The giveaway that actually builds a list

Most free downloads are a table of contents pretending to be a gift. People can tell. The ones that build a list have the opposite problem: they give away so much that you wonder why anybody would pay for the next thing. That worry is the point.

Give away the whole thing

Not a preview, not chapter one. The entire useful thing, start to finish, so somebody could act on it tonight and never buy anything from you. If it does not feel like too much, it is not enough.

The reason this works is not generosity. It is that a person who got a real result from your free thing has already tested you. Everything after that is an easier conversation than the first one would have been.

Four pages, and what goes on each

One: the promise and the time. What they will have when they are done and how long it takes. Ten minutes is believable. An hour is not, on a phone, from a stranger.

Two and three: the actual thing. Steps, checks, scripts, whatever it is. Numbered. Doable without you.

Four: the one trap. Name the mistake people make when they try this. This single page is what makes it feel like it came from somebody who has done it, instead of from a content mill.

Two calls to action, not five

One for the person who is done and wants the next thing. One for the person who read it and would rather you just did it for them. Different people, different buttons, both on the last page.

Do not gate it

Asking for an email before somebody knows if your thing is any good is charging admission to a sample. Let them have it. Offer the list after, when they have a reason.

Ship the posts with it

The giveaway that nobody hears about is the same as no giveaway. Write the posts in the same sitting or they never get written.

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