Seth’s Blog: The difference between a bonus and free

In the old days, gifts like these would cost money to create and be hard to share. Today, the opposite is true. The goal of something that’s free is to spread the idea.

On the other hand, some bonus things we built for Linchpin:

Oh, wait, I can’t show them to you because you have to buy something first.

Anyway, what we did was collect:

* Zen Unicorn, an ebook of the last few years of this blog (it sells on the Kindle for $9)
* Membership to the invite-only online Triiibe community that I started a while ago (limited supply of these)
* Ten minutes of excerpts from the audio version of my book
* Some other bonuses, below

To get them, you need to answer a simple question to demonstrate that you’ve ordered the new book. That’s because they are bonuses, not free. And yes, you qualify even if you got the book as a gift or received it a month ago. The bonus material will only be available for a few weeks.

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Whatever you sell, whatever idea you want to spread, it’s now possible to create both freebies and bonuses. One spreads, the other induces.

I am working on my own little productivity book, and I have been thinking about this sort of “goodie-bag” approach to marketing and selling it. Almost everything in the book is available here, on the blog, in a less-polished and un-collated manner. The book will also include answers to questions that people have asked me, in person or by email, about how to get over the stumbling blocks in their own workflow.

What would you like to see as a bonus or freebie in conjunction with this book? Share with us in the comments.

GTD, Marketing, e-book

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