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beautifulpetunia

posts: 327

Jul 17, 2008 12:21 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Hello great thinkers!

I really love this idea, but be careful not to fall into the trap of "Win a Free Ipod" (i2 pages later if you join this membership for only $9.99) sorta folks. Those of us that have been yoked in the past with such "sweepstakes" may be a bit jaded. But you have a great way of projecting the up and up, feedback rating is a great idea!

Count me in as a provider :)

Onward & Upward!

DefMall

posts: 99

Jul 17, 2008 9:43 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

The secret here, like in any business but especially when there is something `free` at stake, is complete honesty.

Being honest with the custoemr about what they are getting for free.

Being honest with your advertisers about what you`d like to charge, how much traffic you think you can bring in, and where your numbers come from.

To try to come out of the box as big as Amazon (just an example) would be ambitious, expensive and hard to pull off. But I think starting this out as something no more ambitious than a "side project" or `garage-based endeavour` and letting it grow organically...it has a TON of potential. I think more and more people recognize small, web-based ventures as beign as viable (and maybe MORe VIABLE) Than these corpporate looking billion dollar endeavors that get a lot of buzz and then go bankrupt.

Since the idea is still abit of an embryo, I would suggest a very honest dealing with your first round of advertisers. Low dollars, more of a measure of traffic and response.

Just me 2 cents.

You may keep the change. :)

ClarenceMiddleton

posts: 12

Jul 22, 2008 12:34 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Wow.

I love this idea. I can offer a sample of my products or service for free, and generate potential sale or leads. This would be any sellers dream. As long as the give away is for real "and not a Win a free Ipod type scam, or Nobody from Nohere, NO won the giveaway", people will run to this site. There’s one thing that everyone loves $Free.99 LOL.

I have some advice

Show people the possible chances of them winning i.e. 1 in 3000

Have them sign up using their Emails "for results of the give away" Then:

· Send them follow Emails of Related Giveaways "more add revenue"

· "Professionally" sell their emails to related advertiser <-- This is worth its weight in gold alone

· Or you could even handle Email Marketing for the Advertiser "extra income"

Reel them in with a free giveaway

Collect their info.

Earn Ad revenue.

Send targeted ads to them.

Swaroop

posts: 6

Jul 22, 2008 12:39 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

It`s a good idea. You should bootstrap this idea to sell your own website to online marketers.

Offer a "Giveaway ad spot as well" every day. Only 1 advertiser gets it free (that advertiser can use your traffic and not pay you for any clicks).. but many more advertisers will come and see if they can get it. The rest have to do a PPC or a PPT.
Like the idea?

IdeasandInnovations

posts: 409

Jul 22, 2008 1:02 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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· "Professionally"sell their emails to related advertiser <-- This is worth its weight in gold alone

CLARENCE, loved your ideas upto the point of selling emails. yes great revenue source for as long as it lasts because as soon as people find out that you are letting everybody and their brother have their email addresses, not looking good.

yes a couple of ways to still capitalize on that resource, is your weekly email newsletter suggestion, but in my humble opinion never but never sell email addresses.

so whats the next step???

With such interest in the thread I believe you can form an entity and get partners in to get things going.

Mike

justryingtohelp

posts: 22

Jul 22, 2008 1:05 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

I like the idea that Clarence was getting at - if the person giving away the product or service was to be provided the email addresses of the people entering to win, they would have a quick way to build a list of people interested in their product and services. Interesting. You could foreseeably have professional service providers and name brand product sponsors - I realize this is getting away from the comic book idea - but when I think about what one person cleaning out their graage could potentially gain from this vs. the person who is interested in building a list, I think the latter would be more likely to see the benefits of this giveaway site. JMO Sounds like you`re close to something nice here though.

DefMall

posts: 99

Jul 22, 2008 1:29 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

I can`t speak for everyone, but I would never enter a free giveaway contest if I was of the knowledge that my e-mail addy was being given to a 3rd party. I don`t mind registered my e-mail with YOUR site...I even use a seerpate e-mail addy so that I can trace when I get SPAM and where I suspect it`s coming from...but then you passing on my e-mail addy is a No Good from me. How do I know that the 3rd party won`t pass it on again?

Conversely, using the e-mail addys you get from people who register to inform them when a new/similar item goes up on YOUR site is certainly smart. And expected. And if I know I can Opt Out at any time then I am on board with the idea.

dummypreneur

posts: 14

Jul 22, 2008 7:45 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Initially, I was just fleshing out the idea, but as I have mulled it over this last week with some help from another SUNer, I have decided to forge ahead with the grand experiment. It`s been pared back to a smaller scale idea that I think is very feasible. It should be interesting to see how this pans out compared to what I potentially could have gotten for the comic book collection.

As one who has done support for a legitimate Email Marketing service company, I agree with you JTTH that you do not sell your list and if you value your deliverability in any degree, you NEVER buy a list. It`s simply not worth what it will ocost your email reputation. And with some blacklists, it can be hard to salvage that reputation even when you clean up your act. Heaven knows how hard it is to stay on their good side even when you do things right.

I`ll report back the results of how things go in a month or two.

johnnynfl

posts: 2

Jul 23, 2008 1:22 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

As with any online business, it all depends on 3 simple words.....TRAFFIC,TRAFFIC,TRAFFIC!

Let me know if you need some resources once you get going. Good luck!

-------------------------

Johnnynfl

jvdc

posts: 2

Jul 23, 2008 4:31 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

There already is a free giveaway service on the net: Freecycle. Keep that in mind when wanting to create another giveaway site.

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