I recently came back from a vacation in Portugal where I was reminded of a very important marketing lesson.

While visiting the many attractions (including a huge aquarium and many museums) I noticed that they all have something in common.

At the end, after you’ve seen and enjoyed everything, you’re always taken to the same place. You guessed it…the gift shop!

In fact, it was always unavoidable and to exit you had to go through it.

This reminded me of how many marketers do business online, and time after time it has proven to be an effective business model. The master of this recently has been Rich Schefren from http://www.strategicprofits.com/blog.

He’s the master of releasing very high quality, free reports to wet your appetite. After you’re done reading, you want more. You need more. When you realize this, you find that he has a high priced product ready for purchase or that one will be released soon.

He shows great tips and strategies and lets you check them out for free…but he takes you right to the gift shop.

This is a business model that anybody can implement.

1. Create a high quality report/video/course and give it away for free. Provide real information, and don’t sell anything till the end. (Let them walk through the museum)
2. Create a mid to high level product that expands on what was offered in the free report. (Show them what’s in the gift shop)
3. Create more products to offer as upsells.

Remember, you can give a free tour but if you don’t lead them to the gift shop, you’re throwing money away. Museums have been in business for centuries, they know what they’re doing. So does Rich Schefren.