I'm a little bit obsessed with freebies. OK make that a lot. The psychology of giving someone a freebie and then seeing what you can get in return is fascinating to watch. People will fall at your feet for a free gift, and sometimes the results are better than any traditional marketing tactic could ever be. In this article I look at why freebies are so powerful, and how they can be turned in to link building gold.

A (quick) word of warning
None of this is a guarantee of good coverage. A blogger or journalist can decide they don't like your product, and write something bad. However in my experience the majority of coverage I have received in doing this has been very positive. Bad coverage can sometimes work in your favour as if your product is great anyway people will rush in to defend you, making the link on that page even stronger and growing the debate about a brand.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
If you give something away for free it's only natural to expect something in return. From coverage in the media, to gathering public opinion, or even just hoping someone will buy your product later. You should always have a payoff in mind. There's no such thing as a free lunch, even if someone buys you lunch they will be expecting something in return.

Whether they want to talk business, impress you, or get you to come to an event a free lunch is in invitation for you to attend and for that person to have your attention. If you eat a free lunch at a conference, it's because someone paid for that lunch so they could expose you to that branding. Later you'll then hopefully have that brand in mind and will choose to write about them. Chances are if you're writing about something you'll then naturally link to it.

If you went to Pubcon in 2010, did you notice the SEOmoz branding? It was there helping subsidise the cost of the day, and here's one article of many that gave SEOmoz a link afterwards. They also compiled the photo above and many more, all with SEOmoz branding that other bloggers could read and then talk about.

What's In It For People?
So psychologically we can see that freebies = coverage = links, but that's no good if we can't offer something to people that they really want. If I send an ironing board cover to a tech blog they probably won't be interested. So you need to consider what the people that receive your free product will get in return. Here's some examples:

First Experiences: Everyone wants the be the first to try something new, especially if it's highly relevant to their industry. The E3 expo is an annual video game conference that brings together industry professionals to try new games for free before anyone else. This gives them exclusive content they can use on their websites, because of the early free access. Bloggers then preview the games, and this leads to links from IGN.com, Eurogamer, Kotaku and other high profile sites that may not otherwise report on the games.

Source: Gaming Bits

For other examples check out Comic-con or any product that has ever been demoed at an SEO conference.

Reviews: Whilst it may seem like only traditional products (books, cars, CD's, games, tech) get reviews, there's a person out there who can review anything. There are countless mommy and daddy bloggers who are happy to cover anything that can used in family life. In fact it's better to have a product that isn't reviewed frequently as then you'll be dealing with mid level bloggers who are far more likely to accept a product and not have ridiculous 'no-link out' policies like some high end bloggers do.

There's even websites setup to review any product they're sent, and I started one of these myself. Random products included a Christmas tree, a bug eating party kit and even wax strips. And yes I did try everything in the pursuit of reviews and giving out links:

Source: Mikeessex.co.uk

Product Involvement: As with reviews, people love to give opinions on products, but it helps to think bigger for this item. In the research stage of product development it's great to get other local businesses and institutions involved. For example partnering with a local University and allowing their students and lecturers to give feedback on a product is a great way to get real world insight and build a relationship. They also get something for their staff and students to be involved in without paying any money.

When the product launches you can then ask the University if they would like to run a press release on how they helped with the development. This then leads to lots of .edu, .gov and .org links as other sites comment on this educational development.

Source: Robosynthesis got a link from the Telegraph

Also look at: inviting bloggers for early access or allowing the public to test the product with a BETA, or free trial.

A helping hand: It doesn't just have to be products either, sometimes just writing helpful blog posts or teaching someone something they didn't know can get you links. At Koozai, the agency I work for, we give away hours every month for free to write useful tips and help the community. It's given us more links back than any manual link building we could have ever carried out, and helping people out certainly pays off.

Also think about building tools and giving them away, or donating your product to a good cause – such as giving away cans of cat food to a cat shelter. Links from this type of website have a lot of value, and if you get to help a charity as well then it's a bonus for everyone.

Prizes: Running a competition is an ideal way to get a link for your product on another website, but it's also an excellent way to promote your own website if you give someone else's product away. The current trend is to give away something by Apple, but you could give away something exclusive like a chance to meet the web team, or signed memorabilia.

The execution is what's important here. Instead of using forms for entry to your competition, ask people to tweet a link, or post something on another website. This improves social mentions and can give your site an extra boost during the competition.

Source: Digital Spy

Fun: Perplex City was an alternate reality game that challenged players to solve clues on cards and then use these clues to uncover websites that added to the mystery. As players shared tips with each other they were in effect swapping links. Perplex City could have been just a card game, but they gave players 'fun' for free. By creating a network of sites, they expanded the universe for players and that was their free gift to them.

Now the sites have been redirected (passing value to the main domain) but archives can be found at the Perplex City sentinel. Also look at Facebook - They allowed people to build free apps and now every time one is launched on the site it gets another set of links whenever the app is reported on by the media.

Hold Something Back
Giving something for free to everyone who asks may generate you links, but it won't generate business, so there has to be an element of unpredictability. That way when you give someone a freebie they will be surprised and more likely to run coverage with a link. If everyone can get the product for free it's not news, unless you're something like Spotify which has a fundamental business model based around 'freeness'.

Perplex City still remembered that they were trying to sell a card game, and they used the free alternate reality to promote the game, not as the main product. Digital Spy game away a game, but only if you followed them so they could push news to you later. Then there's E3 which isn't open to everyone, because if it was there’d be no exclusive and no reason for blogs to write about what they saw.

All of the above examples remembered to limit the extent of their freebies in order to maximise returns. Tease people and you will get a lot more link building activity this way. Find the right voices in your niche and focus on them with journalist and blogger outreach strategies to see the best returns.