Day 26: Give something away for free

Today I want to talk about how to use free stuff that you give away to get more traffic.

If you have an ebook, special report, piece of software, or any digital info that is of value to others you can give it away to others and get traffic in return.

The goal here is to give away something of real value and get readers to forward it to their friends.

To keep things simple we are going to assume that you’re giving away an ebook though these ideas apply to other things as well.

Creating the ebook

You must start with something of value, cannot stress this enough, people will not forward something to their friends unless it has real value.

In creating the ebook make sure that it contains a link to your site in the header/footer and at the beginning (the most read page).

For software be sure to also place a link to your site in a place where the user can see it and click on it.

NOTE: Make double sure the link is clickable and that your site does come up correctly. Never put a url in it and assume people will open up a new browser wind and type in the url. People are lazy.

Put in a copyright statement encouraging others to pass on the ebook as they wish as well a disclaimer statement.

Here is what I put on the first page of Nick’s Traffic Tricks:

This report is free. You may give it away. In fact, I encourage you to give it away.

This report can be sold but I recommend not selling it as anyone can get for free at NicksTrafficTricks.com/nicks-traffic-tricks-2008/

This guide can be combined with any package or bundle, sold or given away.

The only thing I require is that the report is not modified in any manner.

The strategies in this report can be to generate a flood of traffic to almost any website.
However, what you do with these techniques is up to you. Because I don’t know you, don’t know your skills and – most important of all - don’t know how persistent you’ll be, I can’t make any guarantees.

In the introduction & conclusion portion of you ebook, ask people to send it to others. Sometimes it works best to simply ask others to send it to others.

When you link to your site make sure the link is enticing, promising additional information.

Many ebooks have an appendix at the end. Instead of putting an appendix in your ebook put the appendix on your site and link to it. This not only sends traffic to your site but also allows you to keep your appendix up to date, adding further value to your ebook.

Keep your ebook relatively focused on single subject. If it solves a problem make sure it solves it well and solves nothing else.
Viral ebooks tend to small and easy to download, making it easier for others to download and email to others.

Add page numbers, have fonts be standard size

Have a minimum of 3 people proof read it.

Packaging

If you link to the ebook in pdf format then when people click on the link to the pdf it will automatically load the pdf in the browser.

If instead you link to a zipped file (which contains the pdf) they will be forced to download it to their computer, making it easier for them to read it later and forward it to others.

In the zip file also include a file that links to your website.

To do this open a new file in NotePad and save it.

An example filename might be Traffic_Tricks_Blog.htm

Be sure that the filename contains no spaces, is something that gets the viewers attention, and ends with .htm

What this chunk of HTML code does is tell the browser to immediately redirect to:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com

Simply replace http://www.nickstraffictricks.com with your own url and then save.

Be sure to test your redirect!

Now everyone unzipping the file will see a file and if they open they will be sent to your site.

You can do this for affiliates stuff too. Just don’t abuse it. If you irritate people they won’t pass on your ebook.

Distribution

Now that your ebook package is ready there a many ways to distribute your freebie and start receiving traffic:

1-Make a page on your site outlining the ebook and its benefits with a big DOWNLOAD 2HERE graphic and ask your friends to put it on their sites.
2-Put a link to your freebie in your email signature
3-Post on WarriorForum with a link to your freebie
4-Upload your freebie to Scribd
5-Use forums to distribute your ebook. Read Traffic From Forums
6-There are many people with large email lists in your niche. Find out who they are. If my niche was Poodles I would Google poodle email list or poodle newsletter or poodle news and see who comes up in the search results.
Chances are they have a sizable email list. Subscribe to their list and respond to one of their emails.
What you’re going to offer them is to have their affiliate link at the top (header) of every page and you keep the link to your own site in the footer. All the list owner has to do is send an email to everyone on the list with a link to your ebook. The list owner wins by having an affiliate link in the ebook being distributed and you win by having everyone on the list read an ebook with a link to your site!
7-Find other people selling related products and offer to have your ebook bundled with their product. In return give them a link in the header of your report