02 February 2010

Give value, get business

I was speaking to a client recently - a professional speaker who had just written an e-book. She was wondering whether to give the e-book away free in order to get more bookings as a speaker, or to start selling the e-book on-line as another source of income.

My advice: Give it away free.

Why? Because she's an experienced, competent speaker; but an inexperienced, "uncompetent" (I don't want to say incompetent!) Internet marketer. So the quickest way to leverage the e-book is by giving it away.

This advice won't be right for everybody, but I bet it's more applicable than you think for you. If you're thinking about selling anything on-line, realise that it's a big job.
Posted by at 5:22 AM Labels:

2 comments:

  1. This is so true. The company I work for also has an book just released and they are giving it away free in sections because as my mentor says, he prefers that 20 people read what he's saying over the 1 person who buys it.

    It's the best form of advertising and giving credibility to your knowledge base.
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  2. Yes, that's exactly right, Thomas! But it's surprising how few people think that way. I guess they are tempted by the chance of making passive income through the Internet. That's fair enough, but it usually takes a lot more work than they think.
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