Many people who use the mini E-Book business model do not realize this, but giving away a mini E-Book can actually be one of the better ways in which you can pre-sell your products.
But what does it mean to pre-sell your products? Essentially, pre-selling involves gaining your customers trust, so they think of you as a friend, rather than a pushy salesman.
Most people use salesletter modifications, such as pictures and handwriting, as pre-sales mechanisms. This helps the customer feel like he or she actually knows you and has some stake in your life, even if you two have never met and will never talk.
Now how can giving away a mini E-Book be a pre-sales method? It's simple: rather than selling your products, you give them away for free, which means they gain wider exposure – and allow more people to learn how you think and that your information really is valid.
Another important component of pre-selling your products with mini E-Books is that you get the right people to distribute those E-Books for free. If you have a number of big names in your niche distributing your book for free – or at least linking to it – you will gain instant credibility.
This is best illustrated by Rich Schefren's release of the Internet Business Manifesto. With all of the huge names he had backing him, he could have easily sold his book for hundreds of dollars. But he didn't. Instead, he gave it away completely for free and ended up getting tens of thousands of subscribers in a matter of days. He also is selling out his seminars faster than he can schedule them.
While Rich obviously has a leg up on most of us, it is important to note that anyone can do exactly this by pre-selling your products with free mini E-Books and good partners.