How to build a list with a giveaway?

He more than likely means a giveaway squeeze page:

How to setup a squeeze page with Aweber.. | Charles Kirkland

Yea its basically giving away a free product such as an ebook or some product that will entice the visitor to want to sign up to get the free product.

Just go to any warrior members blog or site and you will see an example.

They tell you if you sign up for their newsletter you will get a free ebook or report or something that will help you out in exchange for just your email address so they can spam you to death and try to make a quick buck off of you! LOl...sad but true!

But if you do the right way and give a good value product away for free and dont spam your list but give them more value and advice and free stuff they will love you and when you do have a great product or offer or something of value then you will make a lot of money from loyal subscribers!

Giving away a freebie on your own squeeze page and being a participant in a giveaway event - not exactly the same.

Giveaway events are an "organized" way of giving away a lot of producst and getting subscribers.
There are scripts to do it - and, usually, there are many participants a.k.a. JV partners or contributors, who are on the giving side... and all of them invite a lot of visitors who will get in to be able to download the freebies. They will have to sign up for every product to the product owner's list.

The last one I remember was this:
Giveaway 2010 | Download FREE Internet Business Building Gifts! James Brown & Kevin Riley www.giveaway2010.com

JUst search the web for "giveaway events" and you will find them.

I think giveaway events are a little overrated. In my experience even the traffic you get off them isn't that great, because the prospect has also just signed up for 40 other people's newsletters, they are downloading 40 other products and are a lot less likely to buy in my experience... my view is that this will bring you subscribers... but not real subscribers... or not as high a quality a subscriber as you would get off a natural signup from your site / blog.

Don't expect too much of an active list ... After paying for 4 giveaway events (yes I upgraded, this is what testing is) I was very disappointed in the results and the list it built.

I gave away 4 different products, all "Brand New" not some junk plr. 2 scripts (php), 1 eBook, and 1 Graphics Pack. None of these was sold in the public. I created them all brand new...

I got a list but all they want is free stuff, not very motivated at all even when you try to build a relationship. I suspect half the emails are fake also, I do not check returned emails..

So do not be so surprised if it does not build you the list others tell you it will ...

James

Okay, thank you very much everybody for the great tips and advice on signing up for giveaway events to build a list. My question is answered now.

I have participated in multiple giveaways and also ran my own giveaway in 2008 called The Great Electric Giveaway and will share some of my findings.

James is correct in saying the list you build from participating in a giveaway is not the best list you can build. I built a list of 1700 people from participating in 3 separate giveaways (not a bad number).

When I ran my own giveaway I built a list of 3400 customers and 300 jv partners with only about 175 actively promoting and driving traffic to the giveaway.

What I found was the list of 3400 was no better than if I had purchased a list of 5000 from a list broker or advertised on a safe list.

Most of the people are only interested in the freebies, and as James also mentioned that list of 3400 are receiving advertisements form at least 15 - 20 other marketers.

If you are looking to build a list there are much better ways to go about it. The main thing to keep in mind when building your list (if you want a responsive list) is to make your list as targeted as possible.

I would rather have a list of 500 buyers than a list of 5000 shoppers.

Al

One thing to keep in mind here is that Giveaways however untargetted and non-buying subscribers, at least gives u a head start to start going adswaps and gives your list building a kickstart.

This was my experience in the first ever giveaway I participated in back when I didn't have a list and didn't even know what exactly giveaways were.

The first giveaway I participated in essentially gave me my first list. I only had about 54 subscribers before that and by the time the giveaway ended I had about 200. I had upgraded in the giveaway but got my money out and 2 more sales for having a OTO there. After providing more value to the list after the giveaway ended I made about $47 out of it. Now $47 as a result of 2 emails out of around 200 subscribers is not that bad.

Hope it helps.
Maddi.