How I Make Money Giving away Free Stuff

January 27th, 2010 | 30 comments

make money with free products About a year and half ago I wrote a blog post outlining how I make money with free reports. I go over the basics of how I do it in that post, but since then my strategies have evolved and I’m making MUCH more money with my freebies.

So instead of editing that post, I decided to write a new one for you.

What I’m about to explain to you is actually one part of my overall Info-Product Success Formula, the exact formula that I’ve been using for years to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, the free report part can be done separately in many different models, so I’m going to give you that little nugget for free.

Lots of people give away free reports, ebooks, scripts etc. but I’d say 90% of those people are leaving alot of money on the table, just like I was for a long time, before I realized the multiple ways in which I could leverage my freebies for much more money.

The #1 thing that comes to mind when thinking of freebies is a “lead.” In other words getting names and email address to build your list. That’s good because that’s the #1 advantage, but if you stop there you’re leaving ALOT of money on the table!

Here’s what I do and don’t underestimate ANY part of this process, because it will ALL make you alot of money:

Give away something of value for opt-in – It could be a report, ebook, script, software, plan etc. (build your list)

Set up a One-Time-Offer – that appears directly after opt-in. This should be a VERY relevant product! Something that goes with that product very well (*Important – if it’s not relevant it’s not going to make you any money.) Makes sure it’s a good, quality product and offer a deep discount! A good, relevant OTO can convert at 40% or more! That’s alot of money to be leaving on the table for those who don’t offer OTO’s on freebies!

Set up an affiliate program! – This is something that very few people do. Affiliates get 50% commission on all OTO sales. Not only does this boost your opt-ins because now it’s not just you promoting your squeeze page, but it increases your direct income as well! People love freebies, so it’s an easy money maker for affiliates because they make money by giving their list/blog/audience something of quality for free.

I still like to sell products from time to time. Typically products that require a large initial investment and provide an incredible value, but in most cases my free reports/products earn me much more money both directly and indirectly than my paid products.

So, do ALL three of those things! I promise you, they will all add to your current and future income if implemented properly!

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30 comments

Neil (9 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:02 pm

Hi Josh

The one part of this that really hadn’t occurred to me (for some reason) was the idea of having an affiliate program for the free product and paying the affiliates based on the OTO sales.

Great tip, many thanks!
Ed - Auto Dialer Software (2 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:16 pm

Definitely an area that I need to focus more on.

As always, that’s for the reminder on staying with the basics of the business to create more success.
Kris (6 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:18 pm

Josh, if you don’t have your own product, is using an affiliate program for the OTO something that could work well?
Brian (6 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:21 pm

I have squeeze pages on all of my sites, but it never occurred to me to provide an OTO right after opt in, I was just forwarding them to an affiliate program. Somewhat similar, but its not giving the sense of urgency stating this will be the only time you will see this offer. Thanks for the tip.
Simon Bell (10 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:26 pm

I agree with Neil and Brian, I’d never thought to affiliate the OTO. Great idea!

Thanks for another top quality post Josh

Cheers
Simon
Nando (2 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:43 pm

Thanks for sharing such sound money making info.

I’ve only recently begun to focus on this and you’re 100% spot on about the effectiveness and profitability of this method.

Great stuff as always,
-Nando
Doloress (1 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Hi Josh,

I’ve recently implemented those ideas but I’m having trouble getting traffic and finding places to give away my free reports. Any suggestions?
Franck Silvestre (17 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 5:58 pm

When I discovered this strategy, I implemented it right away, and I earned a lot of money (I still do).

At first, I didn’t want to add an upsell (because I was afraid to upset my new subscribers), but now, the very firs thing I do whenever I create a new squeeze page is adding the upsell.

Franck
Quincy - Self Development (5 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 6:07 pm

@ Kris – I’m sure Josh would agree, that yes you can use an affiliate product as the OTO. But make sure that it’s relevant to whatever you’re giving away.

Also keep in mind that since it’s an affiliate product, you won’t be able to implement your OWN affiliate program as Josh suggests in step 3.

If you don’t have your own product, you could look into offering a resale rights or private label rights product that’s relevant to the product you’re giving away. This not only gives you the ability to get paid directly – but then you can tie in your own affiliate program.

Hope that helps.

Josh, I love the simplicity of this tip!
Peggy Baron (13 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 6:13 pm

Thanks for the reminder, Josh. I need to go back to some of my first free offers and leverage them. I was like Franck when I started, afraid to upset new subscribers, but I’ve come a long way since then.

Thanks,
Peggy
Lisa (8 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 6:48 pm

Ugh, I’m being pushed more and more toward “the list” and this post pushes me even more…so I guess I’d better add it to my list of things to do for Feb.
David Rogers (3 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 7:14 pm

I’ve got the free ebook set up to build my list and I’m working towards another ebook as a OTO. But affiliates? Do you have to do this through Clickbank or is there a simpler system to deal with this?
Sue Dyson (2 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 7:19 pm

Great advice, Josh. Thanks. I’m about to write up my first freebie offer for my site and I came across this. I’m being careful not to let the fact that I don’t have an OTO yet stop me from continuing to take action. I can always go back and update the freebie report once I figure out the OTO and affiliate stuff. Thanks again. Solid.
Maurice TheCaymanHost (66 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 7:28 pm

Couldn’t agree more with the OTO aspect.

With optins and downloads I usually send visitors to an OTO – and yes, usually using affiliate programs, or, more recently, CPA offers. It’s amazing how much extra can be made by sending someone to a good and relevant CPA offer after they sign up or before they download whatever you are giving them, be it software, ebooks etc.

Josh is 100% correct – make it relevant or it will bomb because people hate being distracted from what they are focusing on at that moment – add some value to what has already tempted them and you’re often onto a winner
Herschel Lawhorn (7 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 7:31 pm

Josh, I want to thank you for this post. I have been trying to come up with something to do with a lot of free stuff that I have. I will start doing what you suggest here and see how it goes.
Jenny Evans Dunham (3 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 7:37 pm

Thanks for a great outline, Josh. I am using a free product but had not thought about adding an OTO to my squeeze page.

I was also intrigued by the fact that you actually make more money from giving away free offers than from selling products. I look forward to trying that for myself.

Jenny
Quincy - Self Development (5 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 8:47 pm

@ David – There may be other ways that I’m not thinking about right now, but you can use the $7 script for something like this.

It’s a simple script that you can install on your site, that gives you the ability to setup an affiliate program quickly and inexpensively – the script is only 7 bucks.

Google: “$7 secrets” and it should be the first listing.
Ray (3 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 10:38 pm

Thanks for the strategy. The simplicity makes it achievable for anyone. Where do you giveaway the free reports other than article resource boxes?
Joy (2 comments.)
27th January, 2010 at 11:04 pm

Great tip, thanks. I’ve done this a little bit and seen results, must plug on and do more.
Linda (8 comments.)
28th January, 2010 at 2:17 am

I’m yet to offer a free product and build a list but I am loving the idea of this. Josh how does one go about setting up the affiliates for this? Thanks for another great post telling us how to leverage freebies and so increase our income
David Jay (2 comments.)
28th January, 2010 at 2:56 am

@David – e-junkie.com has a simple affiliate program. No upfront fee and no waiting period. I think its $5/month for 10 products (works for physical products too) but I got 6 months free (Google e-junkie coupon code).

If your OTO is discounted 50% do you get any complaints from affiliates that get 50% less commission than if there referrals pay full price after opting in and being marketed too?
Calvin (5 comments.)
28th January, 2010 at 6:09 am

>> Give away something of value for opt-in â€“ It could be a report, ebook, script, software, plan etc. (build your list)

So it’s back to list-building

There are two things I’m curious about:
1) Does list-building work if we are doing affiliate marketing? Wouldn’t the prospect get irritated to receive 2 e-mails, one from the affiliate marketer, i.e. me, and one more from the vendor?

2) IIRC, there is some CAN-SPAM or something rule that we need to have our physical address somewhere on the email, right? If our physical address is not in the US (for example Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia or Singapore), will this affect sales negatively?

I’ve never seen any IM guru write about these two issues, and considering how troublesome setting up an aweber/getresponse account (or setting up phplist) is, I’ve never seriously thought about building my own list.

I think it would be great if there was a cheap list-building course or report that addresses all these issues:
- legal stuff
- setup of aweber/getresponse
- setup of phplist or some other email list software
- integration with $7 script?
- content for autoresponder emails
- how to get prospects from the email back to my website or the vendor’s order page
- best practices for affiliate marketers
Allen (6 comments.)
28th January, 2010 at 9:52 am

Hey Josh, very cool, very simple and very doable.

Do you have anythoughts on promotoing a OTO vs. a relevant affiliate program? I’m guessing the first one builds you a list of buyers (instead of someones elses list of buyers).

Thanks
Andrew Edmonds (3 comments.)
28th January, 2010 at 11:15 am

Thanks for the post, Josh. I spend so much of my free time link building and sorting out the SEO for my site that ways to MAKE money in this way tends to pass me by, but this may push me to finding the time.
Tom Moy (1 comments.)
31st January, 2010 at 6:52 am

Great article Josh. I have heard of the techniques that you mention and heard they do work. I am just getting started in the blogosphere. Thanks.
Paul (3 comments.)
31st January, 2010 at 5:45 pm

Good Stuff Josh…But how does someone start an “affiliate program”. I don’t have a product of my own. Is it advisable to use other people’s products? Or is it best to develop my own?

Paul
Gary (11 comments.)
1st February, 2010 at 3:01 pm

Smart, straightforward advice as usual Josh!

Another thing I’m working on at the moment – if you have your own product and a free book that promotes it – allow affiliates to easily rebrand your free book and earn commissions on sales of your ‘money’ product using a neat tool called ‘Ultimate Rebrander’ – just search and you’ll find it!
Learn affilate marketing
18th February, 2010 at 3:44 am

Great tips you pretty much summed it up I use a lot of these strategies myself to build up my opt – in list they are very effective. Good job on this post!
Make Money with Michael Erik (3 comments.)
1st March, 2010 at 10:22 am

Josh

I was actually prior Army several years back, in the Infantry. I remember those days quite well. Had Internet been big back then, when I got out in 1995, I would have definitely done what you did. It didn’t START getting big until about 1997ish and by then I was too occupied with too many other things, work, school, pursuing a career, etc. Let me say though that I understand what you did and your drove to do so completely bro – amazing what some time in the Army can do to motivate someone to improve themselves and their status! Anyhow I am finally now getting real serious about this stuff online and want to tell you that all your info is superb and honest. I’ve been following you for about a year now. Thank you for the great info. Hey if you get a chance, in your super busy schedule, please give me some pointers “offline” for my site and my offerings. I have not done a sales page yet I instead PDF’d it and regret that. I want to get a sales page going but not sure what is most recommended. I also offer an affiliate program and have written about 15 eBooks in the past 2 years all for this niche! Anyhow from one former soldier to another, Hooah!
MALIK (1 comments.)
22nd March, 2010 at 1:56 pm

This article really summarizes nicely the concept of customer focused marketing by giving to receive, and how you may enhance your business with this idea …