The Power of Free! A Case Study

Author: Jim Kukral Category: Marketing, Marketing Effort, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing Tags: free marketing

Tuesday
Jul 8, 2008

So do you believe in the power of “FREE”? You should. Free works. All the cliches are true. If you give, you get. Don’t believe it? Here’s a video for you to watch. Tell me free doesn’t pay.

Since launching my free resource site at OnlineVideoToolkit.com…

Iâ€™ve been asked to write a book from a major publisher (paid)

Invited to speak at a mastermind event (paid)

Been interviewed to be featured in a major marketing publication that sends out to 400k+ of my peers (was released today, Marketing Sherpa)

Closed several consulting gigs where I help people figure out how to do online videos for ROI

Helped thousands of people figure out how to begin to make web videos

And some other stuff too

ALL because of me being an expert in a niche and giving away this toolkit free. Watch this video.

Click To Play

That was in the last 7 weeks since launch, and more good things are happening every day. You tell me free doesnâ€™t pay.

What can you give away free? Think about it. Free works. Try it.

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Comments

TrishaLyn

July 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

Congrats!

Tim_Jones

July 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

I love this, Jim. I constantly have to remind myself of this principle. One of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Gitomer, advises a parallel — focus on what value you can provide to others and they will fight to provide value to you in return. Thank you for sharing your success with your readers.

Dane Morgan

July 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

I'm actually working on a new niche blog/portal right now where one of the primary things is going to be a free new ebook every month. So this timely post gives me some hope and courage that I'm headed in the right direction with this thing. ;)

williamb

July 8th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

Hi there,

I am here through Marketing Sherpa. I am in the midst of making avideo and your tips are very helpful. One question though: in my organisation they are strict on what we view on the internet. Your video above for example is blocked, it is picked up as streaming media, yet I can open videos from news sites. To avoid this happening with my video what do I need to do?

Many thanks

William

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

July 8th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

Glad to share. Free works, please try it!

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

July 8th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

Just make sure it's really free and really helpful. Don't load it up with ads and all that. Truly make it just great info for free.

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

July 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

I'm not sure how to answer that question. Your company has decided that they don't want you to watch videos on work time. My advice is to watch them at home then. :)

williamb

July 8th, 2008 at 11:04 pm

That was quick!

I appreciate I can watch these at home. But I am conscious that our organisation is not alone in preventing streaming video, and that a lot of people use the internet while at work for personal matters.

The news sites manage to imbed their news videos and get around the corporate filters and we can watch them. How do you imbed a video so that it gets around the filters?

Then I can reach a really big market of idle….. I mean busy government workers who plan all their (and their families) activities during work hours…that's what I am asking :)

Cheers

William Barry,
Tourism Development Officer
City of Joondalup,
Boas Ave,
Joondalup
WA 6027
Mobile: 0409 118 377
Tel: 9400 4527
Fax: 9400 4336
Emai: william.barry@joondalup.wa.gov.au

amirulcyber

July 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am

Thanks for your info,i like it.Thanks again.

Shama

July 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am

Jim-

How did this effect your subscription rate? Did you find this to be more efficient in building a list than a regular ebook, etc. Thanks!

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

July 17th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

It certainly hasn't hurt! Yes, I saw huge spikes on the day the Marketing Sherpa piece ran. Everytime there's a mention, which is about every day now on someone's blog or somewhere, I get a spike of signups.