Feedback: Are JV Events Worthwhile for Members?

photo credit: nathanmac87

I have a question for you this morning and I hope you’ll help me out. It has to do with JV events and how useful they really are. They are almost always useful for the contributors, but how do you feel as a member? Is it worth you time?
My regular readers know that I love JV events. It was an internet marketing giveaway (Easter JV 2007) that first hooked me three years ago and I still love to go through them and check out all the cool stuff. I don’t mind joining lists because that is one of the best ways to find the systems and teaching styles that work. Lately, though, something has been driving me nuts: everyone is recycling the exact same products and identical bonus pages. Here’s a fictionalized example: I sign up for Tom’s list in order to download the Best Affiliate Ever ebook. After I receive my confirmation email, I am sent to a page with three bonuses. These are free products, but they each take me to a new page to sign up for another marketer’s list in order to download. I realize that this type of piggybacking really works from some marketers. However, I’m sick of seeing it.
Do you think that traffic and list-building opportunities provided by a giveaway event should be enough incentive for marketers to create their own information products? Even if they simply repackage, reorganize or rewrite PLR, at least they are offering a unique-looking product. Have marketers have just gotten plain lazy about JV events? On the other hand, should we just stick with the “you get what you pay for” mantra? What can you expect for doing nothing more than signing up for a mailing list? And a mailing list that will most likely help you, at that. Once you sign up for a list are you then offered awesome, original products? I really want to know what everyone thinks about this. Are you sick of recycled JV products or are you okay with seeing the same thing over and over again? If you use giveaway events to build your list, do you create original products or just use a free download as-is? I’m looking forward to the feedback on this.