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Just Because Information Is Valuable Doesn’t Mean You Should Sell It
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
There was a little dust-up this week on marketing forums after an established info-marketer offered to give the URL to a free website… for a price.
In all fairness, included in his offer were video tutorials of him showing how to use the resources on the free website to maximize its potential, and the “how” is definitely more valuable than the “where”.
-However, some people got stuck on the “where” part, as in, “Where does this guy get off charging me to tell me where something is when I could probably find it myself for free?”
It brings up some interesting points about information marketing…
It’s long been said that the core of some info-products could be written on the back of a napkin, and the rest of the book/course is just filler to flesh out the product so buyers feel like they got their money’s worth.
Of course, done correctly, the rest of the product isn’t really filler; it’s concrete examples, case studies, and motivation to actually put the concepts to use. All of those things are valuable, not just “filler”.
With that said, if people are objecting to your sales pitch, it means you didn’t package it right. The difference between a $3 downloadable ebook and a $197 home study course can sometimes be nothing but perception.
In Information Marketing, Perception
Is MORE IMPORTANT Than Reality
-That’s because it’s all subjective.
Let’s say your friend can’t find his car keys and he’s getting really frustrated because he’s running late… and you know where they are.
You have information that’s valuable to your friend. You know where his keys are.
Some info-markers will insist that they have the right to charge money to tell their friend where his keys are.
And They DO Have That Right.
…But is it a good idea to insist on it? Suppose you said to your friend, “Pay me ten bucks and I’ll tell you where your car keys are”. What do you think your friend would say?
He’d probably stare at you in amazement and say, “YOU KNOW WHERE MY KEYS ARE?!! Don’t be a jerk, tell me where they are!”
And if you insisted on the $10, your friend may not look at you quite the same way again. Is that worth it?
It’s All In The Way You Pitch It…
That doesn’t mean you can’t make money from your knowledge, you just have to be smart about it. What if, instead of giving your friend the impression you were holding his keys hostage for money, you said this?:
“If I find your keys for you, you’re buying lunch next time we go out, OK?”
When he shrugs and says sure, walk straight to his keys and hand them to him with a smile and say, “Don’t forget, you’re buying”.
You’ll get your $10 as a free lunch, because done that way it’s playful, and friends honor playful agreements like that.
It’s all about not pissing off your friends. -And if you don’t consider your customers friends, well… That’s a whole other story we’ll get into later. 
Free Lunch For My Friends
I give away an absurd amount of stuff on my free training site:
Internet Marketing Course .com
Why? Well, I started off creating videos for my friends who call me with Internet marketing questions, and then I figured I might as well put them online to help other people too.
eCommerce has been very, very good to me, and my favorite thing is to do the “magic” on already established websites to help drastically increase their sales. So there’s benefit to me to help others get to where they have established websites, because if I can help them get there, some of them may later ask me to “do the magic”… but I need them to get there before that can happen.
Also, I’ve been doing this a long time, and at this point testimonials and exuberant feedback from people who I can help is much more exciting and fun than purely just making money.
I’ve done plenty of work helping rich people get richer, and I’ve made a ton of money doing it… but after awhile it gets boring… I need to feel like I’m doing some good with my efforts, otherwise it all starts to feel a bit greedy and grubby, doesn’t it?
What do you think, sound reasonable? - Tim Gross
PS - It was my birthday yesterday, and the first thing I saw when I got up was an unsolicited email from a guy who’d stumbled on to Internet Marketing Course .com and was raving about how much valuable training I was giving away free, and thanking me, etc. Just between you and me, it was the best part of my day. That’s what I’m in this for.
PPS - Awhile back I stumbled on to somebody holding ME hostage… They were telling their visitors about all my free training video tutorials they could get, but they could only get the link if they subscribed to his free newsletter.
Kind of funny, and kind of cool… hey, my free content is worth holding for ransom.
Topics: Funny, Marketing, Oops (Bad Move) | Trackback URL