Here's what it's all about: "Started in January 2012, by Karen - For What It's Worth & Tiger - Tiger's All Consuming Media & now co-hosted with my good friend Pam from Midnyte reader, Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers "confess" and vent about blogging/bookish topics. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions.
Just keep it respectful - no bashing authors or other bloggers!"
March 4th Topic: Giveaways. As a blogger, how do you feel about extra entries, required entries etc? Do you have a system to choose/announce winners and keep prizes organized? What method works best for you when hosting a giveaway? (Rafflecopter/Google Doc's or other)
What do you do about people who enter your giveaways but don't follow instructions exactly?
Have you ever had problems hosting a giveaway sponsored by an author or publisher who is supposed to send the prize to the winner and doesn't? How have you handled these issues?
As a prize winner - what do you do if your prize never arrives? Do you contact the blogger or just let it go?
Alright let's start from the beginning. Giveaways. Ah, giveaways; a blogger's favorite thing (I mean come on who doesn't love free stuff right?) but I have a lot of mixed feelings about them. I think it's fair that there are extra entries for people who say follow a blog, and I think required entries are okay too. I mean if you want something badly enough you'll do anything for it right? That doesn't mean you should give someone your first born child but we all have our limits, nevertheless.
Personally, I just use Rafflecopter to choose my giveaway winners and to post the giveaway itself. It's fast, easy, and most importantly free and I think it looks clean and professional on my blog posts.
I, so far, haven't had problems with people who have entered my giveaway and haven't followed instructions, but if this should arise in the future (which it probably will) then I'll just delete their entry (the only one that wasn't followed right). Plain and simple. You cheat? You don't get to win.
Again, I haven't had the problem yet of a sponsored company or author not sending a prize but I think I'd just try to handle the situation as respectuflly and professionally as possible (kindly asking them to send the prize and if they don't maybe sending the winner something in compensation like a couple free bookmarks or something).
Lastly, I've only ever won contests on Goodreads so I haven't come across the problem of not receiving my prizes but I think, again, I would just nicely ask the contest holder if they had sent out the prize yet (it might not be their fault! What if it got lost in the mail?).
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below letting me know or give me a link to your own post. Thanks everyone!
See you soon!
I don't mind extra entries. Personally, I don't do more than my name/email and a follow of the blog when I enter one. Some of the blog tour Rafflecopter forms are longer than the posts these days. I'm not going to enter and follow every way possible just for a book.
ReplyDeletei know it's an opportunity to attract a new following but it kind of turns me off. It must work though or they wouldn't be doing it :-)
I don't mind the extra entries either but I have to follow the blog already. Love rafflecopter too
ReplyDeleteI love winning giveaways and goodreads where I won for the first time . It was a bad book :(
I have no problem with required entries either...it's not my blog after all...it's theirs. Luckily I haven't had problems with people cheating. I don't think any of my prizes have warranted something so desperate!
ReplyDeleteps-I adore the name of your blog.
Aww thank you so much! :)
DeleteI haven’t done many Giveaways as of yet; although I do love giveaways and entering them sometime. I use Rafflecopter for my giveaways but thinking about trying Random since WP don't work with Rafflecopter. Having extra entries are great, more chances at winning that prize you want, although for me I don’t require them. I don't use Twitter so it’s not optional and FB is for my use only so that's out too. I also don’t require Fellow Bloggers to follow me, I think it’s their choice if they want to or not. I do like it if they answer a question in the comments just so that I can get to know them a bit better. So far I haven't had trouble with gifts or cheaters.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, Your blog name is sweet~ made me laugh. :)
Totally reminds me of this one giveaway I entered. I really wanted that book. I must have entered for it on ten different blogs. And I even went back every day to retweet and get that one extra entry. It really felt near impossible that after so many days and so many entries that I wouldn't get my hearts wish. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Sometimes I think all those extra entries are just false hopes. Sigh. I suppose I will just have to buy that book.
ReplyDelete