Information Product Marketing – Why Pay When You Can Get It Free?
Why pay for information product when you can get them for free?
Before I present today’s information product marketing training, I want to let you in a little on my personal life. Since you’re my loyal subscriber and reader, I REALLY want to build a deeper connection with you.
Why I Haven’t Updated My Blog In A Month
As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t updated my blog in 1 month. The reason is because I was busy preparing for my wedding, which was held on a beautiful Sunday, 15 November 2009. I’m really happy that I’ve found my significant other, and below you can see a few pictures taken from my wedding celebration:
I’m entering a new phase in my life now, and I’m planning to achieve greater things in my Internet business as well, so wish me luck!
Okay, that’s a little insight into my personal life. Now let’s get back to today’s training.
Do You Want To Pay For Info Products?
There are marketers selling information products all the time. No matter what field you go into, there are bound to be information products for sale, with the price of these items ranging from a mere $1 to thousands of dollars.
With the Internet and Google (and other search engines) at our fingertips, searching for information that we want to acquire becomes dead easy and convenient.
The same information that is contained within paid informational products can be found for free all over the Internet…
…and yet there are TONS of people still willing to part with their hard-earned money to buy paid informational products rather than getting them from the Internet for free.
If the price is only a mere $1 or $7, it’s still understandable.
But why do people still want to buy $1000 and $2000 home study courses that teach them to do this and that when they can get the same information for free (or almost free apart from the cost of your PC and Internet connection)?
All things being equal, EVERYONE would definitely choose not to pay if they were given a choice. People like FREE. I like it and so do you. No contest about that.
Why People Are Willing To PAY (instead of getting it for FREE)
To answer why SOME people would pay rather than get it free, let me share the following real story…
I sell information products. Once in a while, I receive complaints from people saying that the same information contained in my PAID product can be obtained for free from the Internet, and they whined that I should give it away for free too.
My response to these people is:
“Sure you can get the same information for free. In fact, of all the paid information products out there you can get almost all, if not all, of the same information that is contained within those products for free.
The reason why I and many other information product creators are charging you money is because we have the required ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE of the information you’re seeking. By buying our products, you are effectively saving tons of your TIME. You’re also saving tons of MONEY because you don’t have to commit the same mistakes that we have already committed previously.
OUR mistakes (that cost time and money) = YOUR gain
You avoid (or lessen your) mistakes. You save time and money as a result. You’re essentially buying our RESEARCH time and EXPERT knowledge on the subject. ”
So the next time someone complains about you selling them information they can get it for free, explain to them (in a kind manner of course) just like what I’ve explained above.
Focus On Good Paying Customers
Most of the time, after you’ve explained to them, you’ll never hear from them again…
…which is perfectly fine since this type of people are not our target customers anyway. The very fact that they’re expecting our info products for free when we have put so much time and effort creating them (our products) reveals their poor attitude and believe me; they WILL NOT buy your products.
Leave them and focus on servicing your good customers.
What are your thoughts about PAID information product marketing? What do you think about paid info products compared to free info readily available on the Internet? Please leave them in a comment below…
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December 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Congratulations on the wedding.
The bride is beautiful.
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December 1st, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Congrats! A beautiful couple!
Searching for free is time consuming and one is not quite sure that the information is what you are looking for and most of all…is it up to date? No dates of product creation is usually available, technology changes at warp speed today!
Thanks for keeping us updated!
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December 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
hi Welly
hello Welly first of all coguations on getting married looks like you have a very beautiful lady as your wife.Did you have a nice honeymoon
From yopuur post it appears that you have set your monthy income higher now that your married and you will shortly be coming out with and info product
I agree that you buy a product because your paying for the research and time taken to get all the relevant infotogether in one ebook/video etc
look forward to hearing about your new projects apart
from getting married that is
good luck
peter mcgrath
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December 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Congratulations Welly! You both look stunning.
Another reason why people will pay: after sales service. If you get something for free, you don’t expect anyone to help you further. But life being what it is, you get stuck, and need the paid products or help/ service to help you.
All the best
Heather
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December 1st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Information is a consumable product, and because of that, people naturally want more and more information regardless of how much they already have… almost like an addiction. People will always pay for it because of emotional reasons, and almost always just read and absorb very little of the material they just paid for. Afterwards, paid information becomes either dusty books on your shelf, unopened for years, or digital blips on your hard drive long forgotten of their existence. Thinking of information products as consumable makes perfect sense because soon after a purchase of free or give away products, there will be still a hunger for more information, its endless and only human nature.
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December 1st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hi Welly,
Congratulations on your wedding and I wish you both the very best in your marriage. I know it is good to get the free info, but it is not always available. Even the free material is not always complete, so sometimes it is best to purchase. Most of the time when you purchase an item you get a guarantee with it and on this basis it will be complete. Thanks for all the good info and for sharing.
John
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December 2nd, 2009 at 12:52 am
congras dude, now i know why did not receive any mails from u
enjoy your new phase in life.
Buying products give you a piece of mind. In other words rather, a verification that the writer has exactly the same thinking as you.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 am
Congratulation to both of you.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Rachel Ann
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December 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 am
Hi Welly
Congratulations on your rececent wedding and may I take this opporunity to wish you both the very best for the future.
Back to your post - “paid for or FREE? The major problem I have with any ‘How to’ information, paid for or not, is the quality of the content. In the past I have wasted a lot of time reading and trying to impliment free information only to find it was a massive waste of time and effort due to being totally unworkable or too outdated. Equally, I have paid big dollars to Internet Marketing Guru’s for information that was suposedly ‘cutting edge’ and promised to lead me by the hand to internet riches only to find it was the same old regurgitated rubbish with a different cover.
Now I’m not saying never buy information products and I’m not saying that all Free information products are rubbish. What I am saying is that free information can be time consuming (your time) but you will undoubtably uncover a few real gems out there from time to time.
With regards to paid information (which I still buy, by the way) my opinion is don’t buy soley on the strength of a sales page, they don’t always paint an accurate picture. At the very least, consider a google search on both the author and the product. Believe me, there’s nothing worse than buying a product online, doing a search 5 mins. later only to discover the author or product is getting really bad reviews and refusing refunds.
regards
Sam
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December 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
@Charles, Frances, John, Rachel: My wife and I say: THANK YOU for the kind words
@Peter: Also a huge thanks for the compliments. You’re right I’m about to release yet another product. Will keep you posted definitely!
@Heather: Yep that is an important reason as well. Thanks for filling in.
@Ewrec: You’re absolutely right. This is sad but true. If only people IMPLEMENT the strategies instead of just consuming the product they bought…
@Nick: Thanks dude
@Sam: Appreciate the well wishes
I used to buy based on the stregth of the sales letter (like what you said), but not anymore.
Now, I get to know WHO the marketer is before buying any products from him/her. Once I know that this marketer is putting my interests ahead of his/her interests, that is when I start to buy products (based on my necessity, of course)
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December 11th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Congratulations on your wedding!
I’m guilty of forking out a couple of grand on Internet Marketing courses when I was new. I’ve since found out that everything you need are free or cheap on the internet if you know what to look for - which is the problem when you are new.
Price has no relation to quality - especially on the internet - but for most of us we mistake price for value. Even if we know it intellectually we still fall for it deep down… so don’t judge a product by it’s price. There is some great cheap stuff and crap expensive stuff out there…
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