Some questions about giveaways or gifts

11 replies
I have stopped working in the field of affiliate marketing for a few years. This year I have decided to study abroad so I think I should start working in this field again so as to support my study while I am not at home.

Yet, I have never tried email marketing before. I mainly used SEO when I worked as affiliate marketer in the past.

This is why I am a total newbie in email marketing and I have some questions about giveaways or gifts. I am planning to make use a free ebook to building the list. The questions are:

1. Should I put the link to the ebook (PDF) directly in the welcome email? Or, should I create landing page for downloading the ebook and put the url of this landing page in the welcome email?

2. How should I protect the landing page / ebook urls so that people will not be able to download the ebook unless they are my subscribers?

Thanks!
#gifts #giveaways #questions
  • Profile picture of the author Jiceri White
    I put the gift in the welcome email. I don't secure it, but I put some links in the ebook so that if it is shared I can still profit from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author TMets5
    Yep, have your people who join your list get your ebook on the Thank you page or with the first email message in your auto-responder. No problem if your ebook gets shared with others, have your ebook contain links that lead them back to your landing page so they may return and opt in to your email list.
    Best wishes
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  • Profile picture of the author Laksh
    If you are using Aweber, you can send them to another landing page which says something like, jst enter your email to confirm your identity, or just have a button to the PDF link. If the user came through your initial Email (which means he/she already signed up) they will be given access to the download, else Aweber will get them through the signup process again.
    This will secure your link to only the ones in your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author wifiboos
    If people signup on your landing page with a garbage email you don't want to provide access to your PDF. Which is why double optin confirms that the person added to your list has a responsive email you can mail to. At this point you can provide direct access to the PDF in your sign up autoresponder mail with no download page. The problem with double optin is the fact that 50% of your sign up attempts will not respond to the confirmation email. This makes the cost per lead (CPL) more expensive!

    Most people build their lists without double optin. In this case if someone signs up with a doggy email they will not get access to the PDF because the thank you page tells them to read the email you just sent them. That email can contain the PDF or link to a download page providing a link to the PDF.

    No worries about the download page! A sharable download page is more desirable providing the PDF has embedded links to your front end offer and access to a landing page to get new subscribers. A lockable content PDF would be ideal if you could unlock the content by users virally sharing it with others.
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    • Profile picture of the author discuss4u
      Thanks for the suggestions. I am also thinking whether I should use double opt-in for my list building campaign.
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      • Profile picture of the author rritz
        Originally Posted by discuss4u View Post

        Thanks for the suggestions. I am also thinking whether I should use double opt-in for my list building campaign.
        I would not use double opt-in

        The people who would open and click the confirmation email will open and click your welcome email too.

        The people who would not open and confirm might still open emails from you at a later date. If they see a subject line that interests them.

        Double opt-in will lose you genuine subscribers.
        Using single opt-in you will get a small percentage of faked addresses. By putting your download link in your welcome email only people with real addresses will get access.
        You can send people to an OTO page after sign up and offer them some premium content (your own or affiliate link) and that way try to monetize even subs who put in fake addresses.

        If you regularly delete inactive users and bounces from your email list you will have as great and as responsive a list as if you are using confirmed optin.
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      • Profile picture of the author ibenic
        It is something I also thought about. At the end, I went with double opt-in. Why? Because I want to have people on my email list that are serious about their subscription and also, some of the bots won't be getting into your email list.

        Use single opt-in if you just want to give something to your audience.

        But if you really want to have a serious email list, who are there for your content and not just to get something for free, use the double opt-in.

        Also, I think that people that don't bother confirming their email address, won't also mind unsubscribing right after they get something from you.
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        • Profile picture of the author rritz
          Originally Posted by ibenic View Post

          ... Because I want to have people on my email list that are serious about their subscription ...

          ... Also, I think that people that don't bother confirming their email address, won't also mind unsubscribing right after they get something from you.
          In my opinion, this logic is faulty.

          A subscriber is a subscriber.

          If you use confirmed optin you decide to do without a part of your subscribers that you could turn into readers, clickers and buyers.

          To believe that someone who has confirmed their subscription will be less likely to unsub is simply wrong - imho

          To believe that confirmed optin lists are more serious or more engaged is wrong - in my experience.

          Engagement comes with engaging content.
          If you use confirmed opt in a part of your subs will never even get a chance of seeing your content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Angelina Roy
    We should have to put the gift offers for making the customer in new networking business because of it the customer influence
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  • Profile picture of the author stephenm44
    Question 1 - create landing page for downloading the ebook and put the url of this landing page in the welcome email - Definitely.
    Question 2 - Only allow the download once they have filled in the form with their details.
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  • Profile picture of the author ibenic
    You can have your eBook put on a cloud service such as Dropbox or any other. The link is really hard to guess then and you can easily just send it to the subscribers.

    I have few eBooks on leanpub.com and I send the link to that book with the coupon code applied to it.

    If you are going to offer giveaways and you are using WordPress, there is a simple giveaway plugin "Simple Giveaways" which is free and it operates similar to KingSumo Giveaways (I have coded it).

    In there, you could create a simple winner email template that will be sent to the winners of the giveaway. That email template could have a link to your file (preferably a cloud service of some sort).
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