Why Affiliate Bonuses Work

This is one of my all time favorite pieces of affiliate marketing advice. I highly recommend that you implement the methods I'm going to teach you as soon as possible. 

They are applicable to anyone selling just about anything.  

This method can change EVERYTHING for affiliate marketers. 

Although the idea of giving in order to get can seem like common sense, common sense is becoming less and less common. 

As marketers we can give our audience more and grow our businesses at the same time. 

This means happier customers and more sales. 

Making Your Affiliate Advantage

Most affiliate offers are very competitive.

Even if you have a large audience, have established credibility and built goodwill with your followers, some affiliate products are destined to underperform. That is of course assuming you do nothing to give yourself a competitive advantage. 

The advantage is this: bring something MORE to the offer than just the affiliate product.

When I started affiliate marketing I wanted to compete with the big boys right out of the gate.

I wanted to sell the "core tools" like BlueHost hosting to my readers. 

I saw guys like Pat Flynn who had similar audiences (although his was and is bigger) absolutely CRUSHING it selling BlueHost. It was simple and not a hard sell at all (almost everyone who does internet business needs hosting). 

My logic was that if Pat was making 100s of thousands a month selling these products with about 20x my audience, I should be able to sell at least 5% of that with mine. That would equate to $5k-$15k/month! 

Well, it didn't. It was more like $50-$150/month. 

Why though? I realized there were a lot of factors at play but the big one was this... 

Pat Flynn has so much more goodwill built up than me. He has been doing this for longer than me and at a the highest level. I am honestly just starting to "hit my stride" and creating goodwill that comes anywhere close to his. 

Goodwill takes time to build. To make sales now though, I needed to do something different. 

I would continue to build goodwill and do it at the highest levels I knew how, but to make sales in the (then) here-and-now, I needed to sell better offers than my competitors on the same products.

What?

How could I make something that was better when we were selling the same products?

BONUSES!

Most affiliate terms of service have no problem with you incentivizing people to use your affiliate links. The best programs actually encourage it. 

With one affiliate in mind that you want to sell more of, ask yourself the following questions.

With affiliate products, the ROI is generally very high. 

Unless you are spending a fortune on paid ads your affiliate ROI is measured relative to the time and energy you put into creating content to push the affiliate organically. 

Why Do Bonuses Work?

Anything you're promoting should be able to sell without bonuses of course, but adding bonuses will blow up the conversion rates for a few reasons.

1. It pushes people on the edge. Most people are on the verge of buying (but never do). Most affiliates ignore these people. You and I will use them as our core audience!
2. It instills a FOMO within your audience. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is an important part of marketing. It is important that we give our buyers a reason to buy now. Don't guilt yourself over this. If you're selling something worth buying, there is nothing wrong with giving users an extra nudge to stop dragging their feet. Your true fans will appreciate this. 
3. It improves on the product. Good bonus packages should increase the chances of success and decrease the risk of failure when using the item you're promoting.

When Should You Use Bonuses

Whenever your margins are enough that you can afford to give more in exchange for more sales.

Now, it's important to note that you can't use the bonus method so much that the prices of your products become permanently hindered. 

If every single time you promote an affiliate product you offer the same bonuses at the same massive discounts, your loyal followers will start to catch on to this and will think your prices are artificially inflated since you love giving them away so often. 

What Should You Give

There are a few keys to a good bonus offer.

1. Make it relevant to the affiliate you're selling.
2. Give it a monetary value. 

Now, the best way to create bonus offers is by throwing in your own products.

• Digital products
• Courses and trainings
• Discounts on your products 

If you don't have products, that is ok, there are other options.

• One on one training
• Purchase other products for them
• Partner with another product creator 

How Much Should You Give?

Give enough to offset the potential lost sales from bonuses + some. As long as you are making more money, adding bonuses means happier customers (they are getting more bang for their buck) and you are coming out on top. 

If you are part of a massive affiliate launch and there are a number of other affiliates also offering bonuses, you need to make yours stick out. In cases where commissions are huge ($1,000+) throwing in "everything but the kitchen sink," might be necessary to compete. 

If you need to give too much to get a sale and compete, bow out. Don't lose money just for the sake of "beating" other affiliates. 

Note: By all means, give this approach a shot if you'd like. It might work for you and at the very least, it will give you some perspective. I know from trial and error that it is not a good approach for my business. 

The Heart of Affiliate Marketing

There is a lot that goes into affiliate marketing but one of the biggest factors is trust. 

The more trust your followers have in you, the more likely they are to buy what you promote. 

Cold traffic doesn't do any of these things...

Let's talk about what to do instead of the anonymous traffic approach. 

Selling Products with Value and Trust

This method is not as sexy as anonymously sending traffic to landing pages.

Trust me, I can appreciate the appeal of that. The anonymous approach let's you hide behind the scenes and avoid the struggle of making yourself vulnerable to others. 

Some people are mean and rude. Being a face in your industry can break you down if you take it to heart.

But, if the paid affiliate traffic method worked as easily as it sounds, this article wouldn't exist and you probably wouldn't even know who I was because I'd be doing a lot more of the anonymous stuff!

Ok that's a lie... I enjoy being in the public's eye... enough about me, let's talk about how to actually make affiliate sales with paid ads. 

I have broken this down into two pieces...

First, a set of principles to follow.

Next, a step by step process. 

Principles for Selling Affiliate Products with Paid Ads

Here are the keys to actually making affiliate money with paid ads...

1. Send to Your Own Content First

This is where the sexiness disappears but the effectiveness shows up. 

You should send your traffic to a blog post, YouTube video, webinar or anything else that can provide some sort of value and more than just pitch a product. 

Note: If you're running ads on Google, you can't send traffic to a squeeze or bridge page.

The affiliate product should tie seamlessly into the sale of the product. 

Certain content types sell affiliate products much better than others. 

Providing value before the sale is extremely important. Dr. Robert Caildini, author of the best seller Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, performed many studies around the concept of reciprocity and why giving something away often leads to getting more in return later. 

Caildini performed a case study in which a waiter’s tips increased by 3% when diners are given a mint, and 14% when they’re given two mints. When the waiter left one mint with the bill but quickly returned to offer a second mint, the tips increased by 23%.

It's not guesswork. Providing value FIRST will make you more money as an affiliate in the long run. This is part of why the anonymous approach rarely outperforms creating a brand and providing value for "free" to the masses.

This is part of why I have spent 4 days writing this blog post. I'm not getting paid to write this directly, but in giving you value, you're more likely to support me later if I promote something. 

Sorry if that makes you feel like you're being played. You're of course perfectly welcome to scour my blog and YouTube channel and absorb every bit of free information without ever giving me a dollar. 

That is how this all works. It's a beautiful thing for creator and reader!

There are additional positive byproducts of running paid traffic to your own content as well. If you have a blog or video channel, you can start to rank organically if users are viewing the content, liking, commenting and sharing. 

This means more free traffic overtime which will lead to more sales even if you stop running the ads. 

Another positive byproduct of sending traffic to your own content is you can capture email addresses if you include an enticing lead magnet someone on your page or channel.

2. Pixel Traffic and Retarget It

If someone has received value from you in the past, they are much more likely to click on an ad you show them later and they are more likely to buy as well. 

If you aren't familiar with the Facebook pixel, you need to get up to speed ASAP. Here is a great article explaining what the pixel is and how to go about installing it. 

3. Continually Optimize 

The higher your frequency gets, the more money you're going to pay per click.

This means that we need to make sure we don't fall victim to "setting and forgetting" our ads. 

Now, a slight exception is when you are running ads to just pixeled traffic. If you are targeting recent visitors to your site, you won't need to change the ad quite as often since new visitors will be pixeled each day and they will be seeing your ads for the first time. 

4. Collect Emails When Possible 

If you're spending money on ads, you might as well grab some emails as a byproduct. 

When you gather email addresses, you can contact your subscribers again later with offers to your affiliate products. 

Email marketing is my #1 source of affiliate sales and it has been for years. Do not sleep on it. 

Although not as valuable as emails, make an effort to turn paid traffic clicks into followers or subscribers as well. This will make it easier for you to promote things to them organically without paying again. 

5. Sell in Email Follow Up Sequences

New email subscribers are giving you the chance to expose them to your offer multiple times. Create a great follow up campaign that builds trust and gives incentive to buy and you'll see your sales go much, much higher.

Step By Step Method for Creating Paid Ads to Sell Affiliate Products

Here is what the process should look like...

Note: I am not showing the technical aspects of creating the ad here. If you want help with this, check out the tutorials provided by the ad networks themselves.

Step #1: Create Content Related to the Affiliate Product

This part requires a lot of work on your part but it is where the real money is made. 

Content should be directly related to the product in some way. It should attract the type of person who would buy the product you're eventually going to sell. 

For example, if my affiliate product is blueprints for 5,000 different wood working projects, I'd need to create content that targets people who are interested in wood working. 

Things like (and these are totally made up)...

• [VIDEO] Watch Me Build My Dream Wood Working Station from Scratch (for UNDER $500!)
• [BLOG POST] 20 Tools That Every Carpenter Should Have at Their Workstation
• [BLOG POST] DIY Plans for Pallet Coffee Tables you Can Make for Under $20!

These articles would attract people who wouldn't just be interested in plans about woodworking, they'd likely be excited to see them!

Remember, affiliate marketing is only annoying when it's disingenuous and not relevant to the viewer. 

If I write a blog post on woodworking and sell you fat burners, that makes no sense and it will turn off your readers forever.  

Step #2: Install Your Pixels and Tracking Codes 

Installing your pixels and tracking IDs on your blogs/channels allows you to retarget the traffic. 

Not pixeling and retargeting your traffic is one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you're trying to make sales by running paid ads. 

Note: Some affiliate programs actually allow the affiliate to track conversions for their traffic!

Step #3: Create Ads to the Content

Now that you have the content and the pixels/tracking codes in place, you can create your first ad. 

Now, the purpose of this article isn't to teach you how to create great ads. THAT merits its own blog post (really, it merits its own book). 

So, I highly recommend that you research how to create great ads across different platforms. 

Step #4: Create Custom Audiences 

Now that you've added your pixels, you will want to gather some data and then create audiences that include this pixeled traffic. 

Depending on the size of your channel or site, this could take awhile to reach a substantial number of users. 

Step #5: Optimize Continually

Your ad isn't likely to perform well right out of the gate. 

You will need to monitor it and continually optimize it. This is another one of the "hard" aspects of this process that most people (who don't make money doing this) ignore. 

Once you have a lot of clicks to your first ad, you can create a second ad that targets everyone who has viewed the first article or clicked on the link. 

This ad can send traffic directly to the affiliate product landing page OR to another piece of content that more directly sells the product (like a review page). 

This is a dry topic, but if you're an affiliate marketer, this short article could help you avoid steep fines and even jail time!

If you're new to affiliate marketing or have never taken a serious look into the legality of the practice, I highly recommend you read this before promoting anything else. 

Like it or not, federal laws and merchant contracts regulate affiliate behaviors, and you could face serious legal consequences if you violate these rules.

Follow these best practices to ensure your affiliate marketing efforts remain within the guidelines of the law.

The last thing you want is to earn a bunch of money just to lose it in an ugly class action lawsuit!

On May 25th, 2018, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) goes into full effect. 

The GDPR is a legal framework that governs the use of personal data across all EU markets. The GDPR has introduced increased sanctions in which organizations can be fined up to €20m or 4% of annual turnover (whichever of the two is greater) for violations. 

The legalese of the GDPR is long and boring (as you might expect) but worth a read if you want to ensure your business is 100% compliant. 

I am after all just a guy with a laptop, doing his best to interpret the law for my own businesses and help you in the process. 

Here is what I think you need to know about the GDPR

1. GDPR Affects More Than Just EU Country Residents and Businesses

My first reaction was "oh, I'm not in a country in the European Union, I won't be impacted!" 

WRONG!

It impacts everyone online, unfortunately. 

If your website is getting traffic from anywhere within the EU (it surely is) you need to abide by the GDPR guidelines. 

There is a gray area. While the regulations are intended to apply to companies worldwide, they don't necessarily apply to affiliate marketers that don't intentionally target EU consumers with their websites, content, products, and currency pricing.

What does that mean? Well, we shall see. 

2. We Must Obtain Clear Consent 

The GDPR requires that consumers consent to allow companies to collect, store, and use personal data for any form of direct marketing.

To deliver personalized commercial messages to people via phone, email, social media, instant messages, VoIP, or other technologies, we must have received direct authorization from a consumer.

Email rules are more lax and  companies can send relevant messages to customers who provide email addresses at the time of purchase.

What does this mean? 

Nothing new really. Don't contact people who haven't given you explicit consent. 

3. Provide Easy Opt-Outs

Permission to contact isn't permanent. If at any time someone wishes to stop receiving direct marketing, they need to be able to easily remove themselves and we need to be able to easily remove all of their data permanently. 

This is something that we should already be doing, regardless of the GDPR

Choose the merchants you affiliate yourself with wisely.

Programs promising the world may be too good to be true, and signing up for these without doing your research could leave you in a bad place when payout time comes. 

Even sticking only with well-known brands doesn’t guarantee an affiliate program is a good investment of your time.

When investigating affiliate opportunities, consider these questions:

1. What kind of reputation does the company have?
2. What other business endeavors is the company involved in?
3. Is the company financially stable?
4. Have other affiliates had favorable experiences?

Avoid brands with shady pasts, questionable business dealings and poor track records with customer service.

A quick search of the company in the Better Business Bureau database can give you good insights into the track record of the companies you are looking to work with. 

I did a quick search of Etison, LLC (the umbrella company for one of my big affiliates, Clickfunnels) and was reassured that they have a history of sound business practice. 

A lead magnet is a free offer given to visitors to a website or social media channel in exchange for an email address. 

You may have heard lead magnets called by other names like...

• Bribes to subscribe
• Content upgrades
• Bait

Don't worry about semantics, these all refer (more or less) to the process of giving something in exchange for personal information that can be used to contact visitors in the future. 

In this article I'm going to show you...

Before we go any further, let me remind you why you should spend time creating FREE content and going out of your way to give it away. 

Why Do Lead Magnets Matter?

Why do people like me PAY to give away things to people we don't know?

Here is why...An email address is the lifeblood of a good online business. 

Lead magnets are key to building an audience that you "own" and can contact whenever you want.

Whenever you have a new piece of content, a new product or are part of a new promotion, you can send an email to your subscribers for free. 

If you've ever paid for traffic on Google, Facebook or other social media channels, the concept of free traffic should make your mouth water. 

One email broadcast to subscribers can result in hundreds or thousands of clicks. If you were to pay for that sort of engagement elsewhere, it adds up . . . fast. 

Im not against paying for traffic by any means (I spend a lot on paid promotions myself) but I am the biggest advocate of email marketing and retargeting you will ever find. 

Don't worry, paid traffic and email marketing aren't mutually exclusive. Email marketing just lets you get more out of each visitor that lands on your site. 

Let's say that you pay $0.25/click to send traffic to a blog post. Each visitor reads a certain amount of the post, maybe they buy something, maybe they don't. 

If they don't, they are gone and likely forever. If you are collecting their email addresses by offering them an enticing reason to fork it over (a lead magnet) you can then retarget them until they unsubscribe. 

Now, that $0.25 click you paid for can be worth exponentially more!

Giving away enticing freebies is one of the most lucrative moves you can make for your internet business.

You should average $1+/subscriber per month on my email list. Let that sink in. That number is extremely conservative. 

Convincing enough? I hope so.

Let's go on...

What Makes a Great Lead Magnet?

First, remember that email addresses aren't handed out freely like they once were. A clean inbox is a high priority for most people so your readers/viewers don't want emails that they don't care about.

This means that your lead magnet needs to be well thought out, extremely enticing, and of the highest quality.

A great lead magnet should meet the following 6 criteria. 

Your lead magnet needs to be something irresistible and immediately applicable. Someone is much more likely to download your lead magnet if they can use it in the near future. If it's not something they need right now, they likely won't hand over the email address. 

" Someone is much more likely to download your lead magnet if they can use it in the near future...

Your lead magnet can't be vague. It should be extremely targeted to your readers and their current needs. 

I have made the mistake many times of associating total value with total opt-ins. The truth is that readers care more about solving their immediate problems than they care about amassing even more information on topics that aren't yet on their mind. 

So, if your niche is bodybuilding, instead of creating a lead magnet like "Ultimate Guide to Building Muscle" consider something much more simple like "My Simple Cure for Muscle Soreness."

The latter is less overwhelming and solves one specific problem (muscle soreness) that would relate to your topic of interest. 

I can almost guarantee that all things being equal, the shorter, targeted lead magnet would outperform the massive "ultimate guide" magnet. 

A good lead magnet should be something that subscribers can access quickly.

The best lead magnets are downloadable and can be opened by the subscriber quickly and easily. Offering lead magnets that require massive commitments of time (think of something like a "40 week training course") doesn't attract subscribers like magnets that provide the content immediately. 

Many marketers make the mistake of creating freebies that don't define their user base. I've seen people do things like, "enter to win a free iPad!" The problem with this is that everyone likes free iPads! If someone joins your list because they wanted an iPad, they aren't likely to be good customers in the future. 

Your lead magnet should relate directly to what you are offering your subscriber in the future. Do you plan on promoting a product relating to weight loss? If so, your lead magnet should be related to weight loss!

Lead magnets help you skim the ideal customers from the masses and segment them in a way that allows you to sell to them more easily in the future without being "salesy" or annoying. If they have already expressed interest in something, you promoting something related to that interest in the future is perfectly natural and welcomed. 

The free content shouldn't be something you just whip together without any effort. This is your chance to showcase your expertise and impress your new subscribers. Lots of lead magnets end up damaging the reputation of the person or company giving them away because they were put together with little thought or effort. 

Now, some lead magnets won't check off each of these items. That is ok but the further you deviate from these guidelines the lower your conversion rates will become and you will get subscribers of lesser value. 

If you're giving away something more complex or that costs money ($1 trials, free + shipping etc) landing pages will be required.

If you don't have a blog, you will need to create landing pages to get opt-ins. 

There are a number of tools to build landing pages but I make almost all of mine in Clickfunnels.

If you're interested in using Clickfunnels, check out this tutorial I created for making simple 2 step opt-ins. 

50 Lead Magnet Ideas (with Examples!)

Lead magnets can come in many forms. 

There are 49 types of lead magnets that I want to share with you here and I have included the best examples I could find across the internet. 

Some of the examples are relevant to internet marketers like yourself, so feel free to go and download anything below!

Some of these lead magnets are time sensitive (events, coaching calls, etc) so I couldn't provide examples for every single type. You will have to use your imagination for some of these.

These aren't all created equal and what may work for one business may not work for yours.

Some of these lead magnets wouldn't work for my business or I know wouldn't perform well.

I have included EVERY type of lead magnet I could think of so don't think I am suggesting you should go write an ebook, create a full membership course or anything extravagant. 

Many of the highest converting lead magnets are drop dead simple. Don't associate complexity and length of the lead magnet with opt-in rates. 

Remember the 6 point checklist for lead magnets I shared earlier.

You want your lead magnet to be easily consumable and provide immediate gratification. If you already have a large freebie to giveaway (like an ebook or course) go for it, but don't think you have to have something epic to get conversions. 

In many cases, simple lead magnets like 1 page reports out perform epic giveaways like eBooks and 5 hour long web courses. 

Note: These are in alphabetical order and not in order of most effective or most recommended.

There isn't a one size fits all solution for lead magnets so approach this list with an open mind and find what works for your business. 

A high quality, value dense audio recording of content relevant to your readers.

MP3 files are great because they let you connect with your audience on a more personal level and you can give away a ton of value without tons of writing, editing or formatting.

I created a guided meditation MP3 for entrepreneurs that performs well for me. I wrote the script myself and hired a voice actor for less than $100 on Fiverr to read it. 

A simple tool that allows your subscriber to enter data and get immediate insights of some kind.

I have had success with simple calculators I built with Microsoft Excel. You can also pay a developer to create a simple calculator widget for your website that requires an email to operate. 

Documented examples that show something of interest to your subscriber. Ideally, these case studies show someone who achieved the desired end result that your subscribers want for themselves. 

For example, a case study showing how someone added 1 inch to their biceps over 4 weeks would be an enticing lead magnet if you're in the fitness niche. 

Case studies are a great opportunity for you to connect back to a product you are promoting or selling and showcase the results that someone achieved by using the product, service or method. 

These make great blog posts on their own and repurposing them into PDFs can make great lead magnets. 

A reference tool that summarizes larger processes into easily digestible points and steps.

This is one of the most common lead magnets you will find. 

Quick, bulleted guides showing subscribers how to do something of interest to them. 

Checklists are extremely gratifying and easy to digest and therefore, make great lead magnets. 

A discount for a product or service you offer.

These are another example of lead magnets that can lead to sales while simultaneously growing your list. If someone doesn't use the coupon, you now have their email and can remind them to come back and complete a purchase. 

Also, there is something powerful that happens when a subscriber has paid you any amount of money. If you use a coupon to get a sale, you've created an extremely valuable subscriber who will be much more likely to buy from you again in the future. 

Ryan Deiss explains that there is something very powerful about getting that first sale, no matter how large or small it is...

" The conversion of a prospect to a customer, even for $1, is magical. - Ryan Deiss

A simple, attractive high resolution image that your subscribers will set as the backgrounds on their computers or mobile devices. 

A high resolution image can be a great lead magnet.

Pro Tip: Include branding of some kind so you stay top of mind. These are great for artists, bands and creatives. 

Access to a new product or service before the public.

If you're selling a product, early bird access is a viable option that will also make immediate sales. This is a great way to reward your most loyal customers. 

PDF, ePub or MOBI versions of books you have written related to the topic relevant to your audience. 

Ebooks convert very well as lead magnets, but don't feel like you need to publish novels to get emails. If you have a book, that's awesome, if not, I don't recommend that you make one just for a lead magnet until you try other, quicker methods first. 

An automated sequence of emails that trains a subscriber to achieve some desired end result. 

This is a genius lead magnet idea for multiple reasons.

First, it nearly guarantees that your subscribers will confirm the opt-in (which is important for future deliverability).

Second, you will stay top of mind while they are on your sequence and you'll be able to build deep rapport with them. You can even promote multiple products to them organically during the sequence if they are relevant to the topic.

Free admission to an event either in person or online.

If you're doing a free meet-up or live webinar, event tickets are a great way to get opt-ins.

Local businesses that make sales face to face can benefit from this sort of lead magnet.

Gathering information beyond just name and email is perfectly normal when giving away tickets to an event so don't be afraid to ask deeper questions that better segment your subscribers. 

Access to a secret Facebook group where you share exclusive content.

Facebook groups are insanely underrated. Create a private Facebook group and give the access link only to people who opt-in via email. This kills two birds because it helps you grow a group AND your email list.

I call this, "audience hedging." The more mediums you can get your followers on, the better. 

A printed book sent to subscribers on the condition that they cover shipping (which usually costs $4.95-$7.95). This sort of offer generally requires some paid traffic to work and you will likely lose money on the front in after cost to print the book and run ads to the offer. 

I learned this method from Russell Brunson of Clickfunnels. If you have a book and can afford to spend some money on the front end, giving away a book can be steroids for your brand.

Since these require a credit card (you have to pay shipping) these work fantastically as part of sales funnels. If you created a sales funnel, you would sell another product that is related to the book as an up-sell immediately after someone purchases the book.

For the sake of basic lead generation, sales funnels aren't in the spirit of this article. I recommend you use a sales funnel like this AFTER you have indoctrinated your new subscribers to your brand. 

1-3 chapters of a popular ebook you've written or have rights to promote.

If you have a book that has confirmed value (sales on Amazon for instance) you can create a very enticing lead magnet by offering just 1-3 chapters. 

You might also end up selling some books as a byproduct!

17. Free Quote

Free pricing estimate for a product or service that can be done via a software or through an actual 1 on 1 conversation.

This is a great option if the quote leads interested leads to purchase from you. I can't think of a high end service offering that wouldn't benefit from offering free quotes to prospective buyers. 

Note: The example above doesn't actually require an email address to use the tool but it does encourage users to take the next step and contact them to find a team of developers to have their app created. 

They aren't looking to get tens of thousands of emails, they are trying to find their ideal, high value customers and this tool accomplishes that. 

Free shipping on a product you offer (can have a minimum cart size or not). 

If you sell physical products, offering free shipping in exchange for opt-ins works very well. Free shipping opt-ins allow you to retarget possible customers and give them the nudge they need to make a purchase. 

Keep in mind, this is not the same as a "free + shipping" offer.  A free shipping offer is traditionally a coupon that can be redeemed immediately or at a future date whereas a free + shipping offer requires the subscriber to cover shipping costs to get something else "free."

Free access to a paid product or service in exchange for personal information. 

You can ask for credit card information and begin billing after the trial expires or offer the trial for free with no billing information required. The former will lead to more sales but the latter will lead to more trials. 

If your product is fantastic, getting more people to try it might result in more revenue. Keep in mind though, when people don't have an ultimatum to actually use the product (they will have to proactively cancel their trial or they will be billed), they aren't nearly as likely to try it.

Yes, many people will use the tool and bounce without ever paying, but they have expressed interest and they are much more likely to buy from you in the future if you retarget them properly. 

Note: I know a traditional lead magnet is supposed to be free, but I find something special with $1 trials. Why do I like $1 trials so much? Yes, you will experience fewer opt-ins but you'll get people who are much more serious and more likely to actually continue using and paying for your software. There is a mental barrier that is broken once someone has trusted you with any amount of money, no matter how small. That $1 isn't going to make you rich but it is going to make selling to your trial users much easier. Also, asking for just $1 will reduce the number of fraudulent trial abusers (people who just keep using the tool and opening new accounts with fake emails). 

A free resource that creates some sort of data valuable to the subscriber.

This is an expensive approach relative to the others but I have seen businesses built around simple generators on their websites. Creating one of these could cost anywhere from $1,000 - $50,000+ so it is most likely a long shot for newer marketers. 

A promotional campaign in which you award a prize that is relevant to your subscriber. 

People love giveaways and contests. If you have something that is RELEVANT to your audience this can be a huge source of email subscribers. 

Keep in mind, your giveaway needs to help segment your audience further. You can't give iPads and expect to collect great leads. Yes, you'll get a lot of leads, but they won't be targeted, they won't open your emails often and they aren't likely to buy from you.

When running a giveaway, don't worry too much about the monetary value of the product your giving away. Interesting case studies have actually shown that giving away something simple like cupcakes might actually outperform something like iPads!

The logic is that people can see themselves winning something small like cupcakes but they "never win,' big contests like iPads. The odds can be exactly the same, but people are more likely to enter contests they feel they could realistically win. The human mind is a strange, strange thing.

A simple document showing subscribers how to accomplish something. 

I love making guide style blog posts and many of them can easily be repurposed into PDF guides that capture emails in hoards. 

Information gathered in an appealing visual manner and shared as a PDF or web page.

People love infographics BUT there are a couple of reasons I don't like them as opt-ins. 

Reason #1: They are amazing backlink bait. People love linking to infographics. 

Reason #2: They make blog posts look fantastic and I think they are worth showing to everyone, not just opt-ins. 

If you choose to give them away, there is no harm in that, it just isn't my style. 

Infographics are also great for backlinks so spending a little bit of money to have a great infographic created might be a great investment. If you want a premium infographic created, I recommend you check out 99designs.

A private area with content and a community environment. 

Access to a membership area is a great way to get leads and build community. This is a serious investment of time, energy and money so I don't recommend this as your first lead magnet.

Diagrams breaking down a process and showing how different steps relate to one another. 

Mind maps are easy to create and provide that "instant gratification" that your visitors crave. 

There are plenty of free tools to help you create mind maps.

A simple document showing how to do something efficiently.

People love plans. They are straightforward and gratifying. 

If you have a simple plan to share, this could easily become your highest performing lead magnet. 

A simple document showing an educated guess to future happenings. 

If you're serving the financial sector this sort of lead magnet can be fantastic. 

A plan for cooking something (usually offering some sort of health benefit). 

If you are in the food or fitness niche, recipes make fantastic lead magnets. They are quickly digested (pun intended) and highly actionable. 

A collection of comments or links from influential people or blogs in a niche.

A roundup lead magnet is a piece of content that you crowd source from others in your industry. These are great because they leverage the expertise of others and create credible, interesting pieces of content. 

Scripts work great in the B2B market. The best example of this would be a script for people in sales selling high ticket items or cold calling. 

A powerpoint file showing showing a user something relating to a topic of interest.

Powerpoint slides are great way to share information quickly with your readers. 

A report showing data from a certain field of interest.

Everyone is curious what is happening with their industry. If you can gather great data on the state of your industry, it can make a great lead magnet. 

Short, simplified explanations of larger processes. 

Quickly summarize large concepts. If you have an "epic post" you can create a summary of the post as a lead magnet. 

Similar to the quiz except there aren't right or wrong answers. The purpose is to collect data that would be of interest to your subscriber.

Create a survey and then share the results in exchange for an email.

Swipe files are collections of proven marketing materials that are used for reference when creating new copy. If you're in the marketing niche, these are great lead magnets. 

Neville Medhora has created a great resource called swipefile.io (although he isn't collecting emails, which I think is a missed opportunity) if you're curious what a swipe file is. 

Something that helps a subscriber complete a task in less time. Templates often leave some room for customization (names, dates, etc).

Do you have something that you have simplified into a fillable template? 

People love this sort of "paint by numbers" content.

Typed text of the words spoken in audio or video files. 

If you create a lot of audio or video content, transcripts can be great "content upgrade" lead magnets. 

If you already have something that is transcript worthy, check out Rev.com to get that audio turned into a written transcript. 

Pro Tip: Transcription services are good but not perfect. You will want to read over the final transcription to check for errors. Often times terminology is misheard or misworded by transcriptionists who aren't familiar to the industry jargon. 

Clear, step by step explanation of a task that could benefit your subscriber.

Tutorials are great lead magnets for a number of reasons. My favorite use of tutorial lead magnets is to drive affiliate sales AND increase the odds that your buyers actually keep paying for the product or service if it's a recurring type. 

Many marketers make the mistake of assuming that once a sale is made, their job is done. You need to continually improve the buyer's chances of getting value out of the tool they purchased. When they don't, they stop paying for it. It's a perfect win-win opportunity and in internet business, this is where real money is made. 

If you have your own product or service to sell, tutorials are just as valuable.

PS: If you are this far into this blog post already, the playbook above should be your next read. Opt-in to that!

Access to a locked area of premium content. 

If you have a blog, locking some of your premium content can be a tremendous way to get leads. 

This is a very extensive process and might be considered overkill for a simple lead magnet. 

There are a number of ways to create a vault/library. I recommend that you create a simple membership site with Clickfunnels. You can also mage a page with a Thrive Leads content lock. This allows you to show the contents of a page only after someone provides an email address. 

Short, value packed video files giving quick wins to your readers. 

Confirmation that someone will be able to purchase something once it is released.

If you have an upcoming product or service creating a waiting list is a great way to get leads and also build hype for your launch. 

A simple web based tool that helps subscribers complete some sort of task relevant to your topic of interest.

Similar to the generator, a web app attracts subscribers like nobody's business. 

Live video showing something of value in the topic of interest.

There are few lead generation methods more powerful than webinars. 

I create my webinars with Clickfunnels and Webinar Jam, but there are many other options as well. 

Offline tools (calculators or fillable templates) that help users accomplish something related to their topic of interest.

These are quite possibly my favorite lead magnet. I am an Excel nerd so making these worksheets comes easily for me. 

Have an idea that isn't on this list? Go for it! 

Anything you can give to get legitimate, targeted emails is a good lead magnet. 

Many new marketers are unsure how to convert their files (lead magnets) into a format that can be downloaded by their subscribers. 

The answer to this question depends on the service you are using to collect emails and the email marketing software that you use to contact your subscribers. 

I haven't run across a professional email opt-in tool or email marketing software that doesn't make it possible to convert files into urls that trigger downloads. 

All of the tools (in the next section) will allow you to convert files into URLs that can be shared with subscribers. 

Usually these services utilize another 3rd party program like Amazon AWS to host the files for you. 

Here is what this process looks like in ConvertKit (my email marketing software of choice). 

If you aren't ready to commit to an email marketing software like ConvertKit (although I highly recommend you make the investment as it is very easy to recoup your money quickly) you can also deliver lead magnets immediately with opt-in tools like Thrive Leads, Sumo or Opt-in Monster. 

The file will be turned into a URL that might look something like this (click on it and see what happens).

http://s3.amazonaws.com/convertkit/landing_pages/incentives/000/128/381/original/Membership-Output.xlsx?1479702377

It should trigger a download of one of my lead magnets (feel free to use that as well, I think it's pretty cool!)

Tools for Lead Magnets

There are a number of tools you can use to distribute your lead magnets. 

This is my email marketing provider of choice but I really dislike using ConvertKit for forms and opt-ins. They just don't look great and I don't know enough CSS to make them look great.  

Yes, you can edit them if you know CSS but why would you when there are so many other (low cost) alternatives that integrate with ConvertKit seamlessly

This was the first email opt-in tool I remember using. It is good but I didn't fall in love with it like I did Thrive Leads.

Currently, I don't use OptinMonster on any of my sites but over 11 million people do!

It certainly has everything you'd need to create great looking lead magnets. 

I recommend that you test out the solutions above and then decide which one is best for you.

You don't need them all. 

I drive a  Mercedes, but I'd also drive a Lexus or BMW... but I can only drive one at a time! That is how email opt-in softwares are. You don't need them all. 

Alright, there you have it! Now go and create some lead magnets, build your list and make some money!

Did I miss something? Comment below and let me know!