Free reports are fast becoming a more and more widely used, warm lead generating tool for businesses today, in particular service businesses. Many savvy business owners know just how valuable a free report is and how it can help them build a vital pipeline of interested, warm prospects for their business. But as well as using a free report to help build their opt-in list, they also serve other purposes as well.

Your average free report will tend to be found and downloaded by your average online internet browser who is just searching for more information about something that they are either working on or just have a general interest in. You won’t have any problems getting people to download your free reports because when people are already on the lookout for more information on a given topic, the first thing they tend to do is try and get as much information as they can for free. This will include any free reports that catch their eye.

Visitors do pay for information but generally only after they have searched for and downloaded all the free information they can find first. However, most people realize that nobody gives away their best information for free! So, in order to save time and effort people ultimately will decide to pay to receive better and more specific information on their topic, and their decision will be based upon what they feel about the quality of the free information they received initially.

However, you can be absolutely sure that there will always be a good number of people searching for and downloading free information. The real secret to success is in being able to provide additional value added information in the future to those people, for which are prepared to pay.

So, the next important question that needs to be answered is how can you maximize the mileage you get out of giving away a free report?

After all, that ‘free’ report is only free to the people who download it. It isn’t free for you, the business owner. You have to invest time and resources to get it written, either by yourself, your staff or by a ghostwriter. And unsurprisingly you will want to get some return on your investment, right? Absolutely! And what is more you will have earned that right, so that’s what we are going to cover next.

The first, and potentially most valuable return you can get, is the name and email address of the person downloading your report. That is, after all, usually the main purpose in offering a free report. But the benefits don’t need to stop there because there are several other ways you can profit from your report. In your free report, you can also strategically place advertisements or links to other products on which you can potentially earn an affiliate income or a referral commission from either suppliers of complimentary products or even, dare we say it, your competitors!

Obviously your free report should not just be a blatant advertisement… very few people will want to see that but that doesn’t mean that you can’t place links to products or services that will both be of interest to the readers of your report and from which you can profit, does it?

You do need to exercise good judgment and possibly some restraint when considering whether to place links to other products and services that you will profit from. Remember that the readers who have downloaded your free report want to find valuable and well-written information on the subject they are interested in and do not expect to find a load of blatant affiliate links to other products. They are looking for you to provide expertise and guidance within your information and therefore your main aim should always be to provide this to them by way of your report. Obviously if they want more of your expertise then it is not unreasonable for them to expect to have to pay for it. Your report should therefore serve as a showcase for additional skills and services that you can provide if the reader is interested.

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About the Author:
This article was created by Tim Dodd, Head Trainer at 3dInternetMarketing.com. 3dInternetMarketing are fast building an excellent reputation showing online business owners where they can quickly & easily earn additional profits from their existing client base and how they can literally tap into an unending source of well qualified, eager to buy, new customers. To learn more visit [2] www.3dInternetMarketing.com today.

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