Many people in Internet marketing look at free
list-building giveaways, and view them as largely
unproductive. Yet, when properly set-up and
orchestrated, you can build a very focused list
of your ideal customers, in ANY niche, faster
using free giveaways (with less risk) than about
any other method that I can think of.

In Internet marketing, the saying is “the money
is in the list,” and that’s because many list
owners have learned that they can expect to earn
an average of $1 per list-member per month. That
of course varies by niche, by what types of
products and service you offer your subscribers,
and how skillful the list owner is at building
a solid relationship with list-members.

I personally have known people who used free
list-building giveaways to grow their businesses
to the point where they comfortably walked away
from corporate jobs. One friend walked away from
a six-figure job mere months after he started a
serious list-building campaign.

Join me on Saturday, November 7th, at 3-4pm EST,
as I share with you some of the secrets I’ve
learned over the past 4-5 years as I’ve participated
in dozen of free list-building giveaways and even
hosted several of my own.

You can listen right over the internet and ask
questions or share comments at:
http://BlogTalkRadio.com/WillieCrawford/

If you don’t yet have a large, responsive list,
I’m going to end all excuses during this show.

Please join us, and also encourage any struggling
online friend to attend.

Willie

One of the biggest complaints that we hear from novice
Internet  marketers is that they can’t compete with
others in their niche  because they “have no list.”

One of the solutions frequently offered is to suggest
that they  stop whining, and start building a list.

Somewhat more productive advice is to suggest that they
join one of the free list-building giveaways as a
starting point.

Naturally, that brings us to the question of “are free
list-building  giveaways” worth the trouble?”

Do they work?

Do they produce quality subscribers?

My personal answer is, “It depends.”

If you do it the way that 90% of people entering those
free giveaways do  it, then I think that you’re hurting
yourself  more than you’re  helping.

I DO offer free items in select free giveaways. Just
one of my several  autoresponder accounts with
http://ProfitAutomation.com is  rapidly approaching  a
verifiable 200,000 subscribers. Many of  these
subscribers did join my list(s) as a result of free
giveaways.

So, why did I answer with “it depends” then?

First of all, you need to realize that contributing a
gift during one of these free giveaways is just the
first step in a  long relationship-building process.
Far too many people blow  it right from the start. They
offer a free “gift” in these  events that they’d be
insulted if someone offered to them.

They violated “Rule #1″.

Whatever you offer in one of these free giveaways, or
any gift that you offer to your customers for that
matter, should be something nice enough that you COULD
sell it if you chose to.

Starting a relationship off by offering someone JUNK,
as a bribe to get them onto your list, leaves them with
a bad first impression of doing business with you.
Offering an ANCIENT  product that you have resale rights
to (along with 10,000  others), or that you purchased on
Ebay  for 99 cents, is plain short-sighted.

To give you an idea of the quality of gift that I think
that you should offer, the most recent one that I
contributed was a free ebook entitled, ” How To Keep
Digital Product Thieves From Robbing You Blind.”  I wrote
this ebook from scratch, consulting with several computer
security and website experts in the  process, and then
GAVE it away as an subscriber bonus.  That was an ebook
that I researched,  wrote, collaborated on, and had some
nice graphics designed for… all so that I could give
it away.

The second thing to consider is the quality of the
giveaway itself.

You need to get involved in events where the organizers
cares enough to really monitor the quality of the gifts
contributed.

You do not want to be associated with a free l
ist-building giveaway  that “feels desperate or
amateurish.”

You also need to make sure that the organizer of the
giveaway REQUIRES joint venture partners (gift
contributors) to all promote  the event.  Ideally, those
who are discovered not  promoting the  event, usually by
the fact that they have made  NO referrals, should be
purged from the database of those eligible to receive
subscribers fairly early in the giveaway’s timeline.

I’ve witnessed countless free giveaways where the
majority of contributors merely contributed an outdated
product and then did absolutely NO promotion. They planned
on getting a free ride. A promotion with lot of people
doing that can, at best, have only mediocre results.

Participating in free list-building giveaways CAN
jump-start your list-building. I know numerous online
marketers who’ve  built lists into the thousands… and
even tens of thousands  with most of their early list
members being from free giveaways.

It does work.  It can build you a targeted, responsive
list if you offer the right gifts, and if you select
the right  giveaways.  If you join the wrong ones,
contribute JUNK, and  then wait for others to do all of
the work, you’re in for a big disappointment.  In these
type of events you do get exactly  what you give.

————

Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build
their own  home-based Internet businesses since
late-1996.  He teaches easy, proven methods that he and
other leading Internet marketers  actually use. Discover
more of Willie’s hype-free teachings at The Internet
Marketing Inner Circle:  http://TIMIC.ORG