Having something that you can give away to your website visitors is the best way to entice people to sign up for your list. And a special report or an ebook is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to give something valuable in exchange for your site visitor’s contact information.

This is not a time to be stingy, but you don’t have to write an epic novel either. Ask yourself: What is the biggest problem my clients are facing and how can I help them solve it? Then tell them just that.

If you are afraid that you’re giving away the proverbial farm, there’s no need to worry. (Re-read the Give [almost] everything away post.) When people realize that you’re providing extremely valuable information — and at no cost to them to boot — they’ll stick around to hear what else you have to say, and when the time is right, they’ll become one of your best customers.

Write as much or as little as you want, but probably not less than 8 pages. If you are not a great writer, admit it and find an editor who can clean things up for you, checking your spelling and sentence structure so that you present a professional image.

I read a book recently on my Kindle that was just awful in terms of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, and the total lack of proper punctuation actually made it extremely difficult to read. (And I paid for this, too.) The only reason I read the whole thing is that the author had really good and valuable things to say.  I had to keep reminding myself of that, but at the same time, I was also questioning whether this guy was really the pro he claimed to be.

You really don’t want to publish a mistake-riddled ebook or report because most people are not nearly as forgiving in this regard as I am. If you come across as stupid — and you will if you misspell words and can’t string a coherent sentence together — your readers will dismiss you very quickly and you’ll have lost any chance to make that great first impression.

Remember, your website — and whatever you give away for free — will be the first impression that people have of you. Make sure it is the kind of impression you want to give.

SIDE NOTE: Having a hard time with your writing? You may find it useful to write specifically to only one person whenever you’re writing anything — an ebook or an article or a blog post.

I’ve got a favorite client of mine. I just love her. I enjoy working with her and we always accomplish a lot together.  So when I sit down to write something, I always write it just to her.  I know — since she is my ideal client — that whatever  I write to her will also benefit everyone else that will be reading it because “she” is exactly the kind of client I am trying to attract.

Related Posts

• Give (Almost) Everything Away
• Using Assessments Naturally in Your Coaching
• Move Your Feet
• The Mistakes I Made Creating My First Info-Product
• 3 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When They Create Information Products

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Business Planning, Marketing Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.