Free The Six-Figure Second Income: How to Start and Grow a Successful Online Business Without Quitting Your Day Job by David Lindahl, Jonathan Rozek Page B

opportunity ever existed in nature, why
    would you be tel ing me about it? Why wouldn’t you just keep it to yourself and become
    richer than Bil Gates?
    The most effective way to counteract this radar system is to remember and act on this
    principle: Give Before You Get.
    The snake-oil salesmen want you to get their stuff right away. They tantalize you with a
    hundred different promises in the hope that one of them resonates with you.
    Instead, use the free-sample technique of giving before you ask for something. Give
    your potential customers something of real obvious value with no strings attached. When
    you do that, several excel ent things happen.
    • You separate yourself from al the Buy Now! pushy people.
    • You demonstrate your expertise in the topic.
    • You provide value for nothing, and that builds confidence in potential customers.
    • Those customers are left thinking: “ Wow, if al that quality information is what
    this person has for free, I wonder how good the paid stuff is—it must be real y great .”
    We talked some time ago about how competitive some markets are. I can guarantee
    you that, even in the most competitive of marketplaces, the vast majority of vendors wil
    never offer something of value for free. You wil stand out in the very best light.
    This phenomenon is not limited to just free special reports, of course. If you deliver a
    free audio download from a web site you might accomplish the same thing. Don’t think
    either/or, but instead think both/and. There’s no one single Silver Bul et, as we
    established in Chapter 1. Therefore, think about coming out with a special report and
    later perhaps doing a free audio or video, and so on.
    2. Getting-Started Kit
    This usual y takes the form of a series of special reports, plus perhaps a CD or a DVD,
    al spread out for prospects to see. The idea is to show lots of material for a fairly low
    price. High content plus low price is another way to say high value. It can simply be a
    repackaging of other items you offered separately, including free ones.
    3. Home-Study Course
    This has been the bread-and-butter of the info products business for some time. It’s like
    the Getting-Started Kit, only bigger. This wil be the biggest product that many people in
    your customer list wil ever buy because they want a complete system but don’t have the
    time or money to invest in a multi-day live event.
    The beauty of a home-study course is it can be composed of content you created for
    other purposes. For instance, you may have offered a teleseminar or one-day event
    where a number of speakers presented information. Those are products in their own
    right, but the transcripts can become the basis for your home-study course manual.
    It’s common for a home-study course to contain a manual in a three-ring binder, plus
    audio CDs and a few special reports. It doesn’t hurt to show a big spread of stuff people
    wil receive for their several hundred bucks.
    4. Sample Newsletter
    This is again in the spirit of give before you get. Why not give people a sample of your
    existing newsletter and show them what they’re missing each month? Some marketers
    swear by newsletters that are one single page of great content. Other people like to give
    12 to 16 pages of good but less-dense content. There’s no one right answer and both
    ends of the spectrum are worth testing.
    5. Book
    This could real y be the topic of several chapters and we won’t do that. You know that I
    like books or you wouldn’t be holding one of mine in your hands right now. However, they
    are a great deal of work for a list price of around $25, especial y considering what other,
    easier products you can sel for $25 or even more.
    Stil , there’s nothing like a book to get wide exposure. It’s a great product format for
    later, after you’ve already made a bunch of money. On the other hand, if you’re
    particularly itching to become a published author, you need not wait. If that fire is in