The SEO News Blog from Pat Marcello

Wow! We just gave a Ferrari computer monitor away to one of our ListBuilding Club members. He joined the Easter JVGiveaway and got like more than 1,000 people added to his list. That’s hot! Plus, he sold $1,500 in products.

Are giveaways worth messing with?

Absolutely! I had a product in the Easter JV Giveaway myself, and they have worked pretty well for  me. You get a share of people who download your gift and then unsubscribe right away. Kind of cheesy, but people do it. And you get your share of people who give bad email addresses.  So, be sure not to give away your product until after the people have confirmed to be on your list.

But overall, I have to say that I’ve had a lot of success with building my list through giveaways.  Try them, and if it makes sense, upgrade your membership so that your gift gets higher up in the list of gifts. Some of these have thousands of gifts in them.

Here are a couple that are just opening:

Jason James’ Greedy Giveaway : He’s looking for established marketers with lists. So, if you’re just starting and have no list, this one won’t be for you.

Reed Floren’s Free IM Giveaway

I did one with Reed last year that really paid off. Made money and got subscribers, so that was pretty cool.

But what if you’re not in the IM niche?

You can find giveaways in health & fitness and in relationships. Or, start your own! Jason James’ JV Giveaway Riches Software is killer.  Set up a giveaway for your niche if you can’t find one. They’re even better for the Giveaway owner. They build an enormous list, and with all the OTOs and upsells, you also make a pile of cash.

Giveaways are often bashed. People say that you get unresponsive lists from them, but I don’t find this to be the case. If you write to your list often, and make them aware of free stuff or give them lots of cool instruction, they’ll love you forever, regardless of where they came from.

Try a giveaway… They’re easy to do and they work like gangbusters.

OK… You guys happy now? I changed my theme.

I kind of like this new one, and don’t plan any changes for a least oh… the next quarter at least. Let me know what you think… Especially those of you who were hating the last one. You’re my review crew!

So, got home today from jvAlert, and I have to tell you that the last day was totally rockin’.

I was there for Simon Leung. Whoa. The guy knows the backroads of Google because he used to work for them. There are things he can’t tell you because he signed a non-disclosure agreement, but what he can tell you and told us was invaluable.

Believe this…

Simon says (no pun intended) that you should have a different landing page optimized for EACH keyword that you have in AdWords. Whoa. He even said it’s a lot more work, but that’s Google. He gave us about 12 strategies about what Google wants to see. Since I run the AdWords campaigns for Overcome Everything, it was a pretty cool perspective. I think I’m going to study Simon quite a bit more.

“Million Dollar Mike” Morgan was up next, and I just think the world of him. He’s been great to me in the past and I can’t wait until the call on the 19th. He gave some pretty awesome copywriting pointers and made everyone smile. Mike just rocks, and I finally got to meet him in person. kewl

I got a lot more than just information at jvAlert, folks, with the most valuable being a whole new bunch of friends.

The first day, I made a friend from Slovakia named Lucia, who is just starting out. (You’ll be hearing from her; I have no doubt. ) Lots of newcomers like Kevin Puls, Bonnie Cramner, and Steve Leadbetter. Lots of people coming on in some pretty interesting niches. Keep a lookout.

And totally lookout for Carrie Wilkerson. She’s a hoot! And a very smart business lady, who walks around without her shoes on. She runs… what else? TheBarefootExecutive.com I really enjoyed spending just the little time with her that I could.

And there were my old friends, Brian Edmondson, who introduced me to Jason James and other friends of his; Cyndi Parker of TrafficMOM.com and Birgit Ratz Cheung and her husband Eugene. All tops. Oh, and how could I forget, my old friend Charles Burleigh? I’m was so glad to see him out and about, meeting folks and having fun. Of course, Mike Paetzold was there, ribbing me about my old theme (Happy now, Mike?) and Steve Roye, who never fails to make me laugh harder than I should. Har. And Ross Goldberg and Eric Stafford were there, too.

I also made new friends Willie Crawford, who I was fortunate enough to sit beside at dinner the other night; Alan Bechtold, Laurie Steffen and Jeff Wark, and even met Bob the Teacher.

But the coolest thing was when someone came up to me and told me that they were on my list and asked what I was working on. I totally enjoyed meeting Bonnie and having a long chat with her.

And another long chat with Deremiah, a truly incredible man. In an world with an overwhelimgly high percentage of “me firsters,” this guy is “you first.” He never fails to ask what he can do for you, and that’s pretty cool. He’s gaining lots of respect by this attitude in the IM world, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he WILL go far. And sing? The man sings better than Stevie Wonder. We got to hear a really great Deremiah version of Happy Birthday at dinner on Saturday. Nice.

Ken McArthur is wonderful, of course, and everyone loves him. What’s not to love?

But the whole weekend, the question I kept hearing was, “What’s with Tellman’s hair?” LOL I told him we love him both ways–with or without.

So, that’s about it. jvAlert totally rocks the block, I’m telling you.