Build or Enhance your Business Online with Giveaways and Free Products
Build or Enhance your Business Online with Giveaways and Free Products
What is an online giveaway? It is a website event where online marketers will give you software, graphics, templates, websites, ebooks and reuseable articles...absolutely free.
Does that sound too good to be true? Probably, but in this case it actually is not too good to be true. Giveaways can be great and you can use them to build your business...but just as I always say, it is still going to take learning the ropes, time and sweat equity...or lots and lots of money!
Does this mean that you should avoid giveaways like the online version of a plague? No, it just means do not act like a kid in a candy store and sign up for everything.
Why not if its free? Because...when you join the giveaways, your box is flooded with emails and you spend all of your time either reading the emails or you have so much going on your head that you get so depressed and discouraged by all of the scammers that you just want to quit before you get started.
Joining giveaways is pretty much a rite-of-passage for the online business fledging. Giveaways are a great way to get many of the tools you need to get started online or to simply build your online business. There are several hundred veteran Internet Marketers out there who are more than willing to give you resell, master resell, restricted and unrestricted PLR ebooks, articles, software and free websites. However, before you run out and join any Giveaways and download all of the freebies there are several things you need to understand about this method.
#1. You must give out a working email address in exchange for joining the giveaway....not once but twice! First you must give your email address to the Giveaway promoter because the promoter is hoping you will purchase one or more special offers they are promoting inside the Giveaway. Plus, the promoter also wants to have the ability to continue to send you emails--sometimes several a day--trying to sell you stuff. The same is true for the person giving the gift. They have given you a gift in exchange for your email address for one of two or more reasons.
If it is a quality gift they are probably hoping you will become a regular customer for their own products which means they are less likely to bother you with a lot of "me too" "buy me now" affiliate emails. This first group are usually, genuinely trying to built a full featured online business, and chances are good that you will learn to trust what they tell you, or at least tolerate them and remain on their marketing list.
If it is a poor quality gift--which you will not realize if you are new to the world of online giveaways--they are just trying to add your email to their list so they can send you a neverending plethora of "me too" "buy me now" affiliate emails. This second group is usually just trying to make money online, and chances are excellent that you will soon get disgusted with all the emails and unsubscribe from their list and the list of the ten or twelve other online marketers who sent you the exact same email that very day.
By quality gift, I mean something that is actually useful to you.
Software often falls into this category, however its value depends entirely on the quality of the software itself and whether or not you will actually use it. I almost always download all software that is offered, test it and then either delete it or use it and upgrade to the higher quality paid version. In general, I have found the free version to either be outdated, flawed or too limited...unless it has built in ads for the online marketer, in which case it is generally a higher quality product. This last method is called viral marketing. The marketer has put their "non-removeable" ad on the software in the hopes that you will either give copies away to others who will visit their website, or remember them fondly each time you use the software and then come back to them when you need a new product.
PLR or Private Label books and articles are simply books and articles that you have the right to edit and claim to have authored, which means you or anyone else can chop them up, spin them around, or reuse or resell them as is. Unrestricted Private Label Rights(PLR) ebooks and articles are excellent gifts, "if you plan on spending the time to thoroughly rewrite them before utilizing them or releasing them under you own name." PLR items are a two-edged sword. They are free, so everyone and their friend has copies of them, so their value as is...is almost worthless! On the other hand, just because everyone and their friend has copies of them, does not mean that they will ever see the light of day once downloaded.
IMPORTANT CONCEPT: One of the interesting little secrets about the world of online marketing is that most people download these freebies and never look at them again. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of these freebies sit their hard drives literally gathering dust, while the downloader moves onto the next freebie...and the next after that...and the next after that! This leads to a phenomena not unlike a deer getting caught in a car's headlights. Information overload! It is all too much for the beginning marketer to absorb, much less act upon. A hard drive full of potentially useful items of varying degrees to sort through, hours wasted daily reading a neverending supply of dozens of emails in their inbox touting new and better potentially useful items, plus mentoring and miracle solutions that will save the poor overloaded online marketer from having to try to figure any of this out...if they will just listen to this one wise and kind guru. With this kind of head-spinning mind-bending onslaught, it's no wonder that so many online marketers give up within the first six months. Which is why you must start with a plan. (See my article, "So you want to make money online.")
Now, back to the giveaways.
Master resell and resell rights items can be good gifts if they are not too old and outdated, or if they are a quality product, and not just some poorly rehashed PLR product, on which someone has just hastily slapped their name. Remember if it is something you are planning on reselling, and it is a shoddy product, then you will either cheerfully and swiftly end up giving out a lot of refunds, or have just yourself become a scammer. That is one reason I personally, very seldom ever sell, promote or even recommend anyone else's product--because in essence it is your own reputation on the line every time you make a sale. If I am going to take a money for a product or even receive an affiliate commission for recommending its purchase, I want to make darn sure there is a 100% rock-solid money back guarantee involved, and you should too, because false advertising is no joke!
#2. As you should have guessed by now, be careful what you download. By that you probably think I mean viruses and spyware. Of course, you must be careful of those and "before you open any .zip, .exe, or even .pdf " file that you have downloaded, always scan it with a recently updated, good quality virus program that scans for both viruses and spyware. However, most of these giveaway downloads are pretty safe, because any giveaway promoter worth his or her salt is going to check all of the downloads before he or she approves the gift. Of course, there again, as someone who is new to the world of giveaways, you are not going to know who is a veteran promoter and who is just starting out, or which ones just tosses up various giveaways to harvest email addresses. What I mean by be careful is...do not download something you probably will not use just because it is free.
#3. If you download any gift that is not as advertised, or is otherwise disappointing, report them to the giveaway promoter.
#4. Many list operators make it a point to send you valuable information so will actually open their email and read it. However, if you find yourself on the email list that serves absolutely no purpose other than to try to sell you something new everyday, or even several times a day...unsubscribe! They will just end up wasting your time, and sucking you dry of any enthusiasm you might have for building or enhancing your business online.
#5. Once you have spent a couple of months visiting the giveaways, jump in and start giving away your own product and building your own email list to promote your own online business.
In fact this is exactly the strategy I used to revitalize and refocus my own online business. And just for the record, I am proud to say I am among the group of marketers who send "an average" of less than two emails per week. The reason I am among that group is because I have multiple streams of income designed to help the beginning internet marketer. In other words my goal is to make you my long-term customer for my products and one or two select affiliates--not to try to nickle and dime you to death promoting everything that comes down the pike.
I built much of my success over the past two years through using giveaways. I tell you that so I can explain exactly how my business model works, so you can take my business model and apply it to your own business if you choose. However, that is a topic for another article.
Build or Enhance your Business Online with Giveaways and Free Products - To learn more about this author, visit Teresa Bohannon's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Build or enhance your business online with giveaways and free products.
What is an online giveaway? It is a website event where online marketers will give you software, graphics, templates, websites, ebooks and reuseable articles...absolutely free.
Does that sound too good to be true? Probably, but in this case it actually is not too good to be true. Giveaways can be great and you can use them to build your business...but just as I always say, it is still going to take learning the ropes, time and sweat equity...or lots and lots of money!
Does this mean that you should avoid giveaways like the online version of a plague? No, it just means do not act like a kid in a candy store and sign up for everything.
Why not if its free? Because...when you join the giveaways, your box is flooded with emails and you spend all of your time either reading the emails or you have so much going on your head that you get so depressed and discouraged by all of the scammers that you just want to quit before you get started.
Joining giveaways is pretty much a rite-of-passage for the online business fledging. Giveaways are a great way to get many of the tools you need to get started online or to simply build your online business. There are several hundred veteran Internet Marketers out there who are more than willing to give you resell, master resell, restricted and unrestricted PLR ebooks, articles, software and free websites. However, before you run out and join any Giveaways and download all of the freebies there are several things you need to understand about this method.
#1. You must give out a working email address in exchange for joining the giveaway....not once but twice! First you must give your email address to the Giveaway promoter because the promoter is hoping you will purchase one or more special offers they are promoting inside the Giveaway. Plus, the promoter also wants to have the ability to continue to send you emails--sometimes several a day--trying to sell you stuff. The same is true for the person giving the gift. They have given you a gift in exchange for your email address for one of two or more reasons.
If it is a quality gift they are probably hoping you will become a regular customer for their own products which means they are less likely to bother you with a lot of "me too" "buy me now" affiliate emails. This first group are usually, genuinely trying to built a full featured online business, and chances are good that you will learn to trust what they tell you, or at least tolerate them and remain on their marketing list.
If it is a poor quality gift--which you will not realize if you are new to the world of online giveaways--they are just trying to add your email to their list so they can send you a neverending plethora of "me too" "buy me now" affiliate emails. This second group is usually just trying to make money online, and chances are excellent that you will soon get disgusted with all the emails and unsubscribe from their list and the list of the ten or twelve other online marketers who sent you the exact same email that very day.
By quality gift, I mean something that is actually useful to you.
Software often falls into this category, however its value depends entirely on the quality of the software itself and whether or not you will actually use it. I almost always download all software that is offered, test it and then either delete it or use it and upgrade to the higher quality paid version. In general, I have found the free version to either be outdated, flawed or too limited...unless it has built in ads for the online marketer, in which case it is generally a higher quality product. This last method is called viral marketing. The marketer has put their "non-removeable" ad on the software in the hopes that you will either give copies away to others who will visit their website, or remember them fondly each time you use the software and then come back to them when you need a new product.
PLR or Private Label books and articles are simply books and articles that you have the right to edit and claim to have authored, which means you or anyone else can chop them up, spin them around, or reuse or resell them as is. Unrestricted Private Label Rights(PLR) ebooks and articles are excellent gifts, "if you plan on spending the time to thoroughly rewrite them before utilizing them or releasing them under you own name." PLR items are a two-edged sword. They are free, so everyone and their friend has copies of them, so their value as is...is almost worthless! On the other hand, just because everyone and their friend has copies of them, does not mean that they will ever see the light of day once downloaded.
IMPORTANT CONCEPT: One of the interesting little secrets about the world of online marketing is that most people download these freebies and never look at them again. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of these freebies sit their hard drives literally gathering dust, while the downloader moves onto the next freebie...and the next after that...and the next after that! This leads to a phenomena not unlike a deer getting caught in a car's headlights. Information overload! It is all too much for the beginning marketer to absorb, much less act upon. A hard drive full of potentially useful items of varying degrees to sort through, hours wasted daily reading a neverending supply of dozens of emails in their inbox touting new and better potentially useful items, plus mentoring and miracle solutions that will save the poor overloaded online marketer from having to try to figure any of this out...if they will just listen to this one wise and kind guru. With this kind of head-spinning mind-bending onslaught, it's no wonder that so many online marketers give up within the first six months. Which is why you must start with a plan. (See my article, "So you want to make money online.")
Now, back to the giveaways.
Master resell and resell rights items can be good gifts if they are not too old and outdated, or if they are a quality product, and not just some poorly rehashed PLR product, on which someone has just hastily slapped their name. Remember if it is something you are planning on reselling, and it is a shoddy product, then you will either cheerfully and swiftly end up giving out a lot of refunds, or have just yourself become a scammer. That is one reason I personally, very seldom ever sell, promote or even recommend anyone else's product--because in essence it is your own reputation on the line every time you make a sale. If I am going to take a money for a product or even receive an affiliate commission for recommending its purchase, I want to make darn sure there is a 100% rock-solid money back guarantee involved, and you should too, because false advertising is no joke!
#2. As you should have guessed by now, be careful what you download. By that you probably think I mean viruses and spyware. Of course, you must be careful of those and "before you open any .zip, .exe, or even .pdf " file that you have downloaded, always scan it with a recently updated, good quality virus program that scans for both viruses and spyware. However, most of these giveaway downloads are pretty safe, because any giveaway promoter worth his or her salt is going to check all of the downloads before he or she approves the gift. Of course, there again, as someone who is new to the world of giveaways, you are not going to know who is a veteran promoter and who is just starting out, or which ones just tosses up various giveaways to harvest email addresses. What I mean by be careful is...do not download something you probably will not use just because it is free.
#3. If you download any gift that is not as advertised, or is otherwise disappointing, report them to the giveaway promoter.
#4. Many list operators make it a point to send you valuable information so will actually open their email and read it. However, if you find yourself on the email list that serves absolutely no purpose other than to try to sell you something new everyday, or even several times a day...unsubscribe! They will just end up wasting your time, and sucking you dry of any enthusiasm you might have for building or enhancing your business online.
#5. Once you have spent a couple of months visiting the giveaways, jump in and start giving away your own product and building your own email list to promote your own online business.
In fact this is exactly the strategy I used to revitalize and refocus my own online business. And just for the record, I am proud to say I am among the group of marketers who send "an average" of less than two emails per week. The reason I am among that group is because I have multiple streams of income designed to help the beginning internet marketer. In other words my goal is to make you my long-term customer for my products and one or two select affiliates--not to try to nickle and dime you to death promoting everything that comes down the pike.
I built much of my success over the past two years through using giveaways. I tell you that so I can explain exactly how my business model works, so you can take my business model and apply it to your own business if you choose. However, that is a topic for another article.
Build or Enhance your Business Online with Giveaways and Free Products - To learn more about this author, visit Teresa Bohannon's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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I've created this section on my site to share some of the incredible tools that I've used to build my business. I hope you too can benefit from them and look forward to hearing your feedback on the reviews! - Visit Evan Carmichael's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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