Exploiting the Keyword „Free“

Lil Waldner Wordtracker Keywords displays regularily the most popular keywords. Paris Hilton, Xbox and Google belong to the blockbooster-like keywords. The keyword free ranks also always among the the most popular keywords.

Free gifts are popular

It is clear, why the keyword “free” is so popular. Everybody is hunting for free services and free gifts at the internet. The internet has gained it’s enormous popularity, because a lot of free information and free services, e.g. free software, has been offered from the very early days of the web. Free services are a part of the internet history.

Attracting customers

Free gifts are offered in order to attract customers. Some software can be used during a free trial period, but the customer has to pay for it afterwards. Free e-books are a popular marketing tool. If a customer buys a software or an advertising service, he or she sometimes receives an e-book with marketing tips and tricks.

The Pros

Customers can be lured and attracted with free gifts. A lot of people use the keyword free and the owner of a website gets a lot of hits, if the website ranks high among the websites that show up the keyword free after clicking on it. People can be convinced to sign up for a free gift and the internet merchant can collect email addresses that can be used for mailings. Sooner or later some of the mailings might lead to purchases

Customers can enjoy a lot of free services. Free webhosting, free internet tools, free software, free e-books, free email accounts, free music download, free games, free directory submissions, free classified ads and much much more.
Free webhosting is very fine if an affiliate or webmaster produces a bulk of mini websites that link to the main website. It makes it easy to gain link popularity without spending a dime for the hosting of hundreds of mini websites.


The Cons

The use of free services is usually tied with advertising. If free webhosting services are used for setting up of a mass of mini websites, it is always combined with a free subdomain and with pop up ads at the hosted free website. Websites with a subdomain, however, usually are denied for inclusion by web directories.

The user of a free hosting service has to accept mailings. Otherwise the free service can be stopped. Many, many more ad mailings and pop up’s are the result of the use of free services.

The customer has to wait weeks, even months until the website gets a free directory listing. Free classified ads are lost in the mass of free ads.
The internet merchant cannot sustain with free services and free gifts. The customers have to buy and pay at last to make internet marketing viable. There are a lot of freebie hunters, but paying customers are needed at last.

Conclusion

Free services and free goods are a fine matter. An internet merchant, however, should not use the keyword “free” often. It is enough, if the word free appears on a spot at the website, where the free gift is offered. It should not be used in the list of keywords for search engine, directory submissions and classified ads in order to avoid too many hunters of free services.

Lil Waldner is a business economist. She is experienced in project management and marketing. She has worked for public entities as well as for private companies. She has worked as editor of newspapers and she has written booklets and essays with economic and public issues. Visit her web sites: http://affiliatechain.com or http://www.store-owner.com/owner/lwmall