How to Use Creative Free Downloads to Drive Traffic

Although it is common practice in digital scrapbooking to provide freebies for blog visitors, newsletter subscribers and fans, it is a good practice to make sure you are not giving away so much that nobody ever needs to buy anything from you! Getting your free mini kit or quick page or alpha “picked up” by one of the freebie promo blogs or pages feels great and will definitely bring visitors to your page but have you ever considered other types of freebies you could offer? In addition to mini kits, clusters, add-ons and other things meant just for digital scrapbookbooking, there are quite a few options for free downloads that bring new traffic but don’t hurt your sales.

Free printables are extremely popular on Pinterest. Creating them and pinning them with hashtags can bring lots of extra traffic to your blog – and many times it will come from people who are new to your blog. It’s important to know that lots of visits to your blog helps you show up in organic search on the big search sites like Google, Bing and Yahoo. That means if you have a blog post for your latest Halloween Digi Kit and someone uses search to find Halloween kits, YOU may rank higher on the results page. 

You may be wondering if this traffic would ever turn into sales for you right away? Will more people buy the kit used to make the printable? This obviously depends on the visitor but I very often see women pinning these types of items as well as a large range of other crafty items including digital scrapbooking. And don’t forget about the people who follow these pinners! You can get a good amount of reach with a good printable freebie. This is a very important part of having a good blog presence.

BEST PRACTICES

• create a separate blog post for the printable – don’t include it with a new release.   
• Use “Free Printable” in the title of the post  
• Of course, include a link to the blog post that has the kit information!  
• Make a great preview of the item so people will want to visit your blog and also pin your item – wherever possible show the finished product and include the words Free Printable on the preview 
• ask your Creative Team to pin your freebie  
• share on Facebook, Twitter, etc with hashtags #free #printable 
• include the freebie as a .jpg and .pdf for the ease the user  
• create a simple, separate TOU to include in the download – if it is full of digiscrap jargon, people will not know what they can do with it

THINGS to AVOID

• don’t use the term “hybrid” in your description – many people simply do not know what this is. Stick with “free printable” 
• don’t put a copy of the kit preview in the freebie preview – keep the focus on the item you are offering for free 
• don’t create items that are super complicated to construct unless you are prepared to include complete assembly instructions 
• don’t require a newsletter signup or store login to get the printable 
• don’t include digi acronyms like PU/SH4 on the preview. Spell out words that people outside the community may not know 

WHAT to OFFER

If you haven’t created printables before, start out with something flat and simple – or – ask your Creative Team to create for you if you have someone who is already experienced.

• recipe cards
• bookmarks
• lunch notes
• thank you cards
• holiday treat cards or bag toppers
• menu planner
• to do list
• wall art
• subway art
• gift labels
• chore chart
• punch card
• date night coupons
• photo props/signs
• seasonal photo checklist
• teacher notes, gifts
• family time conversation cards
• postcards 

I have pinned a bunch of possible ideas on this board on Pinterest. 

And I also asked the digital scrapbook designers who subscribe to our newsletter last week to share any printables they have offered on their digital scrapbooking blogs. I love their ideas! 

..-- -Elka Romero - Art Studio- --

Seneca Pond Crafts--

Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen (who also sells at CUDigitals) has these great ideas
1. printable T-shirt transfer

2. Holiday Treat Boxes

3. Recipe Cards

A-Manda Creation
Super clever teacher printable – hand sanitizer label

 I also want to mention a few all-digi options for freebies that are NOT kits – a few popular items are computer desktops and phone wallpapers. Here’s one that our newsletter reader Sus Designs created for her blog. 

I encourage you to make free printables a regular part of your marketing routine. They are a nice gift for your current fans and followers, they will not hurt your sales and they can help drive traffic to your blog, too.

Comment below with questions or let us know if you plan to try this on your blog!