Webupon

Do you offer some free content or a free download on your website as a website promotion? If so then be sure not to miss the vital opportunity that comes with it.

People love free downloads, in fact ‘free’ is one of the most searched for words on the internet and offering something for free is so good that every website should have at least one download opportunity with a large link on the main page. Of course, a lot of websites do this already but many miss out on a vital opportunity to collect, in exchange for the free download, some important and useful information. Yes, I’m talking email addresses!

In a recent half-hour search surf on the internet I found a wide variety of sites with downloads on offer that I considered to be very valuable and for which I would have been prepared to give my email address – but no one wanted it!

The Mechanics

You already have a link to the free content so all you do is create a buffer page that sits between the main page and the download page. On this page you put a box for the surfer to insert their email address and a ’submit’ button to send it off to a program that saves it to a database.

If you understand php or similar you can write your own script or you can find a ready-to-use script at one of the many script archives. You will find that this script is a very popular one!

The only other thing you need on the page is some privacy information to reassure people that you will not misuse their email address and that’s it! That’s all there is to it!

What Do You Do with the Email Address?

The email address will be stored on a database and your first task will be to thank the surfer for visiting your site and hope that they enjoyed the downloaded content.

Be sure, however, not to abuse their email address because word will soon get around if you do, so tell them, for example, that you intend to write to them, say, each month with new products or whatever you propose to do.

This both reassures them of your intentions and also prepares them to receive the later email and read it. You can also request that they add your email address to their contact list to avoid future emails ending up as spam.

Then, be as good as your word and only send them emails when you said you would and you stand a good chance of converting them into customers. Remember, few people buy at the first time of asking, most take a few emails first before they become customers.

Almost all people are happy to give their email address in return for a free download so long as you reassure them what the email will be used for. For your part, if you use it sensibly, then you will stand a good chance of converting a high proportion of them into customers.