Today when I read Mike Filsaime's The Death of Internet Marketing I realised that I have been using the "bulldozer launch"(or let's just say,anti-launch)tactics months before the book was released.Back then,I didn't even know it and so I used to think that it was my original idea
When I launched my giveaway site JVGiveaways.com back in August 2006 I didn't do a big launch.I personally contacted only a handful of JV partners:about 12;I contacted one JV partner at a time;and then I contacted another one exactly after 3-4 days of contacting the previous one. The fun part was that I had no set launch date for the giveaway. I told each of my JV partners that they can promote it at their own convenience. I chose this route because had I set launch dates, most people would have turned off saying that they were 'busy'. Even then, some people questioned the way I was launching it; others understood.
So as I was saying,I recruited only a handful of JV partners.But the hundreds of JV partners who joined later were pulled by my 12 JV partners.If you look at Alexa ranking you will see that the traffic was more or less moderate at all times;there was no huge upward sloping traffic graph.I didn't want to do a 'flash in the pan' giveaway and then disappear like others.
And I am reaping the benefits.It has been two months since I have left the promotion of the site in the hands of my Jv partners and am concentrating on other projects.Trust me;I still get sign-ups every day;I still make money;my JV partners still make commissions. And if you are thinking about my member-base:while I can't reveal the exact figures here;I can say that within 45 days after my site went up I had thousands of members ; a few hundreds later deleted their accounts;a few hundreds never verified their accounts.So now it is a little over 3,000 members. Double opt-in at that!
I must admit that because of my anti-launch strategy,I had to receive a lot of setbacks.The "big guys" never came,ranting off their lame old excuse that they are "booked".Even those who joined my site;some of them dissuaded me from doing what I was doing and advised me to go the traditional way.When I didn't do that,they stopped promoting my site(add to this that my host was really very uncooperative in the early days;1 out of 10 days the site would be down for at least 12 hours). But I believe that a few rotten fishes can't really make the river poisonous.I did employ a whole lot of strategies to make the giveaway a lifetime project to reckon with.I introduced cash contest;introduced the idea of assigning credits for the traffic my JV partners brought in;but they would only gain a rank in the gifts page when their referrals have verfied their account.When they had about 550 credits(I didn't remember exactly),they were able to send a solo-ad to my entire database.It was a win-win situation for all of us.
Most of all,I made the giveaway last longer than most typical temporal giveaways;so my JV partners know that as long as they promote it they would make money. The One Time Offers definitely look a bit old now if you join but at that time it really rocked!.You can see an unsolicited testimonial from one of my JV partners regarding the OTO.
And oh,I forgot one thing.All the testimonials that you see at JVGiveaways.com are all unsolicited.Believe it or not,I never sought testimonials from my members.They gave it on their own.I could have included a bunch of phoney testimonials from the JV partners but I didn't ask anybody to submit a testimonial at my site. I am only "just another guy".But to all the 'giveaway gurus',may I ask that you kindly try to make your giveaway a permanent resource instead of a 'one hit wonder'? This way you would make money not just once but for lifetime.
For those of you who want to know about the best JV script,I would recommend nothing less than JV manager.I didn't use it for my giveaway site;and that cost me money and time.I don't want what ocurred to me to occur to anybody else.I've learnt my lesson and from now on,I would run all my sites with JV Manager. So I would advise everybody to purchase JV manager. Back to Mike Filsaime's The Death of Internet Marketing e-book;let me tell you Mike that your book draws heavily from the Manifesto trilogies of Rich Schefren.But still for any newbie marketer it is worth taking a look.It has an originality of its own.But at the end the themes of both Rich's e-books and that of The Death of Internet Marketing is same:that is;it is the strategist,not the opportunist ,who would win in the long run. Thanks for reading this far.
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