Increase Internet
Sales with Free Trials
By Shelley Lowery
If you're selling a product or service on the Internet, one of the best ways
to increase your sales is by offering a free trial, also know as a teaser,
demo or limited version. By enabling your potential customers to review your
product and providing them with an easy ordering process, you can increase
your sales immensely.
Free trials are not exclusive to software programs. There are many ways you
can offer a free trial no matter what product or service you're offering.
For example, if you've written a book, consider offering it in an electronic
version, better know as an eBook. You can include your entire book
within the eBook and choose to lock out certain chapters.
In order for your potential customer to gain access to these chapters they
will be required to purchase the full version. You can include an order form
and instantly take orders, right through your free trial Ebook. When you
receive an order, you simply send your customer a predefined user ID and
password that you set up when you create it.
A good program to assist you in creating an Ebook is Ebook Edit Pro. http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=eep.
This program will compress your HTML documents into a self-contained "executable"
file. This HTML may be a web site you've created or HTML you've specifically
prepared to be compiled into a downloadable .exe file for distribution. This
.exe file is a completely freestanding program and requires no installation.
When clicked on, the program instantly opens your book on your client's desktop.
In addition, WebCompiler will enable you to lock out certain pages of your
Ebook or an entire directory.
The key to using a free trial version is to offer your product for download
from your website and allow it to be freely distributed. Provide some valuable
free information, but save your most important information for the unlocked
version. Make your locked chapters sound very intriguing and create curiosity.
Tell your potential customers what they will receive by purchasing the full
version, provide a complete list of all the benefits, and provide them with
an easy ordering process.
To further increase your sales, provide your potential customers with instant
gratification. You can completely automate your entire ordering process simply
by using a CGI script. There are scripts online that will allow you to make
your product available for download, take the customers order, approve it
right online, send your customer a password and send you a confirmation of
the
order, all completely automatic.
- CGI Resource Index - http://cgi.resourceindex.com/
After you've created your product, consider setting up an affiliate program
for massive distribution. There are many affiliate CGI scripts available
to assist you in running your own affiliate program.
- The Affiliate Program -
http://theaffiliateprogram.com/
- ProTrack -
http://www.affiliatesoftware.net/
If you're selling a service on the Internet, you can offer your potential
customers a free trial as well. For example, if you offer a search engine
submission service, you can provide your customers with a limited free submission
to the search engines.
To entice your customers to purchase your full service you can, not only
submit their site to your full list of search engines, but you can create
doorway pages, insure their pages are optimized for the search engines and
provide a resubmission service every month for a year. In addition, provide
your clients with a free report of each submission process.
Prior to doing your customers last submission, contact them and inform them
that their submission contract will soon be expiring. Tell them how they
can renew their submission process and offer another enticing freebie such
as, "If you renew your submission contract before (date) we will also submit
your site to over 1000 Free For All Sites."
This type of free trial will not only increase your current sales, but it
will promote future sales as well.
The possibilities are endless. By offering your potential customers something
of value for free, providing instant gratification, and an easy ordering
process, you can dramatically increase your sales.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design
Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com
And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com
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