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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Why Marketers are Always Giving Away Free Stuff...

Hello readers!

I wanted to simply write an informative post for a change, instead of telling you about someone's website or anything like that.

This post will simply answer why internet marketers (especially in the 'work at home' or 'make money online' niche) are always giving away free stuff.

There's two reasons behind it. One is semi-physical, the other psychological.

The reason they give away free stuff is to primarily obtain contact information on you so they can contact you in the future with future promotions and such.

So, you might think..."oh, well, they just wanna plug me other crap, right?"

Pretty much. :) That's why a lot of marketers do it.

But...there's an underlying reason why these internet marketers will give you something free, even if it should've been SOLD in the first place, because it was THAT good...

And that reason is this...

The Law of Reciprocity.

This Law of Reciprocity is defined at byregion.net as "to give and take mutually; to return in kind or even in another kind or degree."

You give them something of pure value...you get something of pure value LATER ON (preferably $$$)

I know you've seen similar rules and ethics in regards to Reciprocity.

In Christianity, the Bible states at Luke 6:31

31And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

In Islam, Muhammed is attributed to saying:

“That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind."

Or, it's more commonly said "Do unto others, as you would have done unto you"

In a sense, you provide someone with good value...you get back good value down the road (either as a favor or $$$)

I look at some of these gurus, who during every pre-launch they have for their BIG product, they give away something that's really helpful or useful for free. They collect names and emails along the way, though.

Then on launch day, all these people he gave something really useful to, they get an email, saying that his new product just went live, and X amount of copies are available (of course, not enough for everyone to have..but that's another lesson I'll teach you someday :) )

So, since these thousands of pre-launch visitors have something of true value from Mr. X the Guru...they feel a sense of reciprocating to him. They know they got something good from him for free, and now Mr. X has to make his living somehow. So, now that he has 'the next big thing'...they gotta get it from him!

The Golden Rule STRIKES AGAIN in the guru's favor...all because he GAVE them something from the very beginning of their short-term online relationship.

Think about this next time you're trying to collect lead or subscriber data for future promotion. This is more commonly known as lead generation or list building.

Hope this helps you guys out!

T.M. - tmharris.net

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