WHEN "OLD" IS NEW by Theresa Cahill Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved Have you seen the ebook Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins circulating on the net? I bet you have. Have you downloaded it? Did you read it? I ask because recently a bit of it was quoted in an excellent article by a contributing author to the Marketing Profs website (http://www.MarketingProfs.com), a website I highly recommend (it's fr'ee). Sean wrote about the psychology of giving away free samples and used an excerpt from Mr. Hopkins book by way of introduction to yes his own fr'ee report. It turns out that, surprisingly, the "give it away for free" may not be the brightest idea on the planet - assuming you truly want nothing in return. But, the brightest of us make sure that the "fre'e" sample is obtained by collecting (at a minimum) the name and valid email address from the person wanting your download, ecourse, report, etc. Ah ha! So "fr'ee" is not really fr'ee - but close enough because you are not asking someone to whip out their wallet and pay cash or credit to obtain your fr'ee whatever. The following analogy used by Mr. Hopkins and expanded upon by Sean definitely got me thinking. They likened the "giveaway" to visiting a grocery store where a vendor has set up a Saturday morning "here try one" booth. You've probably sampled a few things yourself at one time or another - but how many times did you actually buy what you tried? I know out of all the samples I've tried in the past only one compelled me to actually hunt the product down, buy it, and then go back again and again to the same store (the only one that carried the item) to continue to purchase. But 99.9% of the time, it was "thanks!" and on with the shopping - leaving the vendor without any means of following up. No way to find out did I buy, and if not, why not. So fre'e can have it's limitations. While attractive by nature, unless your "click here for free" takes that person to a compelling website or provides them with a compelling email to follow up, your free can turn into a complete waste of time. Get their name and email! The ability to follow up is crucial. Hmmmm... so what else is inside that book? Consider that Scientific Advertising was written in 1923 - that is not a misprint - and is to this day considered a "marketing bible" of sorts by many. Imagine what else might be on those pages :) Old can be new when we take advantage of past history and past-presented knowledge. And the old adage "some things never change" most certainly applies to marketing. So, want a copy? It's available all over the internet as a "giveaway." A search in any engine will return tons of places to get yourself a copy for absolutely fre'e. Get it, read it, and see what gems you expose :) And yes, I've got my own copy and will share it with you if you'd like: http://www.mywizardads.com/freegifts.html Enjoy! ========================================= ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Theresa Cahill is the owner of My Wizard Ads (http://www.mywizardads.com) and Quick N Easy Ads (http://www.quickneasyads.com), and co-publisher of The UPMRC News. To subscribe visit http://www.thewizworld.com/ezine.html