I’m So Excited! – My First Giveaway Starts Today!

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 9:04 pm

we're so excited

People of Earth….

Welcome!

Ahhh, I just couldn’t resist the Conan thing. Anyway….

Before I get started I just wanna take a moment of quiet, and do whatever it is you do in times like this, for those affected by the earthquake in Haiti. Here’s A Link To The Red Cross that I tracked down this morning.

I know I usually stick a video in at the end but, hey, it’s MY blog, I’m excited and I wanna rock NOW!

People of Earth…This is my very good friend, Ferris Bueller!

What a Classic!

One more Thing before we start—-

Watch your emails! I have a Surprise Guest Blogger Lined Up! I’ll send out an announcement!

OK, let’s get to it. You wanna know what’s so exciting, don’t you? OK! OK! I’m getting there….Let me get the Skittles open!

This whole thing is really kind of weird because what’s happening to me right now is the same thing I’m writing about in an ebook I’m doing for someone.

I know I’ve told you guys this before but I started messing around with Internet Marketing in March of 2009. Not quite a year ago. And I had to work really hard to learn anything because I was working almost 80 hours a week at my job so that didn’t leave a whole lot of time for blogging.

Anyway, I had a couple of “Lucky” small successes in September and decided to punch that ol’ time clock for the last time. So I’ve been at this full-time now for 4 months. And during those 4 months I have not taken more than 3 days off. I spend at least 15 hours a day at my computer. Learning. Still learning.

You guys can probably tell by the way I write that I’m a “Studier”. I don’t mean I sit down and memorize history lessons or solve quadratic equations. But I actually study just about every web page I land on. I look at the theme, who designed the theme, how they have the page set up, what keywords are they using, where are they getting their images, who wrote that article, who did that horrible spin job, you name it…I find it on the page. Just to let you know how really anal I am, I actually view source codes and background images. Yeah, I know….

And I told you guys a couple of weeks ago that I was gearing up to participate in some of these Giveaways. Now I have been studying these Giveaways since September. I know some of you don’t like to sign up for free stuff. We already went through that “Fear Of Email” thing a week ago. But I sign up for them. I want to see how these guys are marketing their products, who they are, how are they setting up their pages, and most important, how are they making any money off of giving away free stuff. I mean, I know most of the time, I just take the free stuff and run. I don’t buy their software cuz I don’t know how to use it. And I certainly don’t buy their ebooks cuz I can write my own.

But the biggest benefit of participating in one of these Giveaways is not the sales that you get, it’s the LIST. Oh, sure, some of those people who give you their name and email address are going to cancel off your list as soon as they get your freebie. But a lot of them won’t.

And a Giveaway is a big JV event. There are over 100 other people, some with lists that are a LOT bigger than mine, who participate in this thing. We all send an email to everyone on our lists and invite them to the Giveaway so they can get all kinds of free stuff. So starting this morning there are going to be people from over a hundred other lists traipsing through my new website and grabbing my FREE STUFF!

Here’s How It Works -

When you sign up to be a Contributor you’re given the option of going in at a Free level, an Upsell level, or a Downsell level.

At the Free level, you can contribute one item to be given away free, at the upsell level you can have 3 Free Offers, and at the downsell level you can have 2. At the 2 paid levels, you can also feature a Special One Time Only Offer. Plus you have the opportunity to place 2 or 3 text ads around the Giveaway Site, too.

As I watched all of these Giveaways over the last few months, I couldn’t figure out the mechanics behind everything. I just knew they were good for business.

But here’s what I had to do -

First, I had to come up with 2 Free products to give away. And I had to try to make them attractive enough that people would be able to fork over their email address to get them. I also had to come up with a product to sell as my one Special Offer I was allowed to feature.

I had to set up 2 different sales pages, each with it’s own autoresponder, on my site, one for each free item I’m giving away. Then I also had to set up a download/Thank You page for each item. THEN – I had to go to the Giveaway site and enter a picture of my Free Products, the URLs of the sales pages and the URLs of the download pages.

THEN I had to go to the Giveaway site and list my Special Offer on THEIR site. They track the sales through the Giveaway site because Contributors earn commissions when members of their lists buy anything. So yeah, I’m not going to get full price for my Special Offer because a commission will be deducted first. But, if anyone from one of MY lists buys something from another Contributor, then I’ll earn commission off of that sale.

Now, do you want to know why I’m so excited about all of this? It’s not because I’m officially kicking off my new site. It’s not because I’m going to be getting some more names for my list. It’s not even because I might get a few sales out of it.

The reason I’m so excited about all of this is because…

I figured out how to set the friggin’ thing up!

It was really pretty fun, too. For the past week I’ve had so many pages open and so many programs open at the same time, you could see my poor little laptop sweating. I really need to get my desktop fixed for these big jobs LOL Anyway, I did it! All by myself! And I’ve checked all the links and everything works exactly the way it’s supposed to! Aren’t you proud of me?!

OK. Back to business…

I wanted to tell you guys about this Giveaway for a couple of reasons. One, there’s tons of FREE STUFF! Go Get It! In fact, I have 2 Free Products in there myself – so Go Get Them!

But the other reason is because I think it’s such a cool idea! If any of you have been looking for a way to add some names to your list, or even start a list, this is a good way to do it. And the organizer of this Giveaway is very professional. It’s a great site, all the links work and he has helpful videos and downloads posted everywhere. Believe me, I’ve been studying these things since September, just waiting for the day I’d have enough time to try one myself.

Now one of the things I’ve seen on these Giveaways is, if you’re a Contributor, and you don’t send even one single person to get some FREE STUFF, then they boot you out. They take your free product out of the line up. But this guy running this giveaway will at least give you some warning before he does it, so you can have time to get someone to go get something for free. I think for the one that he’s running that starts today he’s even waiving the requirement.

But that was one of the things that held me back from giving these things a test drive. I mean, the whole purpose of joining one of these Giveaways, for me anyway, was to start a list. If I didn’t already have one, how was I supposed to join? It’s like trying to get credit, ya know? If you don’t already have money, no one will lend you any money. But if you already have money, why would you be trying to borrow some more? DUH?! I really think someone should let me rule the world for a day or two….

Well, like I said, I’ve had a few “lucky breaks” over the past few months. Don’t get the wrong idea there because I’ve also been working my ass off, too. I don’t think Luck just happens to anyone. I think you have to earn Luck just like you have to earn everything else that’s worth having. But I have had some Luck and I do have a little bit of a list now.

And I think I’m going to start off this really weird year I’ve been having so far by sharing it with some of you!

Here’s what I’m gonna do…

First of all, I want you guys to go sign up to be members of this Giveaway. It’s FREE, you don’t have to buy anything if you don’t want to, and there are HUNDREDS of FREE Products just sitting there waiting for you to grab them. And even if you don’t want any of the Free Stuff, it’s educational just looking at all the pages….yadda, yadda, yadda.

Here’s The Link To The Giveaway That Starts Today

By the way – These Giveaways typically last two weeks. So you don’t have to get through the whole thing in one sitting. PLUS – New FREE STUFF gets added all the time. So bookmark it and keep checking back!

Now, the Next Giveaway, hosted by this same guy, starts on February 13. You guessed it. It’s a Valentine’s Giveaway. No, the gifts don’t have to be Valentine’s related. That’s just the theme he’s using. But February 13 is a whole month away. So here’s what I’m thinking….

There might be a couple of YOU out there who would like to try a Giveaway but you’re in the same boat I was, you don’t have a list. And you might be a little bit afraid of all the mechanics involved. And you probably think you don’t have a product you can give away anyway.

If you’re seriously interested in participating in one of these, and I DO MEAN SERIOUS, fisrt of all, go click on that link up there and sign up as a member and grab a bunch of free stuff. And pay attention to how the thing works while you’re doing it!

CLICK ON THIS LINK AND SIGN UP AS A CONTRIBUTOR FOR THE VALENTINE’S GIVEAWAY.

THEN – Contact me and tell me you’ve signed up to be a Contributor

THEN – Here’s what I’ll do to help you out –

Over the course of the next month, you can contact me whenever you want and I’ll help you get your Free Offer together and, if you decide you want to upgrade, I’ll help you with a Special Offer, too. I won’t GIVE it to you, but I’ll help you with ideas and help you put it together.

I’ll help you figure out the mechanics of the whole thing. (Paul has AWESOME guides EVERYWHERE to help you out, too!)

I’ll talk you up here on the blog. We’ll make a party out of it RIGHT HERE!

AND - I will Post YOUR Giveaway Link right here on the blog when the Giveaway starts so the people who follow the ‘Dome will follow YOUR link to the Giveaway. That way, you won’t have to worry about having a list to start out with.

How’s THAT sound?

Now, you have a whole month to get ready for this thing and I did it in less than 2 weeks. And that was WHILE I was also working on other stuff.

So don’t tell me you don’t have time.

You can pick up over 300 Free Products at the Giveaway that’s going on now and I’ll help you figure out how to put your own spin on a couple of them so you’ll have FREE STUFF to giveaway yourself. (PPSSSSSSTT! The secret is right here on this page!)