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online-business-free-download-1In yesterday’s post,  I explained why you need an email list, but to repeat — most of your interaction and sales with potential clients and customers will be through email.

What how to you entice people who arrive at your website or blog to sign up for your email list? You do it by offering them a free but valuable product. Without this free offer, the number of people who sign up will be much less than with it.

So you MUST have a free download.

But it isn’t hard. I’ll explain how to create one and how to make sure your visitors get it when they subscribe to your email list.

What kind of free download should you offer?

Actually, there’s research on that. Hubspot, a company that offers Internet marketing services, sends out millions of emails a year with free download offers and they have measured which types get the best response. Here are the top 4:

  1. E-books or Guides
  2. Templates or Presentations
  3. Research & Reports (ex: State of Inbound Marketing)
  4. White papers

If you’d like to know the next 6, read my blog post, “The top 10 most valuable and effective free offers for growing your list.

In fact, on another website, I had a download that I called a white paper and I now call it an e-book, based on this research.

How do you create an e-book?

Creating an e-book is easy. The quickest technique is to take some related blog posts that you’ve already written and compile them in Microsoft Word.  Format it with chapters, headings and subheadings. Add page numbers. For simplicity, you can keep the default page size, but I use a 6×9 page size — it’s more like a printed book and creates more pages!

Then save it as a PDF. All the latest versions of Word let you export a document as a PDF.

Need more details? I have a free download on the topic here.

How do you deliver the e-book when someone signs up?

You do this with your email service. The exact instructions depend on your email service, but here are the basic steps:

  1. Upload the PDF e-book to your web server. In the WordPress Dashboard, click Media, Add New and follow the instructions to upload a file. Next to the file name, click Edit. On the right, select and copy the File URL to your Clipboard. Paste it in a temporary document for later.
  2. Create a webform; Your email service will have tutorials to help you.
  3. Then use one these 2 techniques. Again, your choice might depend on what your email service offers:
  • Create a new web page. (In WordPress’s dashboard, choose Pages, New Page.) On this page, welcome new subscribers and add text like, “Click here to download your free e-book.” Then link that text, using the File URL you saved earlier. Then configure your webform to direct people to that web page after they confirm their subscription to your list.
  • Create an autoresponder.. Your email service will have instructions to do this. In the autoresponder, add text like “Click here to download your free e-book.” Then link that text, using the File URL you saved earlier.  Then configure your email service to send that autoresponder as soon as a new subscriber confirms their subscription.

Either way, new subscribers click the link to download their e-book or whatever file you’re offering.

If you’ve never done this before, it might seem complicated, but just follow the instructions provided by your e-mail service and ask their customer support if you have questions. This is an important step for your success, so stick with it and you’ll succeed!

If you have questions or advice based on your experience, leave a comment!

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    3 replies to "Grow Your Online Business: Day 9 (Ultimate Blog Challenge) Why you need a free download and what it should be"

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    • Amaia

      I love your tips. I’d love to write a book but since I am a ‘short worded kind of person’ I am afraid I would have said all the things that I have to say in just one page! I might give it a try in a few weeks…

    • Ellen Finkelstein

      Amaia, Actually, I feel the same way. I often read e-books from other people and wonder how they can use so many words to say so little. Here’s the technique to use:
      Write up a table of contents, with several chapters and several headings in each chapter. Then, even if you write only a little for each heading, you’ll have quite a lot of pages. Another secret trick is to use 6×9 page size instead of 8-1/2 x 11 — so you’ll get more pages. also, add a table of contents and add some links at the end to your website. Include an introduction. Finally, add at least one image in each chapter. Does that help?

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