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[Johnny Slater]

There has been a lot of discussion over how to take giveaway members and turn them into buyers over the last 2 years I have been in IM.

I have seen several great examples here in this thread and would like to offer another option as well.

Most giveaway scripts allow for an OTO.  That is standard these days.  However, there are also now options ( I sell one but there are others as well so I'm not pitching here) to sell products during a giveaway event.

It is possible to run a giveaway and get your normal list of members then offer them products from within the giveaway members area.  On signup the member is put on a main freebie list but once they buy then they can automatically be shifted to a buyers list by your responder service ( I know Aweber has this option and I'm sure others do as well. )

The idea with this method is you get the best of both worlds.  You end up with a big list of freebie hunters who you can market to later and you also get a list of verified buyers who you can send more agressive marketing to.

[Davet]

Hi Folk's

Just one question, is there a way to get someone to opt-in without
offering a free be ? O.k. one more,
If their is such a way, wound'nt that be a better, superior lead ?

DaveT

[Mike Hill]

In my experience ... no. Maybe 7 years ago but not today.

It's difficult enough to get someone to opt-in for a free offer let alone having them subscribe to nothing. I don't even really like calling it a freebie because thats a misconception.

I have seen very good trial offers for $1 or so and it worked out for them quite well.

Mike Hill

PS. Remember, when giving anything away it must be incredibly valuable, otherwise you are just like all the rest of the millions of people looking for subscribers.

[Ron Killian]

I still think it is possible to get people to opt-in without a bribe, course I am not expert. Why couldn't you sell the benefits of say a free newsletter as well as you could a free bribe. Course it comes do to the copy.

The other reason I say I believe it can be done, is if you look at double your dating deangelo/pegan, he's been using the same squeeze page for as long as I can remember with no freebie or bribe. I can't believe he wouldn't still be using it if it wasn't working real well. I should say it's not the normal free e-book most marketers use.

Just my thoughts on it, sure no guru mojo..

[Mike Hill]

The thing with Eben's squeeze page is that #1 it worked extremely well back in the day, but today I'm not so sure. Not that I truly know... but he does some interesting things with NLP and other stuff throughout the process of those few pages of content.

Although, an attractive and enticing video or set of videos would probably work fairly well if you employ other tactics and position it as more than just another freebie...

My previous answer was for people who want to do very little work and see results. In the case of the free videos I just explained, it does take a little work and planning to have it work well, but there's nothing wrong with that at all...

I guess the correct answer is that there really is no correct answer, just results!

Mike Hill

[Chris Lockwood]

You could do it with great copy, but it's easier to say join my newsletter and get this free report, especially if people haven't heard of you.

DeAngelo was well known in forums in his niche, and people wanted his info, which is original content. A lot of it is answering readers' questions. He usually only promotes his own products in his emails. It's not the typical affiliate mailing list. If he wasn't a celebrity in his niche he'd have a lot harder time getting subscribers. Plus if you read his squeeze page, it sounds a lot like copy for a free report- but he just delivers it in email form.

[Ron Killian]

How the heck did I get his name so back***wards? lol  It was late...

Your absolutely right, to get up and running and a descent conversion it is much easier and quicker to just offer up a bribe. I sure wasn't disputing that. My current squeeze pages use free gifts for those reasons, copy is one thing I am still working on.

It does make you wonder though, as Dave mention, if they would be a more superior lead. then again, it also depends on the traffic you sending to the squeeze page, I don't think many would call give-away real quality traffic to begin with. Sure seems many use throw-away e-mail address or e-mail address they don't not check.

The only reason I bought up the DYD squeeze was because I've seen some of Eben's video's and you know he does his testing, that's why I'd be surprised if the page was still not converting well. Course there is the fan base, that could make a big difference, and yes, we don't know the numbers.

[Mike Hill]

How the heck did I get his name so back***wards? lol  It was late...

Your absolutely right, to get up and running and a descent conversion it is much easier and quicker to just offer up a bribe. I sure wasn't disputing that. My current squeeze pages use free gifts for those reasons, copy is one thing I am still working on.

It does make you wonder though, as Dave mention, if they would be a more superior lead. then again, it also depends on the traffic you sending to the squeeze page, I don't think many would call give-away real quality traffic to begin with. Sure seems many use throw-away e-mail address or e-mail address they don't not check.

The only reason I bought up the DYD squeeze was because I've seen some of Eben's video's and you know he does his testing, that's why I'd be surprised if the page was still not converting well. Course there is the fan base, that could make a big difference, and yes, we don't know the numbers.

Just a quick point about throw-away email addresses...

The biggest way to combat those throw aways and to still reach your market is by giving away your best stuff first. (Eben talks about this)

Then make another offer in your free stuff for even more great free stuff...

Mike Hill

[dlangley]

Has anyone ever bought lists, did they help? I bought a small list from hxxp: emails. tripod. com, i got  a few hits from my campaign, but not much.   What's a better approach.

dl
www. majesticarticles. com

[Tony Blake]

DLangley...

I went and looked at that page... ummmm... this has red flags written all over it...

1) The URL: any SERIOUS list broker doesn't use a free throw-away hosting account like Tripod.com (heck, I didn't know they still even existed)... this is the first sign that all is not right with this "supposed" offer...

2) Opt-In My Butt: Ummmm... anyone who sells (if they sell) an email list should provide you with complete proof of where the names opted-in at, under what offer and a complete transcript of every name with ip # and date of opt-in, etc... these names were harvested and most likely very, very old and junk...

3) Pricing: Oh please... 1000 names for .99 cents? - 1 million names for $4.99 - if this doesn't scream crap harvested names I don't know what does... anyone who falls for this and thinks that either the names are clean or useable, well, I have some swampland I want to sell you (sorry that you fell for it)...

Unless you are personally mailing these names from your own emailer no respectable autoresponder/list-service will allow you to import these names... it spells massive trouble for everyone around, including the sender... right now because of mailing these names chances are your email address as well as domain are in quite a few RBL lists and you're emails have been tagged with spam and forwarded to the abuse department of your host...

First off, any list broker/manager worth their salt does not sell name lists - they will broker the "RENTAL" of a list whereby you send them the message you want sent out and they mail on your behalf... you never see the names that are mailed and only get the results of the hits to your landing page...

Secondly, reputable list rentals are not cheap... they can easily run from $150-$300 per thousand names mailed... and any broker/manager can tell you where and how the names were gathered, the double opt-in procedures and have on file the acceptance information for every single name on the list you have selected...

What is the better approach? - easy... building your own organic lists... drive traffic to your squeeze page using a variety of methods, from PPC to social marketing to video to special offers or even giveaway events... self grown organic lists will alway work better, be safer and be more targeted than some nebulous crap mass sold harvest names ever will... there's plenty of resources on how to build your own lists and use them effectively, a simple Google search will give you tons of links to check out...

Hope this helps...

Success!!!

Tony Blake
Marketing Mindreader™
New Media/Content2.0™ Maven
Õ¿Õ¬

PS: I edited the original URL in your post so that we don't drive any traffic to the crap offer with the crap harvested names...

[Jeffery]

Johnny hit the nail on the head. The real strategy behind a giveaway derives from what you do with the list.

Too often people look at giveaway promos as just a way to quickly build a list and market to the list. It goes much deeper than that.

Consider this (Seriously Consider This)...

It does not matter if the list is good or bad. That in itself is subjective, depending on your professional assessment of what is good and bad. In the hands of a professional list builder all lists are good - it is the analytics of the registrant's actions that prove otherwise.

The real strategy is to data mine the visitors actions. Example, registration required > registrant is profiled > registrant receives unique passphrase information > registrant is tracked > registrant is added to different backend profile as registrant evokes different actions. During or after the event all registrants are added to or removed from separate mailings, i.e. throwaway email addresses (freebie takers = low priority), payment processor email addresses (Paid takers = high priority), and more.

Now that the analytics are complete the future process ( yes it is a process ) depends on the marketing plan.

Giveaway promos are plans within plans within plans..

Jeffery 100% :-)

[JHardin]

Freebies are great and serve the purpose of followup. I do not separate or assume who will be buyers or not. That's counting your chickens before their hatched. Not good netiquette for me,

[marlondirk]

For me i guess that could add opt-ins since people are looking forward for that giveaway and they have no lost for that. but the only thing that i could recommend here is try to put some registration that everyone could benefits not only for giveaway but applicable for their daily lives.

[johna]

good give away will not only increase ur opt list, it will make them to trust ur product and make them ready to purchase ur product. good give away make also make some of those who resiceve ur product to refer u to someone also and hence more customers.

i have been using give away and  it has been very very very helpful. infact i cant tell u the huge number of product i have sold to who received my give away.

u know the good advantage of give away is that both the person that recieve it and u that give it out gain

[vsl.online]

Now that you guys mentioned it, is there any site you would recommend that can help me learn more about that strategy?  I seem to be doing some SEO myself, but I haven't really researched or even heard about giveaways.

Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks.
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internet marketing specialist denver