It’s funny.

I’ve never been a big fan of that fancy web 2.0 stuff like Myspace, Facebook, etc. I hardly ever talk to my old high school buddies on my social networking accounts. It just never really caught on with me personally. Even with blogging, I’m still uncomfortable doing it at times.

I started because some marketers I respect say I need to do it. And hey, if they are more successful than I am, I listen.

But something unexpected happened when I started doing all of this stuff… (more…)

Recently I’ve been telling you about JV giveaway events. Knowing what great lead generators they are, I recently dipped my hand into the giveaway event waters to see how many opt-ins I could get to my mailing list.

Here are some observations about what I knew BEFORE I participated in my first JV giveaway event:

1) I knew people were building massive lists through these events, but these are all from big name gurus. I wanted to know how well it works for the “average” internet marketer without a 20,000+ mailing list.

2) I heard that the unsubscribe rates are very high for these events. But some notable people like Willie Crawford says that’s not true if you take proper care of these leads.

3) I didn’t really know what I should give away, but I heard that unique products are the best stuff to give away.

So I ended up joining two giveaway events as an upgraded contributor, Russell Brusnon’s Birthday giveaway and the Friday the 13th giveaway. It’s important to note that my upgrade did not give me additional points at Brunson’s giveaway event, but I did get points (that improves my gift rankings) at the Friday the 13th event.

I sent out emails to all of my lists, nothing compared to the efforts I put in when I help someone with a launch.

After that, I pretty much didn’t do anything except sit back and observe. My gifts weren’t anywhere close to the top. Despite me just doing a quick test run, I managed to pull in 143 leads in just 10 days. My gifts are on page 5 and 6 of the Friday the 13th giveaway (very small event) and my gift was so far down on the Russell Brunson even I got bored and stopped looking for it!

Here’s the facts:

• I was on page 5 and 6 of the Friday the 13th event. A decent ranking but less than 2,000 people joined this one.
• My gift was so far down on the Russell Brunson I got tired and stopped looking for it! Despite that, it produced the majority of my opt-ins.
• My gifts that were unique and created by me got a lot more clicks and sign ups. But I’d still be happy just giving away some high quality giveaway rights products to build my list.
• Despite contrary belief, I got only 2 unsubscribes during this 10 day period.

Even with my limited experience in this area, I managed to do in 10 days what most people take months to do! I can only imagine what kind of numbers I would’ve gotten if I had put in a real effort to refer more people.

If you’ve been looking for another way to build your business, JV giveaway events are an incredible resource that you should be using.

One of the oldest and biggest JV giveaway events around is the Easter JV Giveaway, and it’s right around the corner. This is a once a year opportunity to explode your list.

If you want to build your list fast and easy, here’s what you should do:

Step 1) Click here and Join the Easter JV Giveaway Event as a Contributor

Step 2) Strongly consider upgrading, because you’ll get some awesome extras and points that you can use to boost the rankings of your gifts. That means a bigger list and more opportunities to make money.

Step 3) Look through your collections of ebooks and find something good to give away (I know you got’em!). Make sure you have rights to give it away.

If you really don’t have anything, or want to give away some great ebooks branded with your affiliate links for free, get your free membership here.

Step 4) Enter your gift into the Easter JV Giveaway event and start promoting on launch day!

What’s your experience been with giveaway events? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you’re on my mailing list, I’ve also given you a few other resources that will help you earn more money from all these hot leads you’re gonna get. Join my mailing list so you don’t miss out on anything else!

Usually everyone talks about how fast you can build your list with giveaway events. And I can’t debate that! But no one ever talks about how awesome these events are as a regular member.

In case you don’t know what a giveaway event is, here’s the quick recap. This is a special event, usually lasting from about 1-4 weeks, where a bunch of marketers give away tons of free products like ebooks, videos, and software. The only catch is to get this stuff, you have to opt-in to each person’s mailing list if you want that person’s freebie.

The benefit for you is that you get a free product, and for them it’s having a bigger mailing list. (more…)

The internet really is awesome. Before the internet, the average person would have to spend tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a business.

And even better, there are TONS of people out there willing to help you out in your time of need. Even with tips on how to grow your online business.

But there’s also a big downside to that…

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