I’ve sent out the second bonus link to members of the giveaway notification list today, so if you’re subscribed, check your mailbox for my message and click the link inside to enjoy this week’s special bonus.
 

This week’s bonus:

The first 25 clickers can have their 125×125 banner ad rotating in the sidebar for 15 days.

Not a subscriber yet? Register now (use the first form on the page) and next week’s bonus might be yours.

(I won’t make a habit out of announcing when I send out the link, but because the system is still new, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to make this post)

— Original Message Deleted —

— Review Update Deleted —

A link to the Giveaway Buddy membership site can be found on the ‘Tips&Tools‘ page of this site.

With every new JV Giveaway event, the number of members drops. As a result, the number of subscribers drops. Email conversions have never been this low. The leader boards are dominated by people who generate 20 referrals (or even less)…

The giveaway market is overloaded…

Let’s try to change course & make JV giveaway marketing profitable (and fun) again - both for members and contributors.

Click the image below to work with me….

With so many giveaways listed on NewJVGiveaways.com. How do you determine which ones are the best to join?

I came across this question in a Warrior thread about JV Giveaway events, and it got me thinking…
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to add some sort of rating system to the list of events.

• The list of events grows bigger and bigger each week. I assume most people don’t have time to join all these giveaways. A rating system could help them pick the most interesting ones.

• Let’s face it - there are several low quality giveaways around. A rating system might motivate some giveaway managers to put in a little more effort when they set up an event.
   

Still, I have some thoughts…

What makes a JV Giveaway a quality event? There are so many factors to consider: the number  and quality of gifts, the membership price, the entire look & feel of the site, the money you can earn by promoting the event, referral contest prizes maybe,…

I also think such a rating system needs to be solid and explicable - guaranteed I will receive questions about why a certain giveaway has a lower rating than another one…

If I decide to do it, I also need to consider whether I will be the one rating the events, or if I will let the the public do it. Since that would make the rating system open for everyone, I think it can be manipulated easily…

You see, the idea still needs a lot more thought…

Feel free to let me know what you think!

While I was checking the email conversion stats for the JV Giveaway notification list, I couldn’t help wondering why on earth the opening rates were so low.

I came up with a couple of possible reasons:

• you are not interested in new events. You just stay subscribed because of my looks
• you have bookmarked the ‘Events’ page, and don’t wait for my mailings - which would be a good thing
• you don’t receive my emails at all
• you receive so many emails every day, and my emails are deleted without being opened.

I realize there’s not much I can do about the first three solutions, except for adding a ‘please whitelist’-message to the page subscribers see after they’ve registered.
But I did come up with an incentive to open the mails I send you…

Here’s the deal:

Every week, I’ll be sending out at least one very special bonus link.You’ll find this link in one of my regular email messages.
When clicked, this link will redirect to a page where you can download a special bonus product.
But- and here’s the catch - …
these bonuses will be made available only to the first 25 people who click the link…

So, you’ve not only got to look for the bonus link and click it, you’ve also got to move fast!

I’m not going to tell you about all the bonuses yet - it would spoil the fun, wouldn’t it - but for this once I’ll give in

This week’s bonus:

For some time now, I’ve been thinking about creating a (free) JV Giveaways toolbar, which would allow you to have quick access to a collection of useful tools and resources that can…

• simplify the process of setting up a giveaway campaign
• improve interaction between all giveaway participants (members, contributors & managers)
• speed up your promo campaigns
• …

I want this toolbar to be useful to as many giveaway marketers as possible, I’d really like your input on this!

• Let me know what you think of the idea. Do you think such a toolbar is a good idea, or just a big waste of time?

• If you like the idea, please share your suggestions and tips. What would you like to see added? (Some quick examples: HTML-checker, uploader, link cloaker, links to useful sites, …)

Put your brain to work, share your thoughts and we might be on our way to creating a tool that will ease up the life of hundreds of giveaway marketers all around the internet.

To get those brain cells going, I decided to turn this into a contest: the most valuable suggestions/ideas will be rewarded with a special prize.

Contest Rules.

• The contest will run until Dec 4th, 2008.
  You need to submit your suggestion(s) before Dec 4th 23:59 GMT.

• You Must Use A Valid Email Adress
  Email address wil be used to notify winners.

• Multiple Submissions Allowed
  You can post as many suggestions and tips as you like.
  (NO Spamming!)

• Contest Results Are Final
  On Dec. 6th, I’ll select the most valuable suggestions. The winners will be contacted by email.

Prizes

• 1st Prize:
  JV Giveaways Package with PLR (Read More)
  125×125 ad in the blog sidebar for 30 days

• 2nd Prize:
  GiftManagerPro with PLR
  125×125 ad in the blog sidebar for 30 days

• 3rd Prize:
  Giveaways Secrets (Read More)
  $5 in PayPal account

I might be adding more prizes later, depending on the number of submitted suggestions.
If you want to contribute a prize,  let me know)

Feel free to let the world know about this contest - the more people submit their suggestions, the more prizes I will give away…

Have fun brainstorming!

As a contributor, it is even more important to get as many referrals as possible, since your gift ranking depends on it. The more people you refer, the higher your gift ranking will be. And the higher your gift ranks in the list, the more subscribers you’ll gain. And the more subscribers you have, the more money you can make. Simple as that!

Pretty often, I receive messages from people asking me for tips on how they can keep track of all upcoming and ongoing giveaways, and if I know a way of promoting all events without flooding their subscriber’s mailboxes with a million different links.

Up until now, all I could tell them was to create a special page with all their affiliate links listed on it - something like this site’s ‘events‘ page.

From a Google search, I learned there are many of these pages available. No wonder, since there are hundreds of tools around that allows one to create a simple webpage in no-time.
I also learned that most of these pages were outdated. 

I must admit I wasn’t really surprised; I speak from personal experience when I say that it is pretty time-consuming to keep up with the JV Giveaway rollercoaster.

So I came up with a plan…

In the free JV Giveaways Downline Builder program, you can promote all your JV Giveaway affiliate links at once, with very little effort.
The secret? You don’t need to worry about designing or hosting a site: all the hard work is done for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. REGISTER
   You create your free account

2. BRAND
   You rebrand your personal page with your own JV Giveaway affiliate ID’s ánd your header image (so you can make your giveaway page fit your site).

3. PROMOTE
   You invite people to visit your branded giveaway page and sign up through your affiliate links.

Keeping your list of giveaways up-to-date requires just a few simple actions:
as soon as you receive a note about a new event ( I’ve provided several ways to be the first to know, all you need to do is sign up for the new event - which you would be doing anyway -, then log in to this site, add your affiliate ID and hit the ‘rebrand’ button. The system will take care of the rest and you don’t have to stop promoting your page for a second.

If you want to find out more about the JV Giveaway Downline Builder, see screenshots of the available pages and a live page, I suggest you hop over to the site now to check it out.

Believe me, they don’t come any easier than this…

Greetz!
Mieke

P.S. As you’ve probably noticed, I gave the site a makeover. Let me know what you think…

As you might now, I’m not a big fan of the new trend that allows a contributor to ‘buy’ his way to the top of the gift list. Some might say that this is a good thing, ‘cos people with a smaller list can move their gift up the list by upgrading their account or buying credits. I don’t agree. Face it: people with smaller lists generally don’t have as much money to spend as people with bigger lists. In my opinion, offering extra credits in exchange for cash only benefits the ‘big guys’ once more.

So does the feature that allows a contributor to add more than one gift. Since gifts that are submitted by 1 contributor are grouped, every extra gift pushes down all the other gifts one extra spot. As a result, people with a small list and no money to upgrade or buy credits end up with an ever low gift ranking.

I’ve been creating a little mind map for myself. You can take a look at it by clicking the image below:

(Feel free to leave your comments - is there something I didn’t think of?)

Of course, I could make things easy (and more profitable) for myself by just doing what (almost) everyone else is doing, and offer the ready-to-go package, with all kinds of upgraded memberships, credits for sale and more of that.

The thing is… It just wouldn’t feel right.
(How easy life would be if there was no such thing as scruples…)

Apparently, I’m not the only one regretting the ‘old-fashioned’ giveaway concept is gone… Just today, I received the following message in my mailbox:

How would you like to participate in an "Old-Fashioned Giveaway" designed with you in mind?

This Giveaway is designed to be a smaller, friendlier kind of event, where people can promote their websites and their businesses…even if they do not have a huge list.

I offer no OTOs or cash prizes or competitive incentives…just the chance to promote your business or website. The more referrals you send, the closer your gift moves to the front. It’s that simple.

So there it is.  Sign up and then find or develop a gift to submit that highlights your business or website. This Giveaway is not about IM, it is about building natural traffic to your website and telling the world about your business with a unique–preferably viral–gift. MyLadyWeb’s Gift Giveaway

Personally, I think the concept is a little too basic - after all, you want members to promote your event too, and for that you need to offer some kind of incentive - but it’s a nice change for once, after participating in all those big money-making events…

I must admit I almost forgot it was there… - talk about a ’set-and-forget’ listbuilding system

Anyway, I checked all links inside and made a few minor changes, and now it’s ready-to-go again.

In this free 6-day online ecourse, you’ll find out:

• How JV Giveaways Really Work
• Where To Find New Giveaways
• What You Need To Have Before Joining A Give Away Event
• How to Maximize Your Cash Points From Give Away Events
• Where To Promote Giveaway Events

You’ll also get some insider tips, and a list of valuable tools & resources.

Sign up for this free ecourse & improve your contributor skills here