According to Google Keyword search, in July,
there were 923,000,000 people who searched for the
keyword “free.” The related term “free stuff” was typed
in by 2,240,000 visitors.
It just goes to show, some things never change, the power
of “free” is alive and kicking.
Something for nothing is a universal passion and successful
webmasters are aware of this aspect of human psychology. A
very effective method to increase your customer base is
giving something away. The following are several popular
items that will draw people to your site and keep them
returning:
1) Through the magic of java-script, you can have daily
quotes, weather and a world clock displayed on your website.
The beauty is, people do not click off your site to get this
information. They can stay at your site and still see your
services and opportunities. Since quotes and weather are
very popular search items, consider adding this feature to
your site. This is a free service offered by
http://www.onyoursite.com
2) Join a program that enables you to offer your visitors
free software, free e-mail, contests, sweepstakes,
vacations , gift certificates and other merchandise. One
company that does this is:
http://www.cyberbounty.com
They require that you already have 350 visitors a day in
order to be accepted as an affiliate. You also are paid a
small bounty fee each time someone fills out a form and
this itself can be a nice revenue. If you do not have
enough traffic to be accepted, http://www.clickxchange.com
is a company that may be more appropriate.They have less
stringent requirements and will pay you for clicks, leads
and sales received from your website. You can offer free
travel resources, jokes, or newsletters from all the sites
listed above.
3) The latest craze is to give away e-books from your
website. E-books are electronic books, usually in .exe
or .pdf files. Just like regular books, e-books cover a
wide range of topics. One of the big advantages of
e-books is the ability to use hyperlinks to send readers
to your website, an affiliate site, or anywhere else on
the web.
E-books can be downloaded from your own website or
offered to other webmasters as freebies to be downloaded
from their sites. If you are interested in compiling your
own e-book the following resource will be helpful:
http://www.neosoftware.com
http://www.smartcode.com
http://www.bersoft.com
If you write your own e-book, be sure to have it listed at
the many websites that have e-book libraries for their
visitors. Each person who downloads your e-book will be
getting the url to your website within the book and can
click to your site while reading it.
4)The word “Jokes” is a very popular search term. “Joke of
the Day ” Newsletter has over 37,000 subscribers. You can
start an online newsletter (also called “ezine”) that
focuses on your website’s content. Then promote your
website in your ezine to increase your traffic and sales.
Then list it at the following free directories:
http://www.bestezines.com
http://www.e-zinez.com
Courses and Consulting for Authors, Coaches, Consultants and Healers
Ezines, unlike e-books are not files that one downloads
(i.e. .zip or .exe files), but are sent via e-mail to
subscribers.
If you don’t have the background yourself or the time to
write a newsletter you can always do interviews. For
example, each week you can have a recipe from a popular
restaurant. Call a number of restaurants and you’ll find
that if you give them credit they will allow you to print
one of their top recipes in your newsletter.
Once you have a number of subscribers, you can trade ads
with other ezines and/or sell ad space.
5) Offer a contest and have people fill out an entry form.
This is good to customize around one’s website.
If you have a pet website, give away a book on pets or a
free pet supply or free consulting. A website based on
music could give away a CD, or concert tickets.
When you receive the entries you can e-mail those who
submitted entries in order to announce the winners. You
can list in that e-mail some additional items of interest
about your services and opportunities in this e-mail.
Plus, don’t forget to advertise your contest on sites that
list sweepstakes and contests.
Do a search on Google or Yahoo for Contests, Sweepstakes
and Free Stuff. E-mail the webmaster if there isn’t a form
to fill out on the site. Because free offers need to be
updated often this is a database that constantly needs new
listings.
6) You can get free offline publicity for your website by
using press releases and announcements. Check your newspaper
and find “Community News,” “New Products,” “Local
Announcements” and other areas that might list your contest
information.
Remember that giving something away for free is a powerful
traffic generator as well as a way to have your visitors
gain trust in you. Offer something of substance and your
customer base will build significantly, as will the
confidence in your services.
Your Partners In Success,
john tsantalis