Getting subscribers from giveaways

I got side-tracked again, but this time it was to do something to actually build the business.

Giveaway events are a big part of the internet marketing world. Most of the ebooks I’m going through and putting into the eBay process are products I got from giveaways. As you know from previous posts, I picked up a lot of junk - and duplicate products - but I have more than enough good stuff to keep me listing on Bay for a good long time. I look at just about every ebook sale offer I get, and I do see that a lot of what I have is actually being sold. That part of it serves as a great reminder that just because I know about these giveaways doesn’t mean that very many online shoppers know they’re getting a product that has been given away somewhere else.

So, enough of that rambling. What’s been keeping me busy for the past several days is my preparation to finally get in on the contributor end of a giveaway. What decided me is a holiday cookbook giveaway being put together by one the big names in internet marketing, Willie Crawford. It’s the fact that it’s a cookbook giveaway that made me feel like I could actually contribute something of value.

 It seems I’ve come full circle with this internet business. When I first decided to look into this, it was with the idea of doing something around cooking. You see, I graduated from culinary school and worked as a professional chef for awhile before deciding to go to law school. And even after practicing law for awhile, I went into catering. Cooking has always been a pleasure and relaxation, the only place I felt like I had some creativity.

I looked around and found that there are at least a bajillion sites on the net devoted to cooking and recipes. How in the world was I supposed to compete? Especially when the whole concept of how to get people to a web site was totally alien. So, I abandoned that path and started looking at the whole IM thing.

Bringing me into a position to hear of Willie Crawford, get on his mailing list, and then hear of this giveaway. I pulled out my files and put together 24 of the most family and friend popular holiday cookie recipes. I particularly wanted my first venture to be totally original. Don’t know if that will make a difference to downloaders, but it will have my name on it (sort of - I’m using Chef Judi, but I want to see if I can make that a brand online).

I was trying to figure out formatting and how I was going to get the book into pdf format when I remembered that a couple of marketers had recommended using open office, an open source (do I sound like a geek or what?) program that works like word but that will allow for links and putting graphics in that will stay where you want them, and will convert documents to pdf. I downloaded the program (it’s big and takes awhile, especially on this old laptop I use).

I’m so excited about this program I’m bouncing off the walls. I can see so many ways to finally use the plr books and articles I’ve collected. One of the things I found is that with the newest Adobe reader (free), a lot of the old pdf files I have can be saved (with the save as function) as text files. Once you have the text file, all you need to do is paste the content into a new open office document, do the editing to change it and give it your own voice, add whatever links and images you want, then save the whole thing as a pdf. Now there’s a new, original document you can claim as your own (that’s what PLR gives you). If you have a PLR that includes the word document, just open it in open office and make your changes. The thing that has stymied me about the PLR downloads I have that don’t have the source documents (i.e., word document) so the changes/editing can be made has been the cost of Adobe. Now that is mostly not a problem. It also means I have a ton of work to do, but that’s a good thing. I’m really excited about being able to get this done!

So, back to the giveaway. It starts tomorrow. My submission has been approved, and I actually got to see it on this list. Here’s the process:

1. Write the book, or edit (changing at least half, if not more). Add links (to your website, at least). Get or make a graphic. For this book, I baked a bunch of the cookies so I could photograph a collection of them. My husband liked this part of it. Upload both (the book and picture, not my husband). Submit both to the giveaway (for this one, they’re actually reviewing the submissions; I’m not sure that’s true for all of them).

2. Find/write/edit something appropriate to offer as an enticement for signing up for my list. Upload the book.

3. Set up a new campaign with my autoresponder (Aweber, in my case). Mine right now is the double opt-in (clients get an initial email that asks them to verify they did actually subscribe) and the follow-up with the download link for the free book for signing up. (Thank you for subscribing, here’s the link to your free book.)

3. Make the thankyou/download page. This includes the link to download the book, an offer of  the free book for signing up. It also includes an ad for an affiliate product. I had to find one that had to do with cooking that is a good product.

4. Wait for tomorrow. Try to figure out what I’m going to do with any list that gets generated. Wait for tomorrow…

I’m back to going through my hard drive, but now looking at all the cookbooks I’ve collected. Again, I’ve picked up a lot of nonsense, but with open office (go to www.openoffice.org) I’m seeing more possibilities. I know I haven’t even come close to finding out all its capabilities. I have found that the help menu is actually helpful. I expect to continue my discovery of this great product, particularly how it’s going to help me grow my business.

 Here is the download to my cookbook thank you page:

Chef Judi’s Cookie Book

More Cookies

 Happy baking.