How do you give away a Free product?

[cjhallock]

I know its a stupid question but I'm being honest!

I am promoting a new web-app that does price comparison with the major online shopping and auction sites. Its an affiliate program and the product is amazing! I just am having major issues giving the app away!

The way it works is as people compare with the app I get ppc commissions and as people buy through amazon and clickbank as you can imagine I get affiliate income.

All I have to do is send them to theshoppingtoolbar.com (http://www.theshoppingtoolbar.com)
so they can get it... But I'm having problems doing this...

Any Suggestions??

[MikeF421]

Well one way is to post a message in a forum claiming to need help with ideas for promoting the product. In the message you stick a link that redirects to your affiliate link for the product (in this case, My Shopping Genie), and hope that people click on your link to check it out and see in what ways they can help you. Then when they get there, maybe they will like what they see and sign up as well.

:eek:

[cjhallock]

I am not trying to use this as a cheesy way to get it out there I truly need advise I threw the link in so people can understand the process I'm sorry if thats how it looks I don't want to disrespect the forum

[angienewton]

What about offering it on Twitter or Facebook? I wonder if you could write a guest post for a techy blog and incorporate your link in the bio. Just some thoughts!

And no worries about adding your link...we know you and know that you're not disrespecting the forum. Carry on!

[MikeF421]

Sorry. That was sarcasm.

[cjhallock]

I have been holding off on putting it on here for that reason... I've been pushing this online since January and I've tried Facebook Twitter Myspace and just about every other social network I can think of and I'm just having issues...

That is why I finally decided to turn to the internet marketing forums in hopes to get a slap in the face!!! lol I'm sure its something that I know just haven't thought about yet

[cjhallock]

Its not a problem Mike I just haven't asked about this on here for that reason. I hate looking like I'm trying to "use" the forum for something its not used for I promise I could care less if anyone downloads it from here I just want some solid feedback and hopefully a new way to market it because I'm avg. about $2 a month everytime one is "installed" I know the money is there I'm just not sure how to promote it!

[cindybidar]

So if I'm understanding it correctly, the user downloads this toolbar, and when they buy through it you get a commission? Brilliant business model, actually. The problem I see with it is that it's a toolbar. I can't be the only Internet user that runs screaming from toolbar installs, can I?:eek:

But, with that said, what if you blog about online shopping? How to find great deals, red flags to watch out for (without blasting individual sites, of course), hot new shopping sites, etc. Then your call to action would be something like "Hey, want to find all the best deals quickly and easily? Check out this fantastic tool that does all the work for you!"

Or, you know, something less salesy. ;)

[MikeF421]

I'm familiar with My Shopping Genie, as someone tried to recruit me into the program over a year ago.

Here is the challenge I see for you... I think a blog is a great way to promote the product, but who do you target for the blog? I think finding the right keywords is going to be tough because it is not a product most people know about and nobody is searching for it.

If you were pushing a new digital camera, for example, that's different. People are looking for digital cameras online all the time. You just need to carve out your niche for this new camera.

Nobody is searching for My Shopping Genie because nobody knows about it. So promoting the product by name is out. There is no real existing niche for this, so that is out.

You could try to target people searching for things like "online discounts", however, just make sure you have the proper expectations. I didn't do any research, but I would bet that "online discounts" is a pretty competitive term (along with anything similar) and would take quite some time to get yourself to the first page of Google if you ever even could.

Similarly, you could target people looking to "make money online". Again though, a very tough niche to break into.

On the other hand, if you have a well established list already, I think it is a great product to promote to your list as a "extra" and would probably work well no matter what niche you are in.

It's also a great product for someone already in an MLM to push to their downline.

Not trying to downplay what you are doing at all. I think you are just going to find that this is not going to make you a bunch of money overnight. It is really going to take some thought, time, and hard work.

[cjhallock]

I know it wont make me rich overnight. I've been doing a little here and there over the last 5 months or so and I'm averaging about $30 a month on only 12 people with the app so I know that if I get to working hard enough and get enough people to get the app I can make a decent living on top of what I'm doing already

[MikeF421]

Honestly, you might be better off doing more offline-to-online advertising for this kind of product.

I do it for clients all the time.

Maybe make business cards to hand out or some small posters that you can hang up in public areas.

On the business card or poster you have the URL to your affiliate redirect page.

I think you might find far more success advertising a product of this type by doing it offline.

It will cost you a little more money up front compared to the free advertising methods online, but you might see a faster turnaround time on building people under you.

[DTaylor]

Do a search for blogs that are discussing discount shopping or other keyword terms that would help in your search.

For example, type into your search engine the following:

"blogengine.net" = "keyword"

Don't actually type in "keyword" but the term you are searching for.

I typed in "blogengine.net" + "money saving shopping tips" and got about 15,000 blogs that are discussing this issue. Commenting on those should keep you busy for a day or two.

Good Luck.

DTaylor

[DTaylor]

This would also work, most likely.

Print up a bunch of flyers on copy paper that talk about the discounts available and have those little tear-off strips along the bottom with the web address. When you hang them up, tear a couple of the strips off so it looks like other people are getting in ahead of them.

Hang them up in laundromats, apartment complexes, stores or anywhere they will let you.

These actually work pretty well if you don't mind putting in the time.

Good Luck.

DTaylor

[JJarden]

Yahoo ppc is one way to get some traffic. It is less competative than google adwords. If you have a dynamic ad on how to save money price shopping you might get some downloads.