I'm doing a letter for a client who has a pretty successful control for this product.

Right now in his letter he has the usual optin options, plus a "click here to read the first 2 chapters free" dealy.

I'm making considerable changes in my version of the letter, but I wasn't sure on this type of giveaway. Does anyone know if these giveaways statistically increase sales?

If so... and if the giveaway is worth keeping, wouldn't it be better to offer this giveaway as part of the optin, as opposed to just having a link halfway through the letter?

Any first hand knowledge of this type of dealy would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Yeah... that's pretty much obvious.

I would question his choice of putting it in the middle of the letter. Personally I would never do that - 1, it's a distraction, and 2, by the time they've come back to the page they've probably lost the "flow" of the letter.

Like you said, I would offer it as an incentive to opting to receive the course/newsletter or whatever it is you are writing for.

I would present the two chapters with a high percieved value as an incentive, aswell as a 'taster' or 'sneak preview' of the full product (if the back-end product leads on from this opt-in autoresponder/course etc.)

You get what I mean?

However, I'd only do that if they were related. Let's say, a 7-day opt-in course on training dogs which would eventually lead to the purchase of a 96 page e-Book called "Danger: Disobedient Dogs" through persuasion - the 7 day course would have a tactic each day, aswell as let's say - 10 pages of the book as an incentive for joining.

So not only is that an incentive, but if the information really works and is of high value, the sneak preview will go down well with most people, leading to a higher conversion.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,