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How often do you see those words as you surf the Internet looking for information? About a bazillion? Everybody seems to be offering a free report about almost any and every subject under the sun nowadays.

The question is, why? Why should anybody go to all of the work, trouble and effort to produce a report that is not going to be sold but be given away for free?

Ah! You see the point in NOT to sell the free report and make a bushel basket full of money from the sales. The entire point of a ‘free report’ is to give people the report in exchange for their names and email addresses.

Not that the report isn’t valuable... sometimes a report is and sometimes it’s just a bunch of hooey, but the names and email addresses of those who download these free reports are much more valuable than the report will ever be... even the good ones.

There are exactly two kinds of people who live and work on the Internet. There are those who are marketing gurus and those who are not. The latter number far exceeds the number of the former.

There are a few very, very, VERY savvy marketing gurus out there who know how to put together a ‘free’ report and market it so effectively that it takes on a life of its own and continues to produce the desired results (list building if you haven’t already guessed) for weeks, months or even years after the free report is released.

Free reports are used by many Internet Marketers as incentives to encourage people to join a mailing list. That is so common that it has almost become ineffective.

These free reports that are offered as incentives to join mailing lists probably contain as much useful information as the kind that are marketed by these marketing geniuses. They just aren’t as effective at producing the desired list building effect.

Let me give you an example:

Mike Filsaime’s “Death of Internet Marketing” is a prime one. “Death of Internet Marketing” was a free report that was launched with a lot of fanfare. Mr. Filsaime PAID $1 for every lead that was produced by his “Death of Internet Marketing”.

And Yep! He paid me 1 US $ dollar

Yes, that’s what I said... he PAID. Now, if you were an Internet marketer with a list and you received an offer to be paid one dollar for each time a member of your list downloaded a FREE report, wouldn’t you jump on the bandwagon? Of course you would... everybody would... heck, everybody DID!

Now Mike Filsaime has some pretty deep pockets to be sure... we don’t all have those kinds of resources but his strategy was absolutely brilliant. He already had a mailing list of over 300,000 and I wouldn’t even hazard a guess at the number of names and email addresses that are now on his list.

Every marketer that had a list that was even remotely interested in the free report sent it out in their newsletters. Don’t even think about the numbers, it’s just too mind boggling.

Actually, Mike Filsaime’s “Death of Internet Marketing” free report contains some very good information. The scare tactics used weren’t very appealing but the information was good. It wasn’t world shaking and it wasn’t anything that was really new. It was a well put together report and it was very well written.

Here is another example:

Rich Schefren’s “Internet Business Manifesto” is another free report that was really well marketed. As a matter of fact, Rich actually marketed the daylights out of his Internet Business Manifesto” And, marketing genius that he is, he later released it in three segments. The last release was called, “Internet Business Manifesto: The Final Chapter”. How is THAT for marketing genius in action?

Rich Schefren’s “Internet Business Manifesto” free report is another example of how to market a free report to gain the maximum desired benefit from it. This report is also well written. It contains plenty of useful information for new Internet Marketers, as well as, for some who are well seasoned but there really wasn’t any new, world shaking information in it. Still, it was very effective and the desired result was achieved. He built his list to astounding proportions.

The free report list building technique isn’t limited to Internet Marketers. It spills over into brick and mortar marketing as well... or maybe that’s where it started. Who knows? The lines between Internet marketing and Brick and Mortar Marketing have become a bit blurred over the years.

If you don’t believe me, go in search of nothing but ‘free marketing reports’ using your favorite search engine. You’ll find free reports about all kinds of products and services. You will find free reports about marketing beverages, sports, music, B2B marketing and dozens of others.

The point of these free reports is the same. The idea is to give valuable (?) information to a potential customer in exchange of his name and address or email address for the purpose of future marketing of products and services to him.

Free reports that are used to build opt-in lists, either of the cyber space or brick and mortar variety, must contain good information. The information does not have to be completely unique but it must be accurate and free reports must be well written... no poor grammar or misspelled words are allowed.

The information needs to be presented to readers in a clear way, as well. Good reports whether they are free or paid for, must be helpful to those who read them. If data is included it needs to be fresh.

The whole point of a free report, however, is NOT the report. The report is only a means to and end as demonstrated by the real marketing geniuses of our times. Scare tactics are not very appetizing but they are effective.

“The Death of Internet Marketing”? That’s enough to scare an Internet marketer out of 10-years growth... but it worked. The word, “manifesto” produced visions of serial killers but it was effective as well. 

Below, I have conveniently prepared an Index of Popular Reports which are free to download. Each report has invaluable information  any Newbie Marketer can strategically use. If you are an Advanced Marketer, well... all I can say is... Download them and 'Brush Up' on your skills.

They are all worth it. Free! What better price is there?

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