One buzzphrase everyone really loves is ‘moving the free line‘. To simplify this, it means giving away your best stuff to build authority and relationships to those who use the content.
Pushing the free line, isn’t a new tactic of promoting your business – it’s the fundamentals of networking with others. If you’re serious about making money online with your services, you’ll definitely want to utilize the following strategies.
What is a good freemium service?
You may be wondering what is a good freemium service to promote online.
Here are a few which come to mind:
- A free ebook
- Free video series
- Consulting services
- Life coaching
- Content analysis
- Copywriting
The list goes on and is only limited by what you choose to promote. The key is to provide a service which others will actually want; this depends on your niche and community.
Why give it all away?
Here’s the thing about the internet: everyone expects things for free.
You can’t hold it against web users, the net was made to share information, first and foremost. It only took a few years later that people realize you could use the web for business. The core is still meant to share information freely.
Two main reasons why you should give your best things away:
- It helps build authority/trust within your niche
- It shows your knowledge and can lead to sales
To create an powerful brand online, you need to create remarkable content. If your content becomes a valuable source for the community, people will consider you the ‘go to’ person on the subject.
Likewise, if you give away your best stuff, you’ll be able to show people how much you know. People demand proof of your work, a freemium service will put you in the perfect position to answer any of their questions or concerns.
How does this make me money?
Consider this: if you provide someone with a great service absolutely free, don’t you think they would be compelled to try out your paid services?
Because you are giving away such great content, people will be inherently interested and passionate in what else you have to offer.
The strategy when giving away your freemium services is not to make sales. You don’t want to be pushy with others as it will drive them away.
Instead, give them your full attention and build a relationship through actual, genuine care for these people. If you give people something remarkable, they will come back to you in the future.
A few things you could later sell are:
- A full course on your niche subject
- 1+ hour of consultations
- A complete report on their website or products
- Design services
- Marketing and promotion blueprints
The key is to have your paid service complimentary of your freemium. After the first contact, you want to have people itching to get more – at this point, you’ve built a great relationship and can begin to make money from your skills.
Creating a freemium promotion page
The best way to promote your freemium services is to utilize your online brand platform such as a blog, website or social profile.
Within your platform, go ahead and create a page dedicated to promoting your fremium service and how visitors can contact you.
Here are 5 quick tips on creating a freemium promotion page that sells:
- Introduce yourself. Tell your visitors who you are and how long you’ve been doing these services.
- Explain the benefits. Don’t just tell people your services, tell them what they will gain by utilizing your freemium service.
- Tell them how it works. Phone, email, Twitter – all of these are great ways for those to contact you and participate in your freemium service.
- Give it away for free, seriously. Don’t use this promotion page to sell your services, just use it for the freemium service without pressure.
- Use a simple contact form + guideline. Short of telling them how you’ll be giving them your service, provide a simple contact form so people can ahold of you. Be sure to also include guidelines of name, topics and contacts so you can get everything on the ball.
Examples of freemium promotion pages
The easiest way to understand creating a great freemium promotion page is to show off others which have it down pat.
Take a look at a few of these and find ways to implement these examples into your own promotional page:
Final thoughts and your next step
By now you’ve seen the benefits of creating a promotional page for your services. You’ve learned that giving away a freemium service is the best way to build authority and relationships – now it’s your turn.
Whichever platform you use, go now and create a page dedicated to giving away your service. Add a nice graphic where people can easily find this page. Provide your contact form and you’re ready to rock.
Do you have a service page? If not, how do you plan to promote your services?
Image by Mick 0
Hi Murray,
I like it – a “freemium page.” Not quite sure where I would put it.
So busy this week putting together a services page as a matter of fact. I have committed to “ship” tomorrow. I will probably beg you to take a peek and advise when it is ready.
Write on!
.-= Tammi Kibler @ Write More. Write Fast. Write Now.´s last blog ..Writing Career: Find a Path, Beat It into Submission =-.
@Tammi – best of luck your your ‘ship’
– I’m all game to take a look if you want, I’m really intrigued on what you’re working on currently.
Hey Murray Lunn.! I must say blogs are one of the unique sources from where any one can gain the precious knowledge completely free by just clicking some pages.
well you are looking cool in your pic..
.-= graphic design´s last blog ..40 Funny Celebrity Caricatures – Play with stardom! =-.
Another awesome post Murray.
Building authority and relationship is very important.
Ahhh..These free ebooks is common. Everyone is giving free ebook, i think one should try copy writing, life coaching or free video series..!
Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great Post murray. Keep up the good work.
~Dev
.-= Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..Tips To Sky Rocket Your Adsense Revenue =-.
@Dev – the great thing is that once you build one thing, you can use your skills to make it even better. Since you have an ebook ready, it would be simple to translate it into audio or video.
Coaching is always great because once you build that connection, it’s going to stick with people if you do it right
Good points Murray, why would anyone want to buy from you without a free sample? Even ice cream places give a free taste. I like Dev’s point too that e-books are so common that a different freebie is a good idea. One you have the potential customer’s contact info you can market your paid products in the future.
.-= Jennifer Barry´s last blog ..7 Debt Survival Tips =-.
@Jennifer – there’s a small ice cream shop not far from where I live and they use free samples really effectively. They allow you to get samples from each flavor via nozzle dispenser. People line up to try all the flavors and it works well because it doesn’t slow down the business unlike how if they would scoop it directly.
By giving away the samples, it lets people get to know what you have to offer and decide on their own terms.
Thanks for the great post. I am actually in the middle of writing my first ebook that I have decided to give away as part of my list building efforts. Adding the page examples was very useful.
.-= Dan Keller´s last blog ..If Content and Promotion are not King – what is? =-.
Thanks for pointing this out Murlu, it’s a VERY effective concept if done correctly.
Many people get the “giving something away for free” idea, but still haven’t caught onto the fact that it has to be some of their BEST stuff. Ultimately, those who don’t put forth their best effort when giving away “freemium” products and services lose the edge they could have gained from increased credibility.
For example, I created my ‘Online Income Formula’ report which ended up being 74 pages of solid content (well, minus the cover and the legal page in the beginning, so 72) and it really helped build trust with my readers, especially since my name is still new in the “MMO” niche.
From there, between my report and blog posts, I started becoming known as someone who knew what he was talking about when it came to the topics of “email marketing” and “list building”, so I recently released a FREE service called ListZEN, which is only going to help solidify my “expertise” (if you want to call it that) in list-building… something that I was already making a name for myself in.
Now, people might think I’m crazy for giving away SO MUCH of my best stuff for free (and right now, it covers almost all of my stuff), but it’s definitely paid off in terms of affiliate promotions to my list, back-end sales… and definitely for FUTURE product sales (my non-freemium products).
My subscribers, instead of being skeptical at my next PREMIUM product launch, will be anxiously waiting to see what I have in store since I’ve given away so much good stuff for FREE.
Thanks again for another awesome post Murlu… how do you come up with such great stuff so often?
.-= Jonathan Beebe´s last blog ..Earn Money by Promoting My FREE Service =-.
@Jonathan well said – I’ve been keeping up with your releases and you’re doing such a great job, everyone can learn a lot. The one awesome thing about releasing your ‘best stuff’ is that it makes you step up even more to make the premium content so much better.
Like you said, once you do come out with your full premium content, everyone is already so dazzled with your free content that people will go crazy for the big stuff.
Great post Murray. I like the term freemium.
One question, where the advice in a blog is already free, why doesn’t this count as your ‘free gift’.
Essentially, I guess, is that we are talking of a very valuable free gift.
Great ideas here. Thanks for sharing.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Why you need a Mastermind Group =-.
@Matthew It’s definitely a great question and could be debated. I think the real difference comes with the overall intent with the blog – if you’re releasing the best you can, it may be difficult to write something to promote your service however, also consider that many people find greater value in ‘heavy’ content.
I’ve heard physiological studies that found that if a product is heavier, people feel it has greater value. I think this applies to information as well.
If your posts are 2,000 words and very detailed, people will think they’re really great. However, if you were to give away an ebook or video series that was 20,000 words or 2 or 3 hours in length, that’s very, very valuable in the minds of many.
I’d still push to create every post the best you can; this way you have to step up your game to create a more powerful freemium piece of content