Let me ask you a question. Would you buy something from someone that you hand your credit card over too, and they drive away from you and take funds out of your account? Bare in mind you don’t even know this person; you’re trusting a complete stranger. I know, sounds bizarre right? You wouldn’t just post your credit card number on Facebook and tell people everything is on you; go live it up. There is a point to all this madness I have just discussed.
There is a big “T” in internet marketing in which you need to be successful. What is that big “T” ? It’s simply Trust. In order to run an online niche site you’ve got to get people to trust you. You don’t want to come off as a car salesman or portray to people “buy this and buy that.” People hate that kind of stuff! They won’t open your emails, unsubscribe, and pretty much just start ignoring you. So you might be wondering; how do I get people to trust me?
src: mikepedersen.com
Free Offers – Go Along Way
Yes, we all know that we all want something free. But, the more valuable the free item is the better we trust someone. For instance, if I run a dog training site and I give aways a 5 page checklist of some simple tips to keep your dog from pooping outside. Sure, the customer might be like, “I knew everyone of those tips but one” So in short your free give away wasn’t really that much value to them.
On the other hand, lets say your freebie allows them private access to a set of 10 five minute videos of showing people exactly how to train their dog. As a bonus you get a 10 page eBook about various stuff that is very valuable to dog owners. At the end of it you send your visitors to a page where if they retweet or like your page they can download a 25 page book all about dogs or a special promo code at Amazon. Wow, this is great I am getting all this free information; this site rocks!
The second scenario is so much more appealing to people. Why? Because, it provides them with lots a value. Value equals trust. Trust equal sales. You keep their attention longer and ultimately they don’t think of you as a sales person or someone that just provides people with crappy freebies.
How Do You Make Good Freebies ?
Forums are one of my favorite places to find out what people want to know. Look for trends and solving those problems.
SurveyMonkey.com is a great resource for asking questions to people and you can geo target, and pretty much decide your target audience. Sure, this does cost money, but this valuable information can help establish trust for your future customers.
Yahoo Answers is another great place to find out what people are asking before composing your freebie material that answers peoples questions.
Google Alerts is great as you can find vital information about what problems people have, and what they’re doing to solve them.
Twitter is freaking awesome. Using the # tag and stuff related to your keywords is a good way to do all the above mentioned.
Split Testing
I know you are thinking Adwords, but this has nothing to do with Adwords. There are a number of ways you can research what your target audience wants to know. Think outside the box and put a number of your freebies into action. I would use bitly and track which freebies people are clicking and test these for several months to get you a good idea of what is working and not working.
Finally, go out to forums or back to surveymonkey.com and ask what do people like and not like on the freebie that you have split tested. Make more adjustments based on the feedback you get.
Trust + Value = Sales
If you can get people to trust you and put out really great freebies, build an excellent customer relationship, and take the time to listen, you’ll make more money than rushing your online campaigns and hoping they make you money.
So I want to burn this in your brain; you have to get people to trust you if you want them to buy from you. Develop quality freebies and watch your sale skyrocket!
Let me hear from you
Do you think you have the trust of your readers? What’s your strategy? I’m curious to know what works for you and your experiences with freebies. Tell us in the comment box. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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About Enstine Muki
Hi and welcome to my blog. My name is Enstine Muki. I'm developer and owner of 
A lot of bloggers in my niche tend to miss the boat on creating a free offer. Typically its do to lack of knowledge and lack of value. I like how you have given some great examples and ideas. Test, Test, Test … I agree that you need to be testing different offers all the time.
Thanks -
posted by Galen Morgigno
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Galen Morgigno recently posted..What Does It Take to Create a MLM Home Based Business
Hey Galen,
Thanks for visiting today.
Split-testing is a important activity in marketing. That’s the only way to know the best method out of many.
Hope you come back again brother
Enstine, Gaining people’s trust is one of the most tough task for most bloggers, but necessary too. If you want to be a successful blogger and want to make money out of your blog than you must build trust first because If you get people to trust you, they’ll always buy what you recommend them.
Thanks for writing on this Enstine.
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Ehsan Ullah recently posted..5 Ways To Gain The Trust of Your Readers
Hi Ehsan,
Good to see you here today!
You are very right bro. You have to put in quite much t earn trust from people. Once this is done, you are up for a nice trip.
I’m a big fan of Google Alerts it allows me to watch and see what people are saying about Blog Engage. It’s extremely important to me to have some sort of knowledge of what’s being said. trust is also important and hard to maintain and easier to loose. I do my best to keep the trust of my members but it’s impossible to keep everyone happy.
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bbrian017 recently posted..Take Your Blog Engagement To The Next Level
Hey Brian,
Google Alert is one tool bloggers should not neglect. I have used it for years and I’m quite satisfied with the results I get on it.
Now you are succeeding in making Blog engage what it is today. This is already a big plus on your profile Brian and bloggers will easily trust you. I hope BE grows to be the biggest blogging community on the net
It’s crazy how some people think when it comes to internet marketing. Put up a cheap looking site and expect millions! Oh I go around and around in my head at some of the stuff I see online
Treat your online marketing like a real business, because many make a full time living off it!
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Garen Arnold recently posted..Catalyst Framework Review
Hey Garen,
Glad to see you hear today man!
Lots of garbage online these days in the name of free stuff. I really hate that!
Thanks for reading and commenting brother
Hi Enstine,
Gaining trust and loyalty from a consumer is really a difficult task especially for starters with so many competitors out there. As an ordinary consumer, my attention is caught if I see free useful offers from the new sites I come across. This is a good start to gain trust.
Hey Sarah,
That’s correct! It’s not easy to earn trust from people these days. Offering something free with real value is a good point. The real problem is most of the free stuffs out there are thrash. That just can’t work.
BTW, thanks for stopping over today Sarah. I really appreciate your contribution
Ah, the “T” word Enstine. Something it seems most people have difficulty with. Huh, I wonder why that is.
Now you know I’m all about connecting with my readers so that’s where my trust factor is built up. I do the same thing on my niche sites. I make myself available to answer questions and provide as much valuable information as possible. I think freebies are great and cool for most things but just having someone accessible takes it to a whole other level.
Great post here and I love your examples. You really spelled it out very plainly here. I was horrible in the beginning with the testing but so glad I finally came around.
Thanks Enstine.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Your relationship building strategy is such that works so well and folks always end up seeing no reason cast doubts on you. I have learned much from you and thanks for being a source of inspiration
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It was very easy for you to win my trus
Enstine Muki recently posted..4 Smart Tools For New Twitter Users
Trust does go a long way into converting potential traffic into paid buyers. The tips you give are great to use in this case.
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Wade recently posted..Web 2.0 Tools To Benefit Your Blog
Hey bro,
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You are right! If you are trusted by your readers, it’s easy to sell to them. It’s one thing to earn the trust and another thing to maintain it
Enstine Muki recently posted..4 Smart Tools For New Twitter Users
Hi Enstine,
Free offer is great way to build audiences and in some case a trust.
But many have jump at this methods. Does it still really unique ways to keep doing it? Well if you can push a little more on creativity to build trust.
Free stuff is great but it’s all done over for years. Being creative you can find another new ways in build trust to your audiences. If that happens, I believe you’ve got everything … trust, value and money.
Your post is so inspiring my friend, thanks for it
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Okto recently posted..Make Money from Blog : October 2012 Reports
Hi Okto,
Thanks for stopping by today man
You are very right. Free stuffs have been on the surface for long. Free ebooks have dominated the process but it’s high time we started going for new strategies. However, people will always love free stuffs. The value attached to your free gift will make the difference.
I’m looking forward to buying your social signal service
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Enstine Muki recently posted..4 Smart Tools For New Twitter Users
I love the GOOGLE alert… I always get notified about the new things which people talks about my site… the amazing things i found that I can monitor everything that how famous and popular my site is…
Thanks Muki for sharing this great post.
I really believe in gaining the trust of my subscribers by giving them freebies. Like there is a freebie I will be sending to my list on Monday that will help them in their online business. Trust is something we must build deliberately…
Thanks
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Kelvin Wealth recently posted..The Blogging Passion : How To Get It Back.
Hey bro,
Hope your subscribers fine value in your freebie 
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Thanks for stopping by.
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose too
Enstine Muki recently posted..4 Smart Tools For New Twitter Users
Hi Enstine,
Great way on how to find out which freebies would be suitable for you to offer on your blog and what would appeal to your audience. I typically go to Yahoo answers if I have certain questions and sometimes I check forums too.
I agree that if you are thinking of offering a freebie or something of value to your readers, make sure to test it a lot and see if it works. If not, try a different strategy, or offer a different freebie. The thing about earning trust from your readers/customers is that you have to be versatile and make it as fun and educational as possible. People love to learn new things that can help them, and if its free, then they will certainly thank you for it! Thanks for sharing!
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Felicia recently posted..“The Taxman” Will Take 43% of Merson’s Winnings
Hey Felicia,
thanks for your contribution. I really appreciate you reading and leaving comments on my articles.
May you have a splendid week this week
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Enstine Muki recently posted..4 Smart Tools For New Twitter Users