Hosting a Successful Giveaway
Tip #1 – Make the Giveaway Worthwhile.
This sounds quite obvious, but there are so many giveaways for things that people do not want. Do you really believe that a reader is going to follow you ten different ways to win a $5 Amazon gift card? No they will not. Make it an attractive amount and you will attract more attention.
Tip #2 – Use Helpful Tools
When your contest has a large amount of entries you will be thanking the Giveaway gods that you used apps like Rafflecopter. It is easy to use and Free. The majority of users polled on my site said the preferred using Rafflecopter.
Tip #3 – Have clear stated guidelines.
Every giveaway needs rules, even if it is to just state shipping restrictions. A lot of bloggers will have requirements to enter the giveaways and my advice would be to look up FTC regulations in this regard, because sometimes what you require of your entries might be “against the rules” and all it takes is one person to report you. For example, it is against Facebook TOS to host a giveaway and require a LIKE.
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Thanks for the tips! They’re really helpful and I didn’t know that FTC had guidelines for giveaways.
Yes, the have very strict regulations on giveaways. This is mostly directed at companies. They make sure companies can’t put one up on you. What would happen if the lottery was not regulated
Great tips! As for #1, I’ve seen MANY giveaways where the prizes were eBooks that were FREE.
Are you kidding me? Now that’s just wrong.
Lolz that’s funny. Thanks for the tips PJ.
Thanks for the great tips! I just recently did my first giveaway and was slightly disappointed with the turn out.
Yes, some can go over very well..others fall flat.
Great advice. Thanks as always.
Did you mean that you can’t require a FB like if you have the contest *on* FB?
Yes, it is in FB TOS that you can’t require a LIKE for your page for a giveaway. So you can’t say LIKE this to enter the giveaway. Technically FB could shut down your account. Do they have police? No. But someone with malicious intent, or just misguided justice could report you.
You know, now I’ll have to check LOL — when an author gives me a review copy and says to host a giveaway with the review, I never think to go to Amazon to check. Grrr
You can ask for a FB like if you do the giveaway through Rafflecopter. Rafflecopter and Facebook have an agreement where it is allowed. I love using Rafflecopter–it’s so handy.
You can ask for an extra entry — but you can’t require it to enter the giveaway. Technically.
+JMJ+
I, too, have wondered at the $5 Amazon Gift Card prizes. If I already follow the blog, then I enter the giveaway just to show the blogger more support (because I personally know how demoralising it can be to host a giveaway hardly anyone enters–and I actually splurge on my own prizes!). But if I’m not an old follower and all that’s up for grabs is $5, then I just can’t be bothered.
But maybe $5 is all the blogger can afford, and they still want to do a giveaway to show some appreciation to their readers. That amount is enough to buy some very good books. Of course, if the goal of the giveaway is to attract followers a great price goes a long way, but personally I prefer a simple giveaway where I could win $5, than a fantastic giveaway where I have to follow the blog everywhere to get it.
Well that is fine if your aim is to show reader appreciation, but if you are looking to get better turnout for your giveaway, then no, $5 will not do it. I often offer, eBooks of unknown authors along with my review. This is done to bolster the author and attract a bit more attention to the review. It is not in hopes of increasing my readership. On those about 20 comments will probably get made. Unlike larger giveaways that have had upwards of 1000+ comments and an increase in readership in the 100s. Again it is all about what your goal for your giveaway is. The focus of this tip is to attract attention to your giveaway, thus resulting in more followers. Not in reader appreciation. Those I do believe should be personal.
+JMJ+
If $5 is all that a blogger can afford, then good on him/her for being so generous. But as PJ said, it’s not going to attract a lot of attention.
There’s the added complication that I am an “international” follower with no eReader. There is nothing I could buy from Amazon US with only $5.
I’m not trying to insult the prize or the blogger, or to imply that my personal experience is universal. But I want to make it clear why I agree with PJ’s general point about prizes that people may not really want.
As always great advice, I’ve been adding my giveaways from rafflecopter to my facebook page (going delete now) in which I do ask for likes for an extra point to enter.
Thanks Rachel.
Loupe — extra points are fine. You can’t require…as per FB TOS rules. It does not mean you are doing something wrong. Don’t pull them down
Huh, I could have sworn that many of the giveaways that I’ve entered on big publishers facebook pages require a like to enter or even access the contest. and I don’t think they used rafflecopter…?
Rafflecopter does make things much easier. I used Google docs before and making sure all the duplicates were removed, then taking those entries into Random to choose was a bit of a pain. Rafflecopter sure has made me a tad lazy.
Well, a little less so after you mentioned Rafflecopter still allowed cheaters.
I totally agree about the prize versus level of hoops ratio. To win a car, an iPad or a signed Harry Potter collection, I totally understand major hoops. But for a $5 giftcard which is generally not enough to buy a book, it is a bit much.
And I’d almost prefer to have less entries in a giveaway, unless it’s specifically for an author tour or publisher tour. Otherwise, it’s all about getting an author’s book into a reader’s hands, and less entries means less better chances for the entrant and less “cheaters” to check through.
Thanks for the tip about Rafflecopter! I’m doing my first giveaway ever and Rafflecopter is going to make it ten times easier.
Thank you for the tips. I have been trying to figure out how to make my giveaways more appealing. Now I know.
For those on WordPress, there’s a snazzy plug-in, Pick Giveaway Winner, that will randomly chose winners from the comments. If you’re only having people do one thing to enter a contest (which I’ve found to be the preferred method, but that was a while ago), it makes it ridiculously easy to pick winners. However if you want to include additional entries, then that means more comments, which can be good or bad.
However, I have to step up and say I DESPISE Rafflecopter. Yes I see the convenience of it, but as someone who collects giveaway information, it gives no information. It tells you how long the contest will last, but it doesn’t give an end date (all I want to know is the end date, not how long I have to enter). It also doesn’t say what the prize is or anything like that, so you still have to include other things in addition to it.
There’s also been times when I’ve entered using Rafflecopter that it’s taken me away from the site or doesn’t require me to leave a comment. IMO, the whole point of a giveaway is to get traffic to the site and acquire comments, so I don’t see how that point is helpful.