Free content can still generate revenue from web advertising
It is possible to make money from your free white papers. These white papers will still remain free for your consumers who seek the information. That concept does not change at all.
However, the aspect of having free content is more powerful than many publishers think. Here you are, a provider of information that educates your audience. And in addition to every other part of your internet business model, you offer free content to entice readers. Not only do you tell your audience that you’re knowledgeable on a niche topic that they’re interested in, but you prove it to them. You build trust with them.
This part of the equation is taken care of. Your audience, the consumer-base, is adequately supported. However, what about you?
You take the time to amass this information and freely give it away, in hopes that the same consumers will end up ultimately paying for the products you offer.
Although this is a solid strategy in retaining an audience, there is a potential here for you to be generating more revenue from this method of web advertising.
Free white papers are a way to drive revenue
If you dispense a multitude of products including email newsletters, complimentary digital magazines, or free reports, you can seek sponsorship in turn for these downloads.
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These sponsorships can be priced in two different ways. It could be offered to advertising clients on a per download (per lead) basis. Or, you can offer this on a service plus marketing impressions basis.
Which method of offering sponsorships of free white papers will work for you?
Sponsorship opportunities are valued by many advertisers. You may get a sense of which free white papers will be more successful before you release them. For example, if you have one on a current hot-topic, then it’s more likely to get a lot of attention than an out-of-date topic. If you have consistent numbers on white paper downloads, then going this route may be more attractive.
On the other hand, if you create a free white paper that you are extremely proud of and in return will promote heavily for it, then you may want to consider the service and marketing impressions method. This way the advertising client will be directly paying for the marketing assistance that’ll go into the free white paper.
The choice is up to you as both can be beneficial. Free white papers typically have great interest to consumers since they are in fact free.
An important step for including advertisements into editorial pieces
Often times it’s asked how wise it is to integrate web advertising into editorial content. The answer to this seems to be from the mind of an editor, yet plays to the desire of an advertiser. Your editorial content needs to stay strong, so it doesn’t appear that you’re compromising your content in order to promote for an advertiser’s product.
Finally, advertising clients want ways to be ‘part of’ rather than separate from the content offered. Learn how to please advertisers and begin making money online with your free reports from our Internet Advertising Basics webinar on demand.
I enjoy getting your daily emails but miss reading many of them because of time constraints. Would be very helpful if I could just easily download each column into a file I could set up on my desktop and go back to them later.
What do you think?