Essential Tips for Entering Blog Giveaways

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.- Albert Einstein

Since I started hosting giveaways I noticed a few things that folks are doing that may be preventing them from having success at winning blog giveaways.  Before I became a consumer advocate I would enter blog giveaways regularly  I averaged a minimum of  three wins weekly.  I was by no means entering a ton of giveaways, just what appealed to me and it really wasn't much.

I wanted to do a post based on my observation as a giveaway host; as well as someone who has had success with blog giveaways,  featuring tips on how I feel you could improve at winning blog giveaways.

First tip:

Bloggers verify entries

Remember that!  This brings me to the another important point..

Bloggers are not clairvoyant!

If you are following us under a different name or profile that you used to enter the giveaway, then we need to know.  This is so we can verify that you are following us.   This is common sense, however, I feel that so many folks enter giveaways on borrowed time like myself, and because of being in a hurry many overlook really important info. Most likely not intentionally, I know I've done this many times myself.

Also If you follow blogs privately how do you expect them to verify you as a follower?  It takes more effort to follow a blog privately, so I can't imagine this being a problem, but recently I noticed that I have almost 70 private followers and I can't help but wonder if this was unintentional or intentional. 

Rafflecoptor is a fantastic entry form and it makes it easy to remember pertinent information, so I'm surprised that I'm still seeing many of you forgetting to add links to your tweets.  With Rafflecoptor we really need your tweet links.  Either way, bloggers shouldn't be expected to be sleuths.





Take advantage of the extra entries

The very first blog giveaway I entered I won.   I didn't have a blog, however, I used Yahoo 360 page to post a link to the giveaway.  That was the winning entry, but shortly after that I opened a Google Account and this here blog was born.  I used this blog to post links to giveaways because many bloggers offered it as an extra entry.

Another thing I did was open accounts with Digg, Stumble, Technorati and so forth.  This may take a little time and effort in the beginning, but it is well worth it in the end when you win big.

Tweets, I can't stress this one enough, most of my wins were daily tweets and I find that to be the case as a giveaway host.

Don't be loyal to a browser

Many folks limit themselves to one browser to enter giveaways.  I found it necessary to use a couple when entering giveaways.  Firefox remains my #1 choice for blog giveaways.

One reason is because Firefox is more reliable and also offers add-on options that I found to be helpful for blog  giveaways.


Share bar: makes accomplishing extra entries as simple as one click


Another important tip: 

Verify your own entries

I find this is needed for Rafflecoptor entries.  I'm sure I have dq'ed myself with this one.  Sometimes it seems that 'likes' or 'follows' don't always make it through.  So what I do is have my Twitter and Facebook pages open so that I can refresh the page and verify that I'm following or liking.


Last but not least:

Don't Cheat

I couldn't say this enough, bloggers verify entries.  It is that simple.   I personally do not just verify the winning entry, I make sure the the entrant did not cheat by adding an extra entry they did not complete.  You cheat you lose.  I feel it wouldn't be fair to the other entrants that followed the rules. I realize things are done in error and not intentionally and sometimes I may discern that to be the case.  With that said I encourage you to take the tip on verifying your likes and follows.  It is important that these entries be completed if you intend on adding them as entries.

I feel strongly if y'all just remember these few tips you will start to see an increase in blog wins.

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3 comments:

Fiona said...

Huh. I never considered starting a blog just for giveaway links. Thanks to you, I now have.
Fiona's Giveaway Links!

lisa said...

Fiona thats awesome!

Yummy Boy Mummy said...

Great post. :)

I love Rafflecopter. My biggest problem is that I'm a little click happy & sometimes hit enter too soon. I wish RC would allow the user the option of making a correction.

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