JV Giveaway Guide

In a regular ad swap deal, you and another list owner, who probably has a similar list size as yours, do an ad exchange.

You send the partner's advertizing to your list and in return your partner sends your advertisement to his list.

Usually, you will send an ad that encourages the reader to subscribe to your list. You might want to call this "legally stealing subscribers". After all, the ordinary subscriber is subscribed to approximately 10-20 lists, maybe even more, which is a perfect average nowadays.

Although ad swapping is a perfect way to build your own list by playing the game of "using subscribers to make subscribers", the leverage effect is oftentimes 1:1 in a real sense.
You can solely carry out one ad swap at one time, for beginners. And still, if you swap ads with more than one list owner or e-zine publisher, the leverage effect remains 1:1 as you will have to send that many ads to your list, also, in corresponding to how many list owners you agreed to swap ads with. This doesn't entail that I push the power of swapping ads aside; it is a beneficial and necessary marketing technique you want to do once in a while.

But if you would like to discover how you can build your own list at warp speed, than read on:

As stated before, Giveaway Events are just about similar to a giant version of an ad swap.

The host of the Giveaway Event invites partners, who are in the first place list owners in the same niche, to contribute a gift.

The gifts are typically digital products, such as:
1. E-Book
2. Report
3. Audio/Video product
4. Membership passes
5. Software/Script

The host of the event then pools all the gifts contributed collectively by the partners in one page or member's area. This is where the visitors will go to download any gifts of their choice, and the link of the gift they click on brings them to the individual partner's signup page.

You, as the partner, prepare a landing page for visitors to sign up to your mailing list. So in a real essence, anyone who wants to download your gift must opt into your mailing list to download your gift.

While the gifts are given away at zero-cost, the only requirement is that the visitors must sign up for your mailing list to receive them.

Your visitors-turned-subscribers have the option to cancel their subscription to your mailing list at any time, of course, but this is a good opportunity you should be taking to build your relationship with the newcomers to your mailing list or e-zine or membership site.

Okay, so that's EXACTLY how you're going to build your mailing list after all. But where DO these visitors come from?

Like ad swaps, Giveaway Events are really using subscribers to make subscribers.
On the launch day and during the limited time event, you and other partners are required by the host to endorse the Give Away event to your individual mailing lists.

In other words, you are going to tell YOUR subscribers to go to the Giveaway Event to download their gifts at zero-cost, and the reason may vary depending on the occasion. It could be a gesture of "thanks for being our loyal subscriber" or even in conjunction with a holiday season.

Whatever the valid reason is, you should be instructing your subscribers to check out the Giveaway Event on a website where all the gifts are pooled together. With the host and other partners are doing the same, it will be a massive gathering of traffic at the website where all the gifts are being pooled.

In this collective effort, as long as your gift is displayed there with a link to signup for your mailing list to download it, and people are interested in it, you can receive plenty of signups in a short time span!

I am sure that you understood the benefits of entering such a Giveaway Event. But before you join your first one, make sure to check the following requirements.

I've mentioned it several times that Giveaway Events are like ad swaps in one thing: They are using subscribers to make subscribers.

Bear in mind, though, that just having your own mailing list just is not enough; you need to have a substantial one!

Nobody likes a free rider in any Giveaway Event, so don't let that person be YOU! Unless you can contribute subscribers almost up to par with other partners, you're better off not joining a Give Away event in the first place.

As a matter of fact, most Give Away event hosts are strict about partners having a minimum mailing list size before joining the event. Also, it is important to know that you have to be willing and agree to their minimum mailing frequency to your mailing list; notifying your subscribers about the event that you are joining.

While NOT all Give Away events are equal in their system, quality and results, you can always check the individual requirements of the announced Giveaway Event.

This is the more critical success factor than just the need to join a Give Away event!.

Most events are accepting digital products of any kind. These are usually E-Books, software, scripts, membership passes, reports, or something similar.

Concisely, you need to prepare a digital product that you are willing to contribute.

Tip 1: Notice that I said "your own gift" in the sub headline? I personally don't recommend giving away other people's products you own the (Master) Resell Rights to. Anyway, not all products with Resell Rights can be given away free and if you are doing so, you can most probably expect legal action being taken against you.

Secondly, you are better off producing your own gift thus you are able to give it away in your name and brand it in the process. You do not want your visitors remembering another name while you are going a big distance giving them away to build your list!

Anyway, producing your own gift does not need to be hard. For example you can write a 4-8 page report on a topic you know well. If you own a membership site, you can give a trial pass away or even offer a "lite" version. The same can be done for software and scripts that you offer for a limited time trial.

Tip 2: Take some effort in creating a quality gift. This gift is going to make your first impression either good or bad. So don't take it for granted as people probably will download it in masses!

I know this can be pretty much taken for granted if you already have a mailing list, but still I would like to point out two important things.

For first make sure to require your visitors to double opt-i. Not just that you prevent phoney details being keyed into your opt-in form by freebie seekers, you are also able to cut more than a bunch of spam risks at stake by asking your visitors to confirm their subscription from a valid email addresses.

For second, make sure to use a reliable autoresponder service. You don't want to use any autoresponder that creates a high bounce rate, all your list building efforts just would be wasted!

The landing page is the page where your visitors are sent to view the full details of your gift.

Normally, this is not a public page and it is used especially for Giveaway Events and includes the opt-in form for your mailing list.

You may want to make sure that you include the following details in your landing page:
1. The benefits of your gift
2. A reminder that your visitor is required to sign up to your mailing list and to confirm this subscription in order to download the gift
3. A confirmation that you will NOT rent, share or sell his or her details away
4. And a reminder that he or she can cancel the subscription at any time