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Build or Enhance your Business Online with Giveaways and Free Products
| Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon |
Article Overview: 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 the giveaways like the online version of a plague? No...it does not mean you should avoid them...just use them wisely and well.
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Free Download - The ABCs and 123s of Self-Promotion For Independent and Self-Published Authors Part 5 Successful Blogging By Teresa Bohannon |
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.
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About the Author: Teresa Bohannon RSS for Teresa's articles - Visit Teresa's website Click here to visit Teresa's website   Mental Imagery Meditation Guide Make Attitude Your Ally Positive Thinking Power of Concentration |
Related Forum Posts
Advertising is the essential
- Yes, for sure without advertising there is no world of Market. In this busy world no one is having time to know about the products on there own. The only way they get to know the products are Ads. Many of them get attracted to the Products by the way there are promoted in the Ads. Products ranging from 1 Rupee to 1 Lac is getting Promoted.
It’s enssential
Re: Great start, but no finish
- My advise is FOCUS on your business.
Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy.
Concept is simple.
1- Have a good idea;
2- Build your business on it;
3- Monetize your business;
4- Promote it;
5- Build list of responsive customers;
6- Maintain You Business.
Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW.
Orxan
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company
- [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi]
B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses.
B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
Re: what position to request?
- Hi Michael,
How about Online Business Development Manager?
Good luck with your start-up.
David
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
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