Man the holidays flew by fast! It’s officially 2012 and time to start planning out how you’re going to out-do last year’s online earnings, right? ;-)
Here’s a ‘little something’ that just might help! This is one of my all-time favorite, PROVEN online business models—something to strongly consider if not already applying it in your online business…
<><><> “The Free Funnel Model” <><><>
The Free Funnel Model starts with having a giveaway product on the “front end”, such as a report or piece of software, that you offer in exchange for an e-mail address, i.e. for having the visitor subscribe to your e-mail list.
Always, always, always get the lead! As Terry Dean says, marketing is a process, NOT a one-time event. It’s important to “get ‘em on the list” so that you can build a relationship with people, and build their trust—and this is because most people will NOT order on their first visit to your website.
The best way to get people on your e-mail list is to give them something of VALUE. Give them the kind of content or software that *you* would find valuable! Obviously it should be targeted to the interests of the kind of traffic you’re getting. People clicking on a golf ad are going to want a golf freebie—such as a set of free golf instructional videos or similar (sounds obvious to match traffic to your offer, but you’d be surprised how many people get this wrong!).
And then on the “back end”—which simply means after a person has subscribed to your list—you want to introduce your PAID product.
It’s perfectly ok to introduce it right away, on the immediate page people are taken to after they subscribe to your list. But you’ll *also* want to further educate people on your paid offer in your automated e-mail *follow up messages*.
Now, here are a few tricks to this particular business model—which by the way I’ve employed in virtually ALL of my websites, both past and present…
- Create your own paid product that you have total control over. It’s *not* that difficult to come up with a video training course, or even a piece of software if you outsource the task to a decent programmer. What you can’t do on your own, you outsource! What you can’t *pay* to have done via outsourcing, you partner up with the outsourcer on 50/50…You do the marketing, and they create the content or program the product!
- Take a PORTION of your finished/paid product, such as the first video in a video training course, or a “basic” version of your software, and offer it as your FREE front end product. The trick here is that you’re killing two birds with one stone, by creating your PAID product *first* and using a portion of it to serve as your free product. This will also obviously ensure that your free product and paid product are *tightly* related, which is obviously important. The better they compliment each other, the more FREE members you’ll have taking you up on the paid offer.
- Keep things simple! Often, a headline and short video describing the “ultimate benefit” of your free offer are all that’s needed on the front end, along with an e-mail capture form. Meaning, a very basic web page layout with very few components (don’t forget to model after what is *already* working in your chosen niche!) Keep your e-mail sign up simple as well—tests show that asking for nothing more than an e-mail address (NO first name or full name) can increase your opt-in conversion rate by a significant amount, which means more leads and more backend sales for you.
- Focus on providing *quality content* in your e-mail follow up messages as well. Educate. Don’t pressure. Offer “gentle reminders” about your “premium offer” to your subscribers, but don’t beat them over the head. If you have to beat people over the head just to make a sale, you need to re-examine your offer. The real strength of an offer comes from the BENEFIT you’re offering. If it’s an in-demand benefit that people truly desire, and if you can provide *proof* that you can sincerely fulfill that benefit, you’ve got everything you need for a winning offer!
I have a few “done for you” systems where I provide my members with all of these elements *ready made* (and if you’re my member you know what I mean), but that’s not what this report is about…MULTIPLE streams of income are an important key to success online, and the model I’m describing here is one that’s easily *duplicable* in virtually ANY niche…Something that you can set up and do over and over again, with everything from golf to self improvement to real estate to marketing. You name it.
In other words, don’t stop whatever else it is you’re doing to make money online. Simply *add* this model to your business and ramp up your revenue streams until you’ve reached your desired level of income for 2012 and beyond!
Bryan Winters is the architect of the free list building website, 5iphon Hardcore, that gets you 5 *more* subscribers for every ONE you bring in.