What’s the Point of Free Stuff?

How do you make money by giving away free stuff? You may have seen other entrepreneurs around the Internet doing just that, and it is possible. Occasionally, it’s even the best way to go.

You’re not taking the direct route, of course. You don’t make money from a sale on the spot if you give something away for free. Doing this is always a part of a longer term strategy, and you can have any of several when distributing freebies.

• Driving traffic: The whole purpose of a viral report is to drive traffic to your site by building your credibility and putting your links in front of other people’s eyes. You do this by not only giving that viral report away, but by letting anyone who has it give it away for their own benefit. Done correctly, your report and your links spread far and wide.
• Building your list: One of the long-time tried and true tactics is to give away a goodie in exchange for a name and email address, which you put on your list for future marketing pitches. It doesn’t make you money in the near term, but you could wind up with a lot of repeat income down the road from the list it built.
• Building your credibility: Article marketing is a big example of this one. While you’re also trying to create backlinks and build traffic, another big reason for article marketing is to build your credibility as an expert in your field. It works for any niche and it’s free to you too, so if you haven’t considered article marketing before, do so.
• Letting your product sell itself: I see a lot of this with software like Fraps or the Sony Vegas Movie Maker. Fraps gives you a limited version of its product, and spends a lot of time trying to sell you the full, paid version. Sony Vegas gives you a complete version of its product which expires in 30 days, and while you try it out, you become accustomed to it and how it works. In either case, these freebies are intended to sell you on the paid versions of themselves.

Giving away free stuff isn’t the direct approach to making money online, but one or more of these strategies could end up selling more for you in the long run. That’s why you see entrepreneurs on the Internet giving away free stuff.