JV Giveaways
A JV, "Joint Venture" Giveaway hits the net almost everyday now. Ever wonder if they work or not? I know I did so I started to do some research on them. It is really a great way to help build a list of clients, but there are many things that they do not tell you about them when you are asked to become a partner. First of all before you ever consider being a partner know that you must have a unique product that you can use to give away, and you must have an auto responder to collect the names and emails of the people that want your download. Now having said that, I started out by saying that this is a great way to build your list, and I stand by that. But there is one thing that most of them out there will not tell you about this part. Many of the people that go to your squeeze page and fill out the form to get your download want just that, your free download, and they do not want anything to do with your other offers. So about the first time that you send a follow up email to them from your responder they will unsubscribe from your list.
Now that is not really something that you have to worry about but it worth stating. The fact is that most of them will be ok but you do get the odd ball once in awhile, just make sure that you honor that request. The best way to do that is to make sure that you have an auto responder with an automatic unsubscribe link in every email sent, that way they can just click the link and bingo they are gone.
Now let's take a look at how these things work so you can better understand them. There are two ways to join these events, one as a member, and one as a JV partner. If you just want free software,scritps,and eBooks then just join as a member, but understand that by doing this you will be joining many lists in order to get the free gifts. Each free gift that you want to download you will have to signup for that list.
Now if you want to build your list, again there are two ways to do that. One is to join other JV Giveaways as a partner, and the other way is to own the script yourself and run your own giveaway. We will talk about both of them here.
First we will take about being a parnter for other giveaway events. You do this by getting an invite to the giveaway, then you just have to signup. Once you sign up you will be sent to a page where you will be able to upload your gift. Most of the events will allow you to upload an image of your product, and then you fill out a form which ask for information about the product, what it does, the retail value and the link where the people can go to get the product. You need to setup a squeeze page, Which is nothing more than a small page that describes the product and has a form on it for your auto responder.
MAKE SURE YOU USE A DOUBLE OPT IN METHOD
The reason for this is that it helps to ensure that you are getting a good email address, they have to confirm it first before they get the download link, plus it also offers you a change to upsell them. On your confirmation page you can have an upsell offer for them to look at. If they want it great you just made some money, and if they do not want it they then just click on the confirm link on the bottom of the page.
Now you have this persons name and email. Your responder should then be setup to send out that first email to them with the download link in there. Also make sure that you thank the person for signing up for your list and assure them that you will not share the email with anyone. Now this is very important so listen up: Wait a coupld of days before you send out another message to the people that have gotten your product. And in that second follow up email do not , and I repeat DO NOT try to sell them something already. Instead ask them if they have had time to take a look at your gift, and if it is a script or a progam ask them if they need any help installing it or running it. This builds trust between you and your new client. I would suggest that you send at least two or three followups to each person before you attempt to send them any sales letters.
Not that is the process for joining and getting members, but now we will talk about the parntership itself with the giveaway site. Most of them are setup to run on points or credits. Which means that once you sign up as a partner you are expected to advertise the site and bring on more members and or partners, and for each one that you do you get a certain number of points or credits. And the more of those that you get the higher up on the pages your product will appear in the giveaway when it goes live. So if you do not promote it at all and you get no members or partners to join what happens then? Well in most of them you get bounced down to a membership level and you gift gets taken down. So the only thing that you can do now is to download the gifts that other partners are offering. BUT WAIT There may still be some hope here. It depends on what script is running the site too. Some of the scripts have this built right inoo the script and it just does it, but some of the script also have an upgrade process. Now that usually goes like this. When you first sign up to be a partner you are given a one time offer to upgrade your account, and if you upgrade your account then your product goes onto what is called the random page rotator. What this does is put your gift right at the top of the latter for everyone to see that joins as a member. Plus it also allows you to stay there even if you do not bring in even one person the the site. If you are new at this and you do not have a list that you can get people to join, then I strongly suggest that you pay for the upgrade when it is offered. Now be careful here because not all of the upgrade are for this. Some of the upgrades are for different things just make sure you read the one time offer for an upgrade if you are joining as a JV partner. But that upgrade if you can afford it, I guarantee it will pay off in the end.
Now one last thing about being a partner. I mentioned before that you gift shows up on pages related to your points. Ok if you do not buy the upgrade then your gift will either be down the list on pages, or if you bring in no one it will not even show. But the closer to the number one page of downloads that you can be the better results you will have for gaining members.
OWNERSHIP
Owning one of these scripts is the ultimate way to build your list, but it does take some time and dedication to doing it this way. Rember as the owner you get every name and email of every one that comes to the site no matter who sent them there. So all your JV partners that are sending people to the site you are not getting all their names and emails too. A well run giveaway can easily net several thousand names in less that a week.
When you setup one of these events you need to have some products that you can offer for a one time offer, and you need some more that you can offer for a backend offer. You then set it up so that when someone signs up and they log into the system they are show a one time offer, make a good one, if they buy then great, but if they do not then they click on a link that takes them inside. Now you can also set up another offer inside the membership area, by the downloads or what ever. You have total control over that. Plus then when they are done and they sign off they are then directed to you downsell offer. So with each member that signs up you have several chances to sell them something for joining your site. But also remember you are getting every ones name and email you are building your list at super sonic speed right now.
Again I would suggest that you do not try to send out any extra emails to these new members trying to sell them something. You have had like three chances on the signup process alone, so do not try again by send out an email offer. Instead in the next two or three emails that you send to the group, only send them thank yous and offers of help. It is also a very good idea to have a bunch of small reports that you can give away free with every email that you send to them. Thay way it is not always a one way event where you are just asking them to take money out of their pocket and buy your stuff and send you the money, instead you are giving them something everytime, builds super trust.
Now I could go on and on about a lot of other features with these scripts but I will just tell you this, if you have the money it is far better to own the script and run your own giveaway but if you do not have the money then just join as many as you can and you will still be able to build a very large list in a very short time.
Hope you enjoyed this little lesson Heres to a happy tomorrow.
Fred Koster
