To Make Money OnlineStart By Giving Away The Farm Real Life Examples
The following is a true story that reflects this entire online marketing scenario and how and why it actually works.
There is a fairly new author down in Australia named Simon Haynes whose hilarious Hal Space Jock books (think Han Solo before he met the Princess and turned legit) that my sons and I have really come to enjoy. I accidentally discovered Simon and his flagship characters Hal and Clunk a couple of years ago. This occurred because Simon is a very smart, very customer-oriented, very Internet-savvy online marketer.
#1 Simon happens to be a programmer who gives away a few handy software products for free as a way of drawing traffic to his site and attention to his books.
#2 Simon originally advertised his first three Hal Space Jock books by offering a couple of free chapters to hook his audience. Just for note, in order to advertise his Fourth book “Hal Space Jock, No Free Lunch” he is giving away a free electronic copy of his entire very first Hal Space Jock book.
#3 Simon also does a random drawing each month to give away free copies of his books, which keeps people on his mailing list, and allows him to announce new Hal Space Jock books and other related events and promotions to an audience who has a proven interest in his novels.
After stumbling on Simon's Website when looking for free Ebook software—which is how I found him in the search engines—and after subsequently reading the free sample chapters of the first Hal Space Jock book, I was hooked. Simon had, in a very friendly low-key and memorable manner achieved his goal. This is a very important point because if you want to make money online that should be your goal too.
Simon had—probably while peacefully sleeping the night away—used a hands off, set-it-and-forget-it automated process to turn a random surfer half a world away, who had no idea or intention of purchasing anything remotely like his product...into a customer with credit card in hand ready and willing to buy.
So, once hooked, I hopped on over to my favorite online book retailer to purchase all of the first three Hal Space Jock books. To my surprise the retailer was going to charge me a separate shipping charge for each of the three books. To them it was policy, to me it was unacceptable shipping-price gouging.
Then I thought, Gee if I am going to have to pay that much for shipping, I might as well order autographed copies. I checked the current AU / US exchange rate, which as it happened was very favorable that day. Then I emailed Simon and asked if he would just directly sell me autographed copies of his first three books. Good customer-service oriented marketer that he is, Simon answered me within hours. He was not allowed to sell me the books directly because that would be a violation of his agreement with his publisher; but he did happily agree to autograph copies for me and then personally directed me to his local bookstore, where he was going to be doing a book signing. This bookstore also happened to be offering a 20% discount on his books in honor of the event.
So within a few hours of deciding that my favorite online retailer was shipping-price gouging, I was able—due to the combination of a favorable exchange rate, a quick and friendly response from the author, and a 20% discount—to order three autographed copies directly from Australia, including shipping for less than $5.00 more than the total cost to order from my favorite mega-retailer.
True, due to the high cost of airmail shipping from Australia I did not save any money; but I did receive autographed copies, a bit of a grand adventure and a great story to tell. The moral of that story is, Value is in the eyes of your customer. Ignore that maxim at your peril; because the Internet offers even ordinary people a variety of previously undreamed of comparison shopping options!
Just for note: When the Fourth Hal Space Jock book No Free Lunch came out, I ordered it and another book from a favorite American author (James Rollins, The Last Oracle) from my favorite online American retailer...because they offered free shipping for orders over $25.00. At today's gas prices that meant it was cheaper than driving to my local bookstore...and besides my local bookstore very foolishly does not carry the Hal Space Jock books.
So to finish up.... To make money online:
#1 Be generous with free incentives.
#2 Give good value.
#3 Give good customer service.
I firmly believe in the advice I give and I practice what I preach. Almost every one of my websites offers one or more free products.
For example:
LadyWeb.Biz offers free SEO and webmaster tools to make sure your website is optimized to attract natural, free or paid search engine traffic.
MyLadyWeb.Com offers a free monthly membership that offers a free self-installing AdSense and Affiliate Website including brandable ebooks to giveaway. It also offers free viral software and other free Ebooks.
LadyWeb.Info offers free content and free links to your website.
LadyWebSoftware offers a free Webmaster's toolkit and several different 15 day free trial softwares.
SpunSilk Domains and Hosting all offer links back to MyLadyWeb for the free membership.
LadyWeb.Com offers a large selection of vintage Ebooks, and the myths and legends and children's story websites that I do for fun, all offer a beautifully woodcut illustrated copy of Nymphidia the Court of Fairy. Just for note, I have a list built from these sites, but I do not consider them members of my IM marketing niche so the only time I ever send them an email is when I am offering something free that might interest someone who likes vintage Ebooks. These sites are actually more community service websites than anything because I firmly believe that the greatest gift you can give a child is to take time to read “with” them.
****
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to
be generous, frank and independent.
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
To Make Money OnlineStart By Giving Away The Farm Real Life Examples - To learn more about this author, visit Teresa Bohannon's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
![]() | |
| |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
|
| |
| |||
Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
![]() | |
![]()
| |
![]() | |
|
| |
![]() | |
|
| |
![]() | ||
|
| ||
![]() |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
![]() |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
![]() |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
![]() |
|
|
![]() | ||
|
Top 50 Diversion Blogs
Top Diversion Blogs of 2009 | ||
|
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | ||
![]() | ||
![]() | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||












Subscribe to Teresa's articles











