This is the first lesson in a five part series that will help you learn how to quickly create, distribute, and profit from your own free reports.

In this first lesson let’s talk a little bit about what you can do with free reports and what they can do for you.

Let me ask you this question….

How often do you see the words “free report” when you are surfing the Web looking for information?

About a million…. right?

It doesn’t matter what topic you’re searching for, everybody seems to be offering a free report on the subject.

The big question is, why?

Why should anybody go to all of the time, trouble, and effort to produce a report that is going to given away for free?

You see the point is NOT to sell the report you create and make a boatload of money from the sales. The entire point of a ‘free report’ is to give it to people in exchange for their names and email addresses.

Not that the report isn’t valuable in itself, but the real value is in the names and email addresses of those who download your report. They are much more valuable than the report will ever be!

The truth be told, with the thousands of free reports that are available online, there are only a few very, savvy marketers who know exactly how to put together a ‘free’ report and market effectively so that it takes on a life of its own and continues to produce phenomenal results for weeks, months, or even years after the report is released. These savvy marketers use their reports to build massive mailing lists, quickly and efficiently.

Don’t get me wrong. The free report list building technique isn’t limited only to Internet marketers. It spills over into brick and mortar marketing as well…or maybe that’s where it started. Who knows? The lines between Internet marketing and Brick and Mortar Marketing have become a bit blurred over the years.

If you don’t believe me, go and perform a search for  ‘free marketing reports’ using your favorite search engine. You’ll find free reports about all kinds of products and services. You will find free reports about marketing beverages, sports, music, B2B marketing and dozens of others. The point of these free reports is the same. The idea is to give your potential customer valuable information to in exchange for his or her name and email address for the purpose marketing products and services to them in the future.

One important key to effectively using free reports to build an opt- in list, either online or off-line is that it must contain good, solid information. The information does not have to be completely unique, but it must be accurate and free reports must be well written…  no poor grammar or misspelled words are allowed. The information needs to be presented to readers in a clear way, as well.

Another key is that good reports, whether they are free or paid for, must be helpful to  the people who read them. Make sure you check your facts and include relevant, timely data.

As you’re creating your report you also want to keep in mind that the whole point of your free report is NOT the actual report. The report is only a means to and end.  In the planning stages you will want to decide exactly what you want your report to accomplish and keep those goals in mind as you are writing.

Look for your next lesson on this blog. We will be going over how you can write your own free report in only 60 minute.  But until then, I want you to take some time and think about the reasons that you’re writing your report and exactly what you wanted them to do for you. Be sure to take some notes and jot down some ideas, so that you will be ready for the next step.

Thank you for reading my blog. Make sure you come back soon for the other part of this report.

Filed under: List Building, Marketing Tips, Make Money Online Methods