1.  Become an affiliate of those who are selling products on the giveaway. For example: on the Chet Holmes Giveaway, in order to get into it as a recipient of the free gifts, you must buy Chet’s book or Amanda’s CD.  So if I am an affiliate of Amazon.com and I send you to Amazon to buy, when you do so, I make a percentage of that. In the case of Wonderful Web Women, as an affiliate, if I get you to come to the giveaway and like what Janet has to offer in her Gold Membership and you join, I get a commission.  YOU can do the same.

2. Once you get new people to subscribe, you can promote your products or services for them to buy, through email campaigns and relationship building activities. 

3. After people subscribe, but before they reach your gift page, you can make them a onetime offer, but if you do this, be sure to give them the option to pass and to be able to download the free gift after they buy 

4. When you send them the Thank You page or email once they have retrieved their gift, you can offer them either the same product at a lower price or offer a brand new product. 

5. You can follow up with a series of automatic messages with valuable tips and information without actually making them an offer, but the intent to build relationships. Once they learn who you are and how great your products are, they will naturally want to buy from you. 

6. Co-promote with JV Partners in the Giveaway itself, like I did with the GutZy Women International Mastermind Alliance. Be sure to become an affiliate of theirs and send traffic their way using your affiliate link.  

7. Run a Giveaway yourself: offer dollar incentives to contributors to upgrade their positioning on the pages of the giveaway. Get them to promote the product offered for sale by you in an affiliate arrangement. Offer services like consulting or webmastering to help your contributors who don’t have the time or skills or desire to do the work themselves.  

These are just a few ideas you can use to make money while giving your product or services away. We would LOVE to hear more ideas from you if you have experienced success at using them in giveaway events!  

In the meantime, check out the Chet and Amanda Holmes Giveaway still in full swing Tracy Repchuk, Diane Corriette, Joanie Winberg, Patti Serrano, Hayley Solich and myself have some great stuff for you FREE, but you won’t believe the QUALITY of people who are taking part in this one.

OK, back to Free Giveaway Events…if you haven’t read my previous post, you missed a good example of aligning with others to gain more credibility and value when taking part in one.

If you’ve never done it before, it can be confusing and maybe a bit intimidating, but GutZy Women is all about stepping out with some gentle guidance and a whole lot of support and education, so let’s take it step by step.

Below are 6 steps to follow today, plus 5 more steps tomorrow, so check back. Better yet, just subscribe to my Feedburner RSS feed and you’ll get tomorrow’s conclusion.

1.       The giveaway site itself is set up by the individual or organization that decides to use the event as a marketing strategy.  They attract as many contributors (those who contribute the free gifts) and others (sponsors, advertisers) as possible to support their efforts by offering participants increased visibility and prizes through the joint efforts of ALL who take part.

2.       The contributors decide what products or services they will give away. The contributor is responsible for creating the text, graphics and link URL for their offer which will be listed and displayed in their “box” on the above website. There are as many different types of gifts, freebies, bonuses, giveaways, etc. as there are contributors. To be most successful, they must be perceived as valuable enough to warrant a person giving their name and email address.

3.       If you agree to be a contributor, then you also agree to send out to your email lists the message that has been prepared by the organizers. That message describes the event and has a link that sends the reader to the giveaway website. It’s a good idea to personalize it in a way that will better appeal to your particular market and make it unique to represent you, but it’s not essential. It is essential, however, to have the integrity to do your part in getting the word out and not just rely on others to get the job done.

4.       If the visitor decides to partake, the organizer of the event captures the site visitor’s contact information to be followed up with in the future. The visitors are given a way to get back to the site, once they leave, for future use…ometimes with user names, passwords or other ways to be exclusive.

5.       The first page of the giveaway site can either be the contributor’s giveaway itself with no purchase required or it often is designed to get the visitor to buy something first and then once purchased, will take the visitor to the contributors “giveaway boxes”.

6.       Next, the visitor decides which of the offers they want. They push a button or a text link on that item which takes them to the contributor’s website OR opt in page (often called a “squeeze page” as it “squeezes” that person’s contact information out of them before they can proceed.)

      So yes, the offers are free, but are in effect, an exchange for information. It’s the part that entices the contributor to give something away in the first place

Some people get upset about giving out their info, but they needn’t worry. The CAN Spam laws require that people be allowed to “unsubscribe” from a list, even after they have collected their free gift, so there really is no risk AND if they’ve done their due diligence, stand to greatly benefit.

Join us tomorrow to finish up with the other 5 steps of Giveaway Events and a hint of a Cool Giveaway coming up very soon.