Case Study: How One Man Built a Fortune with Free Reports

This is the story of George (not his real name) who earns a high five figure per month income with free reports. George is allowing me tell you how he does it so long as I don’t reveal too many specifics.

Ready? I think you’re going to enjoy this.

How George Got Started

When George retired from his career nearly 20 years ago, he was bored and underfunded. He knew he wanted to do something to make more money for his retirement years but he had no idea what. He scouted around for a few months until he happened on a free report that told how to make money with free reports. Oh, the irony, right?

He took this report to heart and quickly wrote his own report. Not knowing much about internet marketing, he cobbled together a report titled, “The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Own 6-Figure Internet Business in Your Spare Time.”

$1,000 a Month with No Experience

He’s a little embarrassed that internet marketing was his first topic, since he really didn’t know what he was talking about yet. He had no experience in the niche and had to rely on what he read on internet marketing websites.

Still, the first edition of that report garnered him a list of over 4000 people in six months and a monthly income of over a thousand dollars. Despite not knowing what he was doing, he was doing just fine.

More Reports, More Money

Since then, he has gone on to create reports in many, many different niches. Odds are you’ve downloaded at least one of his reports at one time or another. He no longer writes his own reports, but instead hires someone familiar with the niche to write the “Ultimate Guide” on the chosen topic.

His reports are always free, and he gives them away through social media, as bonuses to other people’s products and through a few other venues.

He’s building a list in each one of these niches, and when someone joins his list, they receive an autoresponder sequence that mails 4 times per week for 3 years. He also sends out special offers to his lists. Most of this writing is done by outsourcers because he spends his time on the golf course.

Now Here’s The Trick

You’ve probably noticed we said that all of his reports are the “Ultimate Guide” to whatever the topic is.

Each report is written by a pen name who is also the author of the emails sent as well as social media posts. Initially it was just him but now he has virtual assistants who handle the social media posting, customer service and act as the pen name authors for him.

If you’re getting the idea that George has set this up in such a way that he does very little work, you’re right.

These ultimate guides teach how to do something valuable. Remember his first report was on how to start an internet business? Inside the report he tells how to set up a website, which webhost to use (affiliate link) which autoresponder he’s found is the best (affiliate link) and so forth. He gives these reports in PDF but also posts these reports online for subscribers. People click the links and sign up for the services.

Recurring and High Paying

Notice that hosting and autoresponders are billed monthly. 85% of the products George promotes through the reports are monthly recurring products and the other 15% are high paying products such as a $997 live course paying 50% commission.

He’s getting dozens of streams of monthly income from dozens of different sources along with some big one-time commissions.

Start with The Affiliate Program

The way George picks a new niche or topic is he finds something with monthly billing and an affiliate program that converts well, and then has the report written in such a way that it’s simply a no brainer to sign up for that program through his affiliate link.

His autoresponder messages are good information, usually from the reports, along with evergreen offers. The messages reemphasize the importance of getting the programs promoted in the report, too. The more times someone reads something, the more likely they are to take action on it.

And he sends out special offers to each niche every week or two.

He is actively working two of the pen names, and ironically one of them is a woman. His wife helps him write those emails.

All the rest of the pen names – one for each niche – are worked by half a dozen virtual assistants who post on social media. Each virtual assistant is assigned 5 to 10 pen names, depending on what they can handle and also their areas of knowledge. Every pen name has its own social media account. This could get confusing if you’re not organized.

He Does Little Work but Makes Great Pay

He outsources the writing of the autoresponder sequences, special emails and new reports.

And when I say he’s earning a high five figure income per month, that is after he pays all expenses, including virtual assistants and writers.

Each report has its own blog where the report can be found by subscribers along with other articles and product recommendations. And his reports are updated as needed.

Things to Consider

George has been doing this for 20 years. He wasn’t an overnight success, but he stuck with it, and it has really paid off for him. At the end of six months, he was earning $1000 a month, and in today’s money that would be more like $1663. The point is, it might not take long to see some income, but don’t expect to get rich overnight.

Choose your product first – it should convert well and pay well – and then write your report in such a way that it naturally converts into a sale of the product(s). The reports are NOT sales letters, but rather very good step by step instructional reports that George could easily charge $47 or more for.

You might want to start with a niche that you know something about since that will make it easier. Don’t take on a virtual assistant until you know what you’re doing and how to do it. Then you can create a system for the VA to follow.

I couldn’t tell you all the places where George gets his traffic since he wouldn’t let me, but I can tell you that you just need to keep your eyes open when you’re on the net and you’ll likely discover these places yourself as well as others.

Here’s How You Can Improve on George’s System

One thing George isn’t doing that I think would boost his income into the stratosphere is short videos on YouTube and TikTok. You might consider adding those to this plan if you decide to move forward with it.

Also consider using small influencers to create user generated content such as video on TikTok to drive traffic to your landing pages.

I think that about wraps it up.

Imagine earning 6 figures per year simply by giving away free reports. It sounds crazy but I can tell you for a fact that George is one of many who are doing this right now.

And if they can do it, so can you.