I make it a point to space out my participation so that my list doesn’t feel flooded by the giveaway model.

Suzanne Holman

Suzanne Holman, MAEd
Life and Business Coach working with you to
stay sane, healthy and professional
when your parent has Alzheimer’s

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This is an excellent comment. Most JV giveaway events tend to be sponsored by internet marketers, so the list you are building usually is centered around people who are interested in marketing.

If you are going to participate in these, then I think you have to be sure that the giveaway fits your market. For someone such as yourself, who specializes in retirement, self-development or personal development giveaways would certainly be more appropriate for you than a marketing related event, but even then your list is not likely to be targeted.

But, if you choose to contribute in one of these giveaways, and your gift is directly related to your target market, such as a downloadable retirement planner for example, only those who were interested in this would come to your site and download the gift and get on your mailing list. So you can control the targeting of your list by 1) being careful about the giveaways you choose to participate in and 2) making your downloadable gift very specific to your desired target market.

I’ve participated in giveaways, and continue to debate whether it is worthwhile. Yes, you build the list, but its not usually a targetted list, so how useful is it really? On the other hand, even though it may not be targetted, having more people on your list gives you greater reach, and if they share your information with someone who would be in your target market, it builds your list with your target.

What has your experience been? Does it help to, ultimately, build a targetted list?

Tracey Fieber
Your Retirement Transition Expert
http://www.NewFaceOfRetirement.com

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, the site is confusing…but you do NOT have to pay to contribute. That’s just a way to get points in order to be able to submit a gift without promoting it. This would be useful for those with no lists at all. If you simply scroll down to the bottom of each offer page, you will see a place that says click here to continue.

As I said in my post, these giveaway events can get hyper-promotional. This is why I always send out a disclaimer when I do announce them, as some folks find this to be too much for them.

You can get a good marketing education though by signing on as a free member, just to take a look at the process and the offers that they are presenting.

I have become way too inundated with these types of things lately so I felt I had to pass on this. And without seeing more and/or knowing more about the device and where my offer would go, I felt a bit apprehensive.

But thanks for putting it out there. I’m sure many will take advantage of it.