Today we’ll talk about Free Reports, which is the fourth strategy to generate organic traffic. If you have been reading my blog, then you know by now that I strongly advocate only SEO and traffic generation strategies that create long-lasting results. I do not believe in instant results. Sorry, I KNOW there is no such thing as instant results when it comes to ranking on search engines and getting organic traffic to your website.
In my previous posts about strategies that generate real traffic I’ve covered:
Today I want to talk about Free Reports, which is a really cool traffic hack that, if done the right way, can create traffic forever. And I mean literally forever. I have reports that I’ve written 7 years ago that still send traffic to my websites.
What is a Free Report?
A free report is an expert report about a certain topic that you (as the word free suggests) distribute to people for free. It can be a workout routine, a nutrition guide, an SEO best practices manual, a video editing tutorial, etc. You get the point. The important thing is that you really research and know what you’re talking about.
Make your free report 100% unique and amazing
Don’t get me wrong…it’s perfectly ok to use material that you find from other authors or on the internet, it’s totally fine to use PLR too, but only as inspiration material. Your content must be your own. Take knowledge and information from wherever you want, but DO NOT COPY the content.
If you research well what you want to write the report about, you will have no trouble creating amazing and original content.
When I say that your report has to be amazing, what I mean is that you HAVE TO GIVE PEOPLE VALUE. Your report must adress a problem or question your targeted audience has, and you have to deliver the solution or answer in a articulate and interesting way. That’s another reason for you to research well your topic. Your solution must work, and people have to be able to easily understand what you’re writing about. That’s the only recipe to make your report go viral.
How Long Should My Free Report Be?
The ideal is to make 7 – 10 pages of solid content. After that, the next step is to add images, charts, etc. Avoid writing in a scientific, sterile fashion. You are writing for regular people with an interest in a certain topic, not for specialized, scientific magazines.
Also, you should try and stay away from long paragraphs. It is much better to divide them into smaller, easy to read paragraphs. That way your report will not look clustered.
But Wait, How Do I monetize on a Free Report?
You might be thinking “What’s the point of creating a free report? How will get something out of it?”. The trick is to give enough information to answer the questions your audience is asking, but not to give too much information. The reason for this is that you want to link your free report to a service or product that will give people the info they’re missing.
For example, you can write a report about best SEO practices, and then link back to a video course about it that you did. If you’re writing about home workout, your report can cover a basic plan fit for most people, and then you could offer a nutrition plan, or a custom workout plan or video tutorial for a fee. You getting the drift now?
It’s a great way to link to services and products that you’re selling by not making it look to pushy since you’re giving a valuable report for free.
What is also important is to have a clear “CALL TO ACTION”. You don’t want your readers wondering what to do next. Make it perfectly clear what they get if they click on the links you provided.
Free Reports Distribution
So, you’ve written your free report and it’s amazing. You’ve got images and everything. What now? How do you get it in front of people?
There are several ways to distribute your report, and you should try and combine them all.
1- Create a squeeze page
Create an opt-in page to collect leads when people sign in to get your free report. This way you will be building a list at the same time.
2- Distribute the report via your blog
You can promote your free report on your blog, to your subscribers and the people who visit your blog.
3- Social Media
Use as many different social media platforms to promote your free report.
4- Get people to distribute your report
Offer unrestricted distribution rights, but be sure to add distribution instructions. Allow people to distribute your report, but make sure they don’t alter the content and change your links.
CONCLUSION:
Creating Free Reports is one of the most effective and long-lasting traffic generation strategies out there. People have been doing it for decades. It can create targeted traffic that can last for ages.
So, you should start researching a topic relevant in your niche and create some truly amazing content that your audience will love. The results can be incredible.
Stay safe and stay tuned
S
P.S. Getting inspirational material can sometimes be hard. So, because I like to help our readers, I’m giving you access to our 100K+ articles PLR HERE FOR FREE
