It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in because you’re going to have competition no matter what. The bloggers who are able to leverage traffic and provide valuable information will succeed. We are seeing a transformation from paid information to FREE information so you need to stay up to date with the growing trends. Before continuing, with the Internet changing so rapidly, older strategies that are still relevant can be found for free. It’s only the most recent shifts in the industry that require an investment, however, in a couple of months, those will be abundant and free as well. The point is, for you to gain authority, you need to leverage what other bloggers are doing and stay ahead of the trend.
In part 1 of my series, I outlined how a FREE PRODUCT can be leveraged to gain loyalty from your readers. I showed you how to use free products to gain knowledge about your industry, helping you increase your authority over time. In part 2, you are going to find out how a simple landing page and FREE information can be used to increase engagement and generate profits in the long-run.
Let’s get started…
Word #2 Free Information
People are under the impression that nothing is “FREE†so when you offer the valuable information, you’re already gaining credibility. There are a few fundamental rules to follow when offering your visitors free information. To optimize your landing page opt-in rate, it’s important to research and target the information people are looking for. In my previous posts, I’ve outlined numerous times providing a complete solution to a common problem is the best type of content you can provide. It’s time you dig deep into your niche and find out what your readers are looking for. After that, you can proceed to the next step, which is to put everything in place and automate the entire process.
Before continuing, consider the following:
- Your content must be of value
- Must provide a complete solution to a common problem
- Must be relevant
- It must be provided for FREE and be of the highest quality.
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen bloggers make is not putting effort toward content they are offering for FREE. You’ll obtain the initial opt-in, but any other information you’re providing will be accepted with hesitation.
Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com generated 10,000 email subscribers in 13 months by providing an eBook relevant to his niche. The cool thing is he spent 2 months creating it, which is longer than anyone else I know and gave it away for free. This was his FREE information product and it increased email subscribers, return visitors, engagement, and profits.
Writing Content
Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to put everything together in an ultimate post. Make sure you go into great detail and provide examples. The key is to ensure your readers find everything they are looking for so they are enthusiastic about accepting future content. When they believe in your content and find it valuable, you’ll be able to make a profit from your subscribers. If you have money to invest, you can hire a freelancer to get the job done for you. It’s a one-time investment that can generate profits for years to come.
- Make content in-depth
- Make it relevant
- Cover all the areas (sub-headings)
- Check for grammar and other errors
- Hire someone if you have money to invest
- Always ask yourself: Is it the best content with a complete solution?
The Landing Page
Having a landing page to grab subscribers is optional, but if you are looking to grow your blog and generate profits, then it’s important to have one in place. Through a simple landing page, you can offer your “FREE†information product and increase return visitors to your blog. It’s as simple as embedding a form in the sidebar, bottom of a post, or even having a pop-up appear when a visitor arrives on your website. Keep the opt-in form simple and relevant to what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you are offering information, then there’s no need to get name, address, phone number, etc., because this will push visitors away from opting in. Next, don’t add too much text because this, again, will overwhelm visitors and push them away. The trick is to keep things simple and right to the point. Here is a quick guide to creating the perfect landing pages and 5 Landing Page Flaws That Reduce Conversions.
Create your landing pages and follow the guide to check what you’re missing or what you need to remove. You can achieve a perfect conversion rate by testing different versions so make sure you have an analytical tool in place. You’ll learn what to look for in the next section.
Track Statistics
Tracking statistics when offering free information requires a completely different approach because you need to figure out what you are trying to achieve. Once you’ve decided, you can take the right steps to tweak your strategy and free information bundle. For example, are you trying to increase email subscribers, user engagement, product awareness, or profits? I’ve found that no matter what your goal, you can track statistics using two awesome tools. First, Google Analytics, which provides you keywords, landing pages, return visitors, etc. Secondly, the built in tracking interface from your ESP (email service provider).
Google Analytics
This is useful to track how many people opened your free information product and click on additional resources. GA will show you visitors per page on your blog so if you see an increase in user engagement on a specific page, you know you are heading in the right direction. Even though it’s hard to tell an increase in subscribers, email opens, etc., Google Analytics is perfect for those looking to find out statistics on a follow-up page provided within messages sent to subscribers. A high number means your free information was engaging and useful, but low number can mean people stopped reading through, which means additional effort might need to be put into quality.
ESP Statistics
Times have changed and in-depth statistics can be found through your email service provider. Hopefully by now, you are split-testing different landing pages so the information important to you is opt-in and open-rates on follow-up emails. Your free product will be sent as a message and people who open it are truly happy with the information. Additional click-through from within the message indicates visitors have skimmed through the information and even clicked on links within the message. This shows user interest and engagement while allowing you to find ways to increase profits through a high converting free product. If you need people reading through your free information package, then you might consider adding affiliate links and interlink to more of your own content.