One of the best ways to drive more traffic to your blog, whether you’re blogging about parenting, couponing, or your home life, is to get sponsors to offer product giveaways. People love winning free prizes, so contests of any sort are bound to attract at least some attention.
As both a blogger and giveaway enthusiast I get to see how both sides work. I take what I like about a particular giveaway and bring it to my own. I use what I don't like and will try to avoid those issues when hosting my own giveaways. I have compiled a list of my own opinions about hosting a successful giveaway. These are things I personally look for in a blog, the do's and don't's that will keep me as a reader.
1. Announce your winners.
I’ve seen blogs which don’t list winners at all and readers have no idea if anyone even won. Your readers take alot of time entering your giveaway's. They will go that extra mile to reach your pot of gold. When hosting a giveaway announce the winner, whether this be on a winners page, announced right there on the post or shown in the rafflecopter widget it's a fair way to let your readers know that the contest is truly closed. As a blogger I have received so many emails thanking me for quickly announcing a winner, trust me your readers will appreciate this about your blog.
2. Keep the contest deadline short
3. Follow Through With the Winner
Once you have a winner, it is essential for you to treat the winner like he is your best customer. Respond to your readers e-mails quickly,contact your sponsor immediately. Even though you are giving something away, your winner is still a customer, and you want to leave a great impression.
4. Captcha
Do you use Captcha code..DON'T. Captcha is annoying, moderated is ok. Plain and simple.
EVERYONE complaints about Captcha on Blogger. Yet every second blog I visit has captcha enabled. I (and many others) avoid such giveaways, it just takes up a lot of time to enter them and most of us – don’t have extra time.
5.Tweets
Prepare a text for tweeting yourself. It only takes seconds and your giveaway will be properly advertised. It also makes it easier for your readers as they won’t have to make one up
I would love to hear from both my bloggy friends and readers on how to make a great giveaway. What are your pet peeves?
21 comments:
It is frustrating if links in the Rafflecopter form are not working - generally when it is multiple links or sloppy errors, and then I have to go digging. (I completely understand making mistakes, though).
I get frustrated with giveaways that require individual comments, but then it says "You are posting comments too quickly", which is tough when there are multiple ways to enter (not just 1-2). If there are 20 possible entries, that could be like 20+ minutes for one contest.
Thank you so much for this list! I'm not a blogger, but I love to enter giveaways. Thank you for suggesting that bloggers make up their tweets. This lets me be sure, as a non-blogger, that I'm tweeting what you want said. Also, if I win (fingers crossed!) and respond quickly--please let me know that you received my response! Thanks.
You hit everything right on target with writing this...thank you! I can't agree more about bloggers letting people know who may have won or...did anyone win? I have seen that repeatedly and dropped out of following bloggers because...it is not posted if anyone won or not. I once read about some blogs not being fair so now I question why they won't at least place on their blog who in fact won..if someone really did.I tend to trust everyone but I do question why they can't post who in fact the winner was.
One more thing...I just read what Beth had to say and that is SO true. I replied to one blogger then for some reason, commented on her site thanking her. Good thing I did that because I received a message on FB saying she did not receive my reply with my info on it. It would have been assumed I didn't reply which I DID reply to.
What is your take on the following:
-Comments only Giveaway
-Rafflecopter
I share my own giveaways, was wondering which would have the better results..
Woot!
Tom as someone who enters givewaways I prefer refflecopter! But thats my own opinion, I also find it so much easier to moderate and verify with rafflecopter
Sandy if I see a blog doesnt announce winner I will email them after 2 weeks if I get no reply I stay clear of that blog. I was actually thinking of compiling a list after one of my readers suggested of blogs that are very responsive to their readers and announce winners and those that don't
Beth I agree with you, a blogger should respond that the info was recieved.
Marysa..I hate those giveaways and try and stay clear of them!
One thing I hate about prize codes from sponsors is that they expire too quickly!
Thanks for the great post!
Other things I hate is when the deadline or who can enter the giveaway is not clearly written, which makes me happy with rafflecopter as its pretty clear.
Thanks for the list. I'll be sharing it over and over.
My pet peeves aside from the great ones you listed?
-Bloggers who have 3-4 times as many followers as the people they follow. I see 3+ bloggers who have @12X the number of followers compared to the number of people they follow and refuse to follow back.
- Bloggers who don't know the difference between an RSS feed and an email news letter.
Thanks for the forum!
Great list! I enter a lot of giveaways and you are so right about the problems. One major annoyance of mine is I am informed I am a winner, that the prize will arrive within 4 to 6 weeks. 3 months later still nothing. I notify the blogger who blames the sponsor for not coming through. It becomes a real mess. This has happened several times. I know it is not the blogger's fault, but they should keep in touch with the sponsor and keep applying pressure until they do what they promised. It would be also nice if the blogger can inform the winners, when the prize has been sent out. Thanks for letting me vent!
Great tips and this is something I am considering for my blog but have heard some really scary stories which have put me off in the past.
These are wonderful tips..I do everything except the Captcha which I think is turned off now after getting several complaints that they couldn't leave a comment because of the Captcha. I always contact the winner and get the address and then contact the Sponsor asking the sponsor to let me know that they have received my email..I did a giveaway once where the winner won a rock board scooter and when I contacted the sponsor I never heard anything at all from him but then I never heard anything from the winner either so I guess everything went ok..but I really don't like when the sponsor doesn't respond it's not hard to send someone an email..Thanks again for great tips..
I could name quite a few, I was a giveaway fanatic for 2 yrs then started my own blog. I dont have time for giveaways anymore, but I always keep in mind the things that bothered me when I am setting up a giveaway
As a giveaway enterer.....I can't thank you enough for this. Every single one of your points here are things that irritate me to no end and even make me unsubscribe from a lot of blogs. Julieann r
Totally agree with these. I don't usually do a post about my winners, but I do announce them via rafflecopter.
www.mamasmusingsblog.blogpsot.com
Great list. My personal pet peeve is pages that don't work or a never ending link of Facebook pages. I feel overwhelmed when there are over 30 per page!
Totally agree! I always look to my readers as customers and want them to be satisfied with the service provided by me or the company I am representing.
What great points. I think that the one about having the contest ending soon is a good one that many people don't think of.
Yes my top complaints as well!And I hate comment giveaways...use rafflecopter or some other program.
Have you seen the new trend where bloggers are emailing their RSS to you.
You sign up for an RSS feed so you can read it in a Reader like you read the local news and they start filling up your email account with articles that automatically go to your RSS feed.
If you wanted an email newsletter you would have signed up for one.
What's the purpose?
I cannot stand they want you to follow 100 FB and Twitter pages! That is crazy! That's great if a bunch of Bloggers get together to co host a giveaway but be reasonable!....entry maybe could be, "please follow at least 5 of the following" for an entry,If they want me to follow 25-50 or 100...I'm out.
Another thing that is sooo wrong, is they want you to go to a page or follow someone yet they don't have a clickable link? Really?? Make it easy on your readers..PLEASE!
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