Free Giveaways or Bonus Gifts (”ethical bribes”, as Alex Mandossian would call them) are almost a necessity these days for anyone looking to increase the number of people (prospective customers, donors, customers, clients) to opt in to their lists.

Everyone likes getting stuff for free if they perceive some value in it. Free is such a powerful force in innovation, especially online.

One innovation that sprung from the idea of individual “gifts” is “giveaway events” and they have now taken the internet by storm.

What is a Giveaway Event?

When several to hundreds of people or entities contribute products or services as free gifts for other people who visit a website that might be promoting a product launch, a new service, a particular promotion, then it’s considered a giveaway event.  

For people to receive each giveaway item, they must subscribe to the contributor’s mailing list. Done correctly and depending on the quality or perceived value of the gifts they offer, the contributors can build their lists exponentially in a much faster period of time than if they were to do it on their own.

That’s why Giveaway Events are such a GREAT idea for those just starting out!

Although giveaway events greatly benefit “newbies”, ANYONE can benefit from them, all the way up to multibillion dollar corporations or international non-profits.

Each contributor agrees to send traffic to the event website site so every contributor benefits from the mailing list of each other contributors (also known as Joint Venture Partners or JV Partners). The gifts you give can either be your own product or service or it can be a gift you own the rights to give away for free.

The event organizers send you instructions and promotion materials such as sample email messages, endorsement letters and sponsored ads to use in endorsing this give away event to your subscribers who are already subscribed to your mailing list. Again, if your list is small, you can always team up with a colleague or a mastermind group of people you like and trust and present a united front…VERY POWERFUL!

That’s exactly what I did when I received an email from Chet Holmes International informing me of their MASSIVE Giveaway Event that kicks off TOMORROW, June 4th

After experiencing first-hand the power of their big event last year, I knew I’d be crazy not to take part once again. As I thought about whom I could partner with, it occurred to me that this event would tie in nicely with my 2008 goal of raising the visibility of women, their businesses, products, services or causes on the Internet.

So I put out a call for women who were interested in joining me and it’s an AMAZING group of women from all over the world who are movers and shakers who have INCREDIBLE gifts to give!

We’re calling it the GutZy Women International Mastermind Alliance and we invite you to take part in this EVE-olution by checking out the Event website. It will fill you in on all the details.

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How do you get the attention of people online these days when there are billions of websites, thousands of blogs appearing daily, hundreds of spam filters and other programs designed to block e-mails?

It’s a whole new world online lately, in case you haven’t noticed and so how can YOU, as a small business person, artist, professional or fundraiser be visible when there’s so much going on that you can’t be found, let alone heard or seen?

Then from a consumer point of view, how do YOU keep from wasting valuable time to find exactly what you you’re looking for in a way that you feel safe from all the hype and

Debbie addresses that very subject in this video with David and Frank of Relativity. They agree from their own experiences and by studying how others are being successful, the answer lies in the relationship building and engagement capabilities that Web 2.0 offers. In fact they give specific examples of how people, businesses and educational entities are using blogs, RSS feeds, social networks, bookmarking, podcasting, videos and other tools to gain more attention.

This series of articles can be used to glean knowledge and know how from two very qualified and experienced technology guys. In part 1, Frank Klein, who has been an educator and technology administrator for 40 years talks about how Web 2.0 affects and benefits students, school teachers and administrators.

There are many varieties of Web sites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use, and they may be arbitrarily classified in any number of ways. A few such classifications might include:

· Affiliate: an enabled web portal that renders not only its custom CMS, (Content Management System), but also syndicated content from other content providers for an agreed fee. There are usually three relationship tiers: 1. Affiliate Agencies, (e.g.,Commission Junction,) 2. Advertisers, (e.g., Ebay.) and 3.Consumer, (e.g., Yahoo!.)· Archive Site: used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with extinction. Two examples are: Internet Archive, which since 1996 has preserved billions of old, (and new,) Web pages; and Google Groups, which in early 2005 was archiving over 845,000,000 messages posted to Usenet news/discussion groups.

·  Blog (or web log) site: sites generally used to post online diaries which may include discussion forums (e.g., blogger, Xanga). ·  Corporate Website: used to provide background information about a business, organization, or service. ·  Commerce site or eCommerce site: for purchasing goods, such as Amazon.com

Many more are listed in the complete article here: