John Chow's secret

Newbs, when John Chow speaks, we are supposed to listen. He speaks the gospel on how to market free software:

How To Sign People Up

I’m going to reveal some of my referral ideas from the old AllAdvantage days. As far as I can tell, nobody has written anything about the methods I’m going to talk about. They are divided between no cost and cost. Everyone can do the no cost methods and some may want to try some of cost methods. This should help you in your quest for more referrals.

This Is An Easy Sell

Many people are making AGLOCO way more complex than it really is. This is an easy sell. You should be able to convert better than 50% of people you talk to. Just keep the following in mind; it cost you nothing in time or money and you make money. If the person you’re talking can’t grasp that concept, then you’re talking to the wrong person. Move on to the next.

When someone asks what it is, the only thing you need to say is, “AGLOCO offers a toolbar that display advertising. If you run the toolbar, they will give you a share of the ad money. They also pay you if you refer other people to use the toolbar.” That in a nutshell, is what AGLOCO is. If the person cannot understand that, there no use going any further. Take the advice of McCall - go after the 20%. Show the other 80% what it is, but don’t spend too much time with them.

No Cost Referral Methods

A lot of AGLOCO sites has talked about no cost referral methods so I won’t spend too much time on it. Basically, they include telling your friends by phone or email, or setting up a blog or MySpace page. The personal email is very effective. McCall displayed a nice referral email used by one of his referrals. You may want to use it as a template for your email.

Comments

[SOF]

I am somewhat interested in this thing. If it was able to run when windows launches, then you can help insure your referral members actually use the toolbar when surfing.

[david]

I am interested in hearing more of how this works, and what money can be made.

[Willy Pete]

I joined in about a month ago and havent really done anything just because I thought it was probably too much time for me, but I checked this morning and saw that I have 12 referred members, all from people I initially e-mailed back then and did nothing with. When is that damn toolbar coming out???