ShopAbot drives traffic using it’s inbuilt viral contest/giveaway system. 

Besides being able to get a store up and running with lightening speed, one of the BEST features is this contest system, so in this article we’re going to cover how to use it, where to find the best giveaways and how to make sure you’re profitable fast!

ShopABot is our software tool for creating fast, hosted, viral Amazon stores.  Don’t own it yet?  [eafl id=”3163″ name=”ShopABot” text=”Visit ShopABot to learn more.”]

Throughout this article I’ll split some of the sections into 3 parts.  Feel free to jump to whatever is more comfortable for you.

Here’s how I’m defining them:

Beginner: You’re just starting out online, maybe have tried making money online before or been curious but you’ve JUST started taking action (high fives to you!) with your first ecommerce/Amazon store using ShopABot

Intermediate: You’ve bought several products, tried quite a few of them, seen some success but it’s not earning you a full-time income (yet!).  Some of your ventures have worked, others … not at all, just ending up costing you money – but you’ve seen enough success and/or potential and are fine-tuning your efforts and results.

Advanced: You’re doing great, already seeing relatively regular income streams and are looking for additional ways to add to, or expand them.  For you, I’ll share a few extra techniques you might want to test out – ’cause I know, you understand the importance of testing and aren’t afraid of a little extra challenge.

Have a look at them and you’ll get an idea of which would suit you better – and as you get more experience, come back, try something else and share your experiences in comments too!  If you find things that are working great for you, or facing some issues or challenges with any of what we talk about don’t be shy, post in the comments at the bottom of this page.

This not only helps me create more training that you can actually use, but helps the entire community too!  So, let’s dive in!

ecommerce

How do you choose your niche?

With so many options choosing WHAT to giveaway can be a little overwhelming… yeah?   The best place to being however is with what you know.  If you’ve already chosen the focus of your store then you can choose something close to that.

The more targeted the contest item is to your theme, the better results you’ll have because those people who are entering are obviously more interested in the topic your store is recommending.

If you have no idea yet, then here are some suggestions:

  • Get a pen/paper out and write out all of the things you’ve bought online in the last 3-6 months.  Sometimes going after the major ecom target niches can be profitable, but by looking at real life purchases you might get some ideas that didn’t jump out earlier
  • Don’t jump on the ‘hottest’ niche just because everyone else is telling you it’s profitable.
  • Don’t dive into something ’cause it’s trendy.  Pretty soon, the niche will become oversaturated and it will die down.  We’re in this for longterm financial gain, so your overall niche… should be something you’re still going to love 12 months from now.
  • Find something you can build a brand out of.  What do you do for fun, what kind of things could you use for inspiration?  Even if you’re not the most creative of people, you will have something that brings you joy – think about how you can bring THAT kind of inspiration in to what you’re making.  We’ll talk more about building your brand in future articles but for now, don’t underestimate the feeling of FUN – it’s more valuable than you realise!
  • Be a problem solver.  Selling online goes beyond throwing a bunch of random items up on a page.  Finding a way to connect with those people, at their time of need takes away their resistance… they just NEED it, so you can sell it to them.

The BIGGEST thing I can’t stress enough is that when you’re choosing your store’s niche, avoid choosing a niche solely because of potential financial gain.

When you pick a niche you know, love and are connected to – you’re in the PERFECT position to know WHO your audience is – because, it’s YOU.

Trying to chase after a niche you know nothing about will just leave you frustrated.  So find something you love!

How to choose the right thing to give away? 

So, Cindy… you’re saying DON’T choose a niche that’s trending/hot/etc…

But… aren’t we wanting viral traffic?  So we need to have something exciting, trending and super viral…

OK, let me clear things up here.

  1. Yes, your niche should be something stable, something you, personally,  are still going to be loving 12 months from now
  2. Yes, your GIVEAWAY/CONTEST item should be something viral, that’s how we’ll get lots of shares and traffic

A niche item might be great as a giveaway/contest prize if it’s something people want – but that doesn’t mean you have to build a whole fidget spinner store.

You want to find that trending item and then think about the people that would like that item – what else would they like… and if it ties in with your ideas for a niche, or what you’ve already chosen – you’re onto a winner!

Here’s how to find those trending items:

Beginner: Just starting out, not even sure what you want your store focus to be yet? Or maybe you do, but you’re not sure what to giveaway that will tie in with things well and get people excited.  That’s where the Discovery tool comes in

You’ll see ‘Discovery’ in the left menu in your ShopABot dashboard, click that and you’ll see this, ready for you to go searching.

Click on that and you’ll see a few tabs.  My favourites are Movers & Shakers and Most Wished.  These ones tell you what people are really wanting right now, so you can build your giveaway around that.

When you hover over it you’ll see a preview button, click that and you’ll find all of the info including price, how many shares comments and how it’s ranking on Amazon.

This product is obviously something people want, would be great for a wide variety of audiences and gives you a great reason to also touch base with the winner of the contest after, for extra exposure/social mentions when they first receive it and later receive their results.

Intermediate: Use the strategy above, but give some thought to your social media positioning.  What assets do you already have, what can you use and considering THOSE audiences, what would get them excited.  Then share, share, share!

Advanced: If you’ve already got some data in your Amazon account, have a look and see what people are already buying.  You might even be able to reach out to the vendor and ask if you could offer one as a prize on your website.  Often businesses have money in their budget for advertising/media exposure – and if you’ve proven yourself as an affiliate, it doesn’t hurt to ask!

How to do it cheap (or free)

As you’ll notice, in the example above – the Ancestry DNA test costs $69, so that’s what you’d be spending on the prize you giveaway in the contest.

If this is your only outlay when it comes to getting this up and running – that’s pretty cheap traffic!  You can run the contest for maybe a month, which works out to a little over $2 a day – you can’t even START a facebook ad campaign for anything close to that!

In a bit, we’ll talk about how to make sure that you’re making more than what you’re spending – but if you’re starting out from complete scratch and don’t have any extra cash to invest in a prize – then use the cheap/free solution.

If you check your email, you’ll find the bonus report that shares 25 sites you can go to, to get free stuff.  You can get the free items and then give those as prizes – reducing your risk even further.

I personally go with Amazon’s suggested products because I know they are items people want, and I’m a bit of a risk taker anyway…

Also, remember you only have to order the prize after the contest is finished 🙂  so, again…  there is minimal risk.  Just make sure the price is in your budget so you can keep a good reputation and people will keep coming back to your store.

Delivering the prize/giveaway offer

As the store owner, it’s up to you to choose the winner and deliver the prize… but if you’re just picking something at random, contacting them and sending it … you’re missing out on some huge branding opportunities.

This is your chance to be the hero!   Make this person feel so special that they’ll want to tell their friends.  In fact, don’t just make them FEEL it – give them the idea!  Tell them you’d love to have a photo of them with the prize if they wouldn’t mind.   Then, track the gift, check back with them to make sure they received it and see if they will take a photo of it for your website.

Ask if they are cool with you posting it on your blog and facebook page and when you’re posting your NEXT prize, add it to the giveaway page under what you’re currently offering.

You can simply say something like: Here are our previous winners!  You can be one of them too!

If they’re willing too, see if they’ll give you a testimonial – obviously, make it natural and don’t push if they aren’t interested… but you’re doing a great thing (paying for a prize instead of giving those dollars to the big billion dollar advertising corporations – so… double win!!!)

Share your giveaway to get it started

Beginner: To share your giveaway just click on the giveaway name and it will open in a new page.  You’ll be able to copy and paste that URL then, sharing it to social media.

Every time someone opts in, they automatically get shown the prompt to get more entries in the contest by sharing your contest.  This is usually enough to get a viral contest rolling, but we’ll be covering some more traffic methods that you can use in upcoming training sessions too – so watch out for those!

 

Intermediate: If you’ve had some success with other traffic methods try them out with your contest!  This is one of the easiest things to get traffic to, because people like getting things for nothing, which is exactly the opportunity you’re offering your audience.

Advanced: If you have an email list already, or this isn’t your first giveaway and you can contact those guys do it!  Just let them know you’ve got a new contest on, each new one you do builds your assets bigger, much faster.  Keep them nice and close in niche for the first few at least and you’ll be able to use this snowball effect nicely.

Conclusion

So to recap, here are the steps you need to do to find a great offer and start getting some of that viral goodness!

  1. Use the Discovery tool to find trending products
  2. Find something within your budget that people are excited about
  3. Create the actual Giveaway (watch the Setup Video here)
  4. Use the results to snowball future contests

We’ve covered a lot here, and hopefully you’ve got an idea or two!

If you’ve got any questions, or want to share your contest to get feedback from myself or anyone in the community – post it in the comments below!  I look forward to hearing from you!

– Cindy Donovan