Today’s blog post is all about list building and is written by David Walker. As a dad-to-be, David understands the pressures to succeed online and the cornerstone of any successful business is a large, responsive mailing list. Here, he discusses using JV Giveaways as a method of adding new subscribers to your list.
JV Giveaways have been used in internet marketing circles for several years but are making something of a resurgence. A giveaway is essentially a time-limited free membership website where marketers and information seekers meet to trade free products in return for an email address.
The marketers, known as “contributors”, submit their free products such as PDF reports, audio interviews, video training, scripts etc. to the giveaway and if a prospect, known as a “member” wants to download them, they need to opt in to the contributor’s mailing list first.
All you need to get involved in a giveaway as a contributor is a free gift, an autoresponder and a couple of basic web pages.
Your free gift can be anything as described above, e.g. a report, video, audio etc. but make sure it is of high quality that somebody will actually want to download and not be disappointed when they do!
It is a better idea to create your own product rather than just give away somebody else’s that you have resell rights to because you can make it all about you. With your own product you can add your personal story, your own examples and experiences about using the information presented in your product and even add some affiliate links to make money online.
Also, nobody else will be submitting this product to all of the other giveaways because it is 100% original and there is no danger of potential prospects already having a copy sitting on their hard drive.
If the thought of creating your own product is too overwhelming then you can use a Private Label Rights (PLR) product but make sure you rewrite it thoroughly to make it more personal to you.
You will need an autoresponder account, e.g. Aweber or Get Response which collects your prospect’s email address and also delivers the product to their inbox automatically.
Here’s an extra tip. Instead of sending your prospect a direct download link, send them a link to a download page where they can obtain their free product but you can also present them with a series of “bonus” gifts, all of which are embedded with your affiliate link for some easy, extra passive income!
Finally, to enable your prospect’s to find out more details of your product, submit their email address and download it, you will need to create a basic squeeze page and an optional download page. Don’t overload the prospect with information – an intriguing headline and some bullet points are fine.
Giveaways are a win-win situation for both parties involved and as such, there are more events running at any one time than there ever has been – increasing your chances of adding new subscribers to your list and better still, for free!
These events are promoted via word-of-mouth, with contributors sending their contacts a sign-up link containing their unique referral ID. If you are not on any marketer’s lists but want to stay informed of the latest events, you can use a website such as the following which updates with all of the most recent JV Giveaways currently seeking contributors and members.
This all sounds awesome but there is one downside. As a contributor, you are also expected to promote the giveaways. If the script does not detect you have referred anybody to the giveaway then you may be “downgraded”.
This means your contributor status will be changed to that of a member, your gift removed and as a result, nobody will be able to join your mailing list.
If you are new and don’t have a list to promote to then it can be difficult. You will need to promote your referral link on Twitter, Facebook, in forums and even to your contacts directly via Skype or other instant messaging services to get the sign ups required to preserve your contributor status.
In time, as your list grows, it will be easy to get referrals but in the early days you will need to get them by whatever means necessary!
