How to Build Your Online Business Using Free Reports

The idea of making money online from giving away free reports may seem unlikely to many internet marketers.

How CAN you make money online by "simply" giving away free reports?

Actually, it's not as impossible as you might think. There are a number of ways that it is actually possible to make money online by giving away free reports, and I have found that one of the best is to create a system that monetizes the process - here is an example of how such a system is put together:

1. Create a landing or "squeeze" page that introduces the free report and collects visitor's contact details into your autoresponder. On completion of sign up, the visitor is then redirected to a "One Time Offer" for a related paid for product (either your own or an affiliate product from which you generate a commission).

2. If the visitor purchases the OTO he is then redirected to a page you have created where he can download both the free report and the paid for product.

3. If the visitor declines the paid for product he is redirected to a page where he can download the free report.

If your website visitor has purchased the OTO you have made a sale and gained a new opt-in subscriber.

However, if the visitor declined to purchase the OTO you have still gained a subscriber, and once he as opted in you have multiple further opportunities to promote your online marketing business on an automatic and regular basis using your autoresponder messages.

Many online marketers simply use free reports to build their subscriber list (after all we are told so many times that "the money is in the list").

But to me it only makes sense to use the process described above. Not only do you give yourself an early sales opportunity but you can quickly determine if the visitor is a buyer or just looking for freebies.

This process can be further enhanced if you create your own free reports instead of giving away free reports that others have created, as you can then build links into your reports to related resources for further sales opportunities.

Once you've set up a process as suggested above, you need only to drive web traffic to your "squeeze" page to start seeing some positive results - not only more sales but also an increase in your list of subscribers.