Willie Crawford Teaches REAL Internet Marketing  

One of the ongoing discussions in the world of Internet marketing is whether it's worthwhile to participate in free "list-building giveaways" as a contributor. In these events, sometimes several hundred marketers ban together on a big list-building project. Each marketer contributes a gift related to the theme of the giveaway. Some events allow more than one gift per contributor. The marketers list their gifts on the main giveaway site, but generally require those collecting the gifts to visit their individual sites and join their mailing list, prior to giving them access to the gifts. This is how you build your list as a contributor. The question is, "Since these new subscribers were forced through a squeeze page and may not have otherwise joined your list are they good subscribers?" A second question is "Since they just finished downloading a TON of free gifts, why would they turn around and buy anything from you. Let look briefly at both of those questions. In response to the first question, I teach that you have to take your time and build a meaningful relationship with your new subscribers. Deliver genuine value and they will stay on your list. Then, if you offer things that they need, they will buy from you because they feel a connection. Building that relationship STARTS with offering a quality gift on that very first contact. So many people who participate in free list-building giveaways offer gifts that they would be INSULTED if someone offered the same gifts to them. I participate in free giveaways with excellent results. The gifts that I offer are often brand new audios, software, and ebooks that I create especially for the giveaways. I do reuse them later. I always make sure that the gifts I offer has high perceived value. When you give your new subscribers something that actually helps them, they are likely to stick around, and grow to "know,like and trust you" because they see that you actually care about them. In response to the second question, I sometimes offer low-priced products right on the download page where I give the free gift. If the offer is enticing enough, a high percentage of these customers will buy. However, I also understand that part of my job as an ezine publisher is to serve as a filter. If my new subscribers did indeed download lots of different items from a free giveaway, and a percentage of them were... JUNK, but mine was high quality, then they learn to expect quality from me, and will pay more attention to future offers from me than they will from the marketers who filled their hard drives with a bunch of useless "fluff." So to the question, "Will subscribers from free giveaways EVER buy anything? the answer is an unequivocal YES, provided you did your job. What was your job though? It was to treat the new potential subscribers that visit these free giveaway sites with the same respect that you'd like to receive. It's to treat these new "customers" as the life's blood of your business. Treated right, they will be. ---------- Willie Crawford has been successfully marketing good and services on the internet since 1996. He does use free giveaways as one method of building his lists. For a highly-recommended free giveaway that you can participate in and start growing your list RIGHT NOW, visit: http://SageMarketer.com/ListBuilding/