Information Products - Free Vs Paid

There are many membership sites on the web. Some of them are paid, some are free. All these membership sites provide information on a range of topics in forms of ebooks, softwares, videos, teleseminars, podcasting etc.

Also there are many ebooks available on the net (both for free and for payment) containing information on various topics.

Now have you ever considered that “why does an ebook or membership site provides information for free, while others are providing the same information only after receiving some payment?”

The answer is quite simple: The information is NOT same.

There is a gap (and this gap can be quite wide) between the quality of information for the free and paid versions, and this is what makes the paid version a paid version.

When you read a free ebook on anything, you always feel that you miss something important. While reading a paid ebook does not make you feel like that.

You may feel that you can find every information, about a topic, by yourself, within a short period of time, by searching through search engines. But, in reality ............ you are going the wrong way.

That is simply NOT possible, even if all the information are available via web. I know this, because I myself have tried to do this, and failed. Even after spending 1 months on searching over a topic, I have got more information on that topic (which I never got earlier through searching), through some other marketers.

When you try to gather information on any topic through searching (in other words, when you try to get information for free), you perform the following tasks:-

1) First you write down some keywords related to your topic

2) Then you go to your favorite search engine and enter those keywords in the search box.

3) After that, you read information on the resulting webpages.

4) Then you decide which of the information are going to benefit you.

5) Lastly, you arrange your gathered information in a step-by- step, easy-to-read format.

Now, believe me, doing all these steps will take away a lot of your time and energy. What if you can not give the time required? Further, if you suddenly encounter more valuable information about that topic, it will be very difficult for you to rearrange the whole thing.

So, here comes the importance of paid version of information over free version of information. Paid version of information is ready for you to read and digest. You don’t need to search for anything. The research is already done for you, by the information product developer. And the information product developer is charging from you for this.

The info product developers are always at a distance. They know they need to put valuable information into their info product that must benefit the readers, and which would justify their charging. They first spend their time on thorough research and then they spend their time on carefully crafting their information product. They include valuable tips within their info product which you will net get from anywhere else. They are a master over a certain topic. And their vast exposure on that topic reflects on the quality of the product they create.

A General Approach: From Free To Paid

In general, to sell their information products, many information product developers first create a free version of information product (like a free report) on the theme of the paid version. Then they input a “useful, but incomplete approach” within that report. That means they first discuss some problems and solutions within the free report relating to the theme of the paid version (but not fully disclosing everything). Then they create an urgency in the mind of the readers of the report to buy the paid version from them so that the readers can get all the solutions for all the problems on that topic.

This is a good way to sell. The readers know that they can trust the author and his recommendation, as they have already read his report. The author, on the other hand, can be certain of creating some credibility in the mind of his readers, and hence can expect some sales.