Offering Free services never works!

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

I read this post on this forum


Red Ice Media is offering are services for 100% free. Red Ice Media has just been launched and needs to build a portfolio before creating our website. www.redicemedia.tk . Below are the services we offer
www.redicemedia.tk

Offering free services never works. You waste time on something that will not benefit you at all.

It is better to be honest with your client and say you are just starting out.

I would suggest that Red Ice Media offers a reduced web design for the first 25 new clients.

Overall the company name is cool and i wish them all the best

Tony

[MinuWeb]

Nothing wrong with wanting to build a portfolio before charging clients.

Having a portfolio allows potential clients to see the type of work they can expect to receive.

"Offering Free services never works!" is quite a hard statement, alot of companies give out free services / products as they find it has a much better ROI than other advertising means.

[daveashton]

Having a proven solution with good reference sites makes sales conversions higher.

It also depends on what is being provided because in many cases if they do a good job there will be orders for repeat business or upgrades i.e. a website often needs updates etc.

[Amber]

"Offering Free services never works!" is quite a hard statement, alot of companies give out free services / products as they find it has a much better ROI than other advertising means.

Agree. We all offer our advice for free on these forums, for example. I can think of a few scenarios where we've offered to do a very small job for free, and I can honestly say that it has always resulted in either a larger order from the same client, or a referal worth more than the original job would have been worth. Sure, it's a calculated risk, but it can pay off in terms of the goodwill it generates. I think it's a little strong to say it "never" works.


"It is better to be honest with your client and say you are just starting out.

Isn't that what they're doing by saying they're building their portfolio?

Redicemedia: sorry to talk about you as if you aren't here, by the way :(

[Cornish Steve]

Offering free services never works. You waste time on something that will not benefit you at all.

Tony,

I disagree with you on this. There are times when it is wise to make a short-term investment (e.g., by offering something for free) in return for long-term gain. If you offer a service that truly is excellent, then why not encourage some people to try it? You'll receive a lot of free publicity and good will when those people spread the word. Companies like AOL do this all the time (although recent posts reveal that not everyone believes that AOL's service is excellent!).

I admit, however, that I am biased. We are delivering our courses for free to several important people right now as we attempt to build a reputation for quality and innovation. In some cases, we have offered free passes to people who work for companies or organisations that are likely to be interested in improving their employees' business communication skills. In other cases, we offer free passes simply because it's the right thing to do. For example, we offer an allowance of free training every month to anyone who recently lost a job, who is physically disabled or deaf, who is a single mum or a mum returning to the workplace, or who has immediate family serving overseas in the military.

I don't know what the impact of these programs will be over time, although I suspect they will pay off. Whether they do or not, at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that we've helped some people in need.

[epiphany]

I wouldn't say it was a waste of time but I would say you should have enough confidence in your own abilities to charge people. Maybe this would be at a reduced rate when you are starting out but you can just create some example designs to show clients what sort of work you can do.