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The Danger Of Giving Stuff Away Free
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | February 15, 2007
The word “free” is claimed to be the most powerful word in the English language. People love free stuff. The bad news is that they don’t assign much value to stuff they get for free either.
Case In Point:
A couple years ago I wrote a very specific, detailed report on how to take advantage of a niche opportunity on the Internet. (The concept had made me a bunch of money for very, very little effort, and it was something that others could do as well if they applied themselves a little.)
Being a nice guy, I gave away the report for free to existing customers, clients, and subscribers.
Nothing happened.
I mean, no one emailed me to say they were using what I’d shown them. Most people probably didn’t even download it, let alone read it, let alone USE it.
After all, how valuable could it be? It was FREE!!
It bugged me a little that this valuable little report I’d written was basically going to waste, so I wrote up a little sales letter for it and offered it for sale.
The Result: 9,795 people paid good money for it.
The Even Better Result: A lot of people who paid for it USED it. (If they didn’t, they’d feel like they’d wasted their money, ay?)
It’s a frustrating situation for me… I like helping people - But time and time again it’s been proven that if the recipient doesn’t have to incur a cost to get the help, they won’t USE the help… So the help in fact turns out to be no help at all. (sigh)
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