Have you ever noticed just how many sites are eager to give you free content in exchange for your email?
Well, there are a lot of reasons for that, but we won’t get into the nitty gritty of email marketing tips in this post. Instead I want to focus on what often happens inside of the free offer itself.
How It Works
Whenever you get anything for free online, expect that the marketer that gave it to you has a clear reason for it. Many just want your email and give away some free resource or ebook packet in exchange for it, but the really sophisticated marketers will actually monetize the resource itself.
With resource packets, it’s fairly straightforward. You get a list of the author’s favorite sites/courses/software, etc, some of which will be free and some of it paid. He’s not really trying to sell you on any one thing, he’s just showing you what he uses. You’ll inevitably wind up clicking the links on the resource page to learn more about the products and services he mentions.
As the marketer, all you have to do is make each of those links an affiliate link. It’s a stupid simple strategy.
With ebooks, the same general concept applies, but it usually happens on the FAQ. If you look closely, smart marketers will always append their ebooks with information on where to learn more, or even pepper affiliate links directly into the content itself.
Well…you get the idea.
Where To Find Them
This is one you build yourself. For examples or ideas, just do some of your own competitor research and see what people are giving away in your niche, and figure out how they’re subtly promoting affiliate content within it.
As a final note, while ebooks used to be the primary way of achieving this, it’s more and more common to see the resource page approach. After all, people hate reading, and rather than bury your links at the end of a 20 page ebook, you could present it to your read in a 1 page overview.