Using Free Reports to Build Your List

Another great way to build a personal mailing list is to offer a free product for signing up. Information products do especially well because we can never know too much.

Offering good, solid, reliable information for free starts off your relationship with your subscribers on the right foot. It inspires trust. It brands you as an expert. That combination makes you the person to turn to, to listen to, for advice and for guidance. It turns your subscriber list into warm leads and potential customers.

"But I don't know enough about anything to write a useful report," you say. Sure you do! What do people ask your opinion on? What do they seek your advice about? Do you have the green thumb in the family? Do you always manage to make a complete meal out of whatever happens to be in the refrigerator at the time? Is accessorizing outfits your specialty? Are you the organized one at the office? Someone, at this very minute, is out on the internet desperately seeking your help!

What are you most passionate about? Are you a Civil War buff? Do you always have the latest update on your favorite soap operas? Do you collect comic books or baseball cards? Do you home-brew beer? You would be surprised at how many people on the internet share your passion.

Don't have time to write from scratch? That's where PLR articles come in handy. You can modify and personalize them to suit your needs. Or you can use their ideas to jumpstart your creative juices.

Although you are giving away the reports for free, there are options for monetizing them. You can make a branded PDF file out of your report, give it away for free, then allow your subscribers to do the same. But you can offer to re-brand the report for them, for a fee. How can you do that? For a limited time, there is a free tool available for that. Take a look here.