a landing page with an opt in box. I think the intention of this is to build an email list. But what do or can they do with the list once after they are satisfied building it? What is the purpose of the list?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Luke12321]

The purpose is to retain a list of people who are interested in the information/product that the website presents. How many times have you went to a website that you really got some great information with, but later forgot about it and could not find the site? Maybe not often but it happens a TON, especially to net newbies. If a person adds contact information, the webmaster can remind the person of the site via e-mail ad. It is a great way to keep visitors coming back to your site...plain and simple. Whether it be to introduce a new article or a new product.....it is to stay in touch.

As long as you are providing value to the people who is on the list, they will not be mad at you for sending the e-mail.

Also, you could use your site as a lead generation site and sell the leads to companies who would be willing to pay for such.

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

Haha. I am so slow. You're Ninja Jon? I'm on your list.

 

[Jonleehacker]

LOL, you've found me out!

Did I setup a blog for you, or you just joined my list?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WFFS]

We have done this with great success. Our main website (which is in the process of getting a facelift and becoming an ecommerce site, gives away a free eBook to anyone that becomes a WFFS member.

As a member they get regular updates, articles, expert tips, advanced notification of product launches and upcoming events and member discounts as well. It keeps them informed, interested and learning while also providing us with an opportunity to market to the supporters of our community. And as we have already built raport and they have seen the quality of the information that we produce (some of which we give them for free) it increases exponanitally the % of our conversion rate to sales with those individuals.

We have also used this strategy where we have given away a guide 'Permission to Succeed' to anyone that purchased products/services through some of the investment groups & property investing experts we have aligned with. When they make the purchase on their site or at an event, they are given a web link ie XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx where they can go and collect their free bonus from. When they go to this link, we collect their contact information and let them know that this also adds them to our community from which they will receive regular tips & updates and member discounts.

This free bonus refers back to our website in the content and footers and they also have the option of unsubscribing as soon as they receive the first update from us if they find that the content isn't interesting to them. I have to tell you that we have made sure that this rarely happens. For every 100 people that join, we get 2 people that unsubscribe and the longer they are with us, the more discount coupons and free gifts we give them and we get a very large % of buyers that come back for further purchases after their initial one.

I think that there is a lot of people that are not sure whether they want to trust the information that reaches them through the internet and they prefer purchasing services and products from sources that have proven the quality of their information and have results that speak for themselves. To be able to build that kind of ongoing relationship with customers, I think that it is important to give them free information, tips, bonuses. We want to look after our customers and quite frequently our customers refer their friends & family back to us, so maintaning a positive word of mouth reputation becomes really important for ongoing success.

I hope this gives some insight from the side of someone that is doing it and doing it, successfully. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have in this regard.

Wishing you every success,

Ana

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

No, Jon, no business relationship.
Your SEO must have been pretty
good, tho, because your co. was
found on the internet. Hurrah!

At the time I remember thinking:
a) It must be cold in Canada, and
b) What a cool buiness name/persona
you had picked for yourself.

What's really funny here, is that I
had read this fastlane thread, but
hadn't yet gotten around to your
ebook link in the thread. I had,
however, rec'd this very cool info
--also about tags-- in an email, so
I was thinking I should mention it
to you here. That is, that I should
tell *you* about *you*. haha

 

[marknels]

I think at one time you could write and e-book and just try to sell it. I don't think that is the case anymore. You have to give before you receive. If you are wanting people to sign up on you email list you have to not only give them free content but it has to be good content.

I have just finished creating a new eBook (it's short so I called it an eReport).

I don't know how many WordPress bloggers there are on this board, but if you are a blogger or just curious, you can download the report here:

http://www.ninjablogsetup.com/blog/wordpress-tags-report/

Why I'm posting here though is to open a discussion about using free reports (also known as whitepapers) to drive traffic to your websites.

The gist of it is to give away some valuable information for free. This builds trust with your readers and because the report is free, hopefully it will go viral and generate a ton of traffic to your site.

Inside the eReport I say clearly that readers are welcome to pass the report along, email to friends and give it to their email lists.

List Building

I've seen people use a simple report like this to build a huge email list, you can make people opt in before downloading.

Affiliate Marketing

A report like this can be used very effectively as an affiliate marketing tactic. Write up a killer report with great information, and put affiliate links in the report to tools that are naturally used in the content of the report.

Here's an example of an affiliate style free report that I think has done very well for the author:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If the information is very good quality, then you can approach big blogs with massive readership in related topics and ask them to give the report to their readers.

A lot of the time they will be happy to and the influx of traffic (or affiliate sales or email signups) can go through the roof.

Any comments or questions on my report or the technique in general, I'm all ears!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Luke12321]

I have a question. Let's say for example I am building a website to sell car tires. I notice the keyword "good used tires" is getting searched quite often and the domain goodusedtires.com is avail. I buy it assuming that I could get some good organic traffic from it but I want to direct the traffic to awesomecartires.com website (my main website). What is the best way to do this? Build a blog and add content up for goodusedtires.com and find a way to advertise your main site on the website? Or could I buy the domain name and redirect the traffic to my main website? Would the domain goodusedtired.com show up high the natural SE rankings if I just redirected to my main site? Hope you guys can understand my mumbling....