Comments on: Are Blog Giveaways a Good Idea?

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:24:41 +0000

Yeah, I made people tweet about it when my book came out, and I’m not sure if I liked that idea. It certainly drove traffic to the giveaway, though. Sounds like you have a good approach, Arie.

By: Arie Rich

Arie Rich — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:21:21 +0000

Wow this is all very interesting. I am blogger and this year I’ve conducted several giveaways on my blog. I realize that you get more comments left when you have a giveaway. A few months back when Google Wave came out I did a giveaway on invites and that brought a lot of traffic and comments. I thought it was funny.
Anyways, I agree that giveaways should be simple to enter. I recently started a giveaway promotion called #10WeeksB4Xmas where I post a giveaway each Friday until 12/24. I enjoy having these giveaways. Everyone looks fwd to Fridays. I keep simple to enter: leave a comment answering a question. Winner selected by Random.org. No need to beg for subscriptions or FB or twitter followers. That’s desperate and pathetic I think. Makes your blog seems as all you care about is people subscribing to your blog for your numbers to go up.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:01:17 +0000

That’s amazing, isn’t it. I give her a lot of credit.

By: Lydia

Lydia — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:52:15 +0000

I love Pioneer Woman’s giveaways! She hasn’t been given the items, she actually purchases mixers, cameras, etc. for her readers. I guess she has the money to do it! She does put a disclaimer that says she hasn’t been sponsored by the company on all her giveaways.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:47:42 +0000

Awww, Sheila. That is a lovely sentiment. I guess I sometimes do giveaways simply because people are willing to give me good books for that purpose.

By: sheila

sheila — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:55:30 +0000

I don’t feel the need to be thanked with a giveaway for reading someone’s blog. I actually feel like it’s I who should be thanking the blogger for what they’re sharing with me…their experience…their recipes…their photos…and their time. Those are their gifts to me that I so much appreciate. I don’t want or need you to giveaway a prize because I’m already getting the prize.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:15:10 +0000

Yeah, coulda warned you about the postage, but I’ve received some cross mail from injured readers who also want to take part, so I have mixed feelings about it.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I get the same warm fuzzies too.

By: sarah henry

sarah henry — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:53:10 +0000

Late to the table on this one and so have found the comments as well as the post an intriguing read. Like you, Dianne, I only do book giveaways. I think of it as sharing the bounty, building traffic, rewarding readers, a bit of fun — all of that.

I find the contests that demand folks sign up for some kind of social networking a bit pushy for my tastes (not to mention off putting). Mostly I use random.org to pick a winner but I like to mix it up a bit and appreciate when folks think a little about their responses. Once, the book author chose a winner, which was cool.

I try to do one a month, and tie a giveaway to a review, q&a, profile or some such, so that it fits with my content. I only giveaway books I’ve enjoyed myself or think others will. There’s the annual library sale for the rest. Oh, and just this month I learned the hard way to keep contests for North American contestants only. Just sent a hardback cookbook to Italy this week — ouch! — on the postage end. I could have chosen someone else (who would have known?) but thought that would be bad karma.

Stephanie’s tip about the serial contest taker is sobering, but mostly I’ve found people from parts of the country I don’t normally reach delighted to have a book on its way. I believe winners when they tell me the prize made their day. Everyone gets to feel good.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:24:33 +0000

I agree with Aparna. More and more giveaways ask you to follow their blog, follow them on twitter and follow them on Facebook. I find that it cheapens the blog as if they are desperate for followers and begging just a bit. I also feel kind of dirty when I have to go through all of that.

Otherwise, I do participate occasionally when it is a great prize; I mean, why not? (I never win anyway). I have thought of having a giveaway on my blog offering a package of local products but I simply haven’t gotten around to organizing it. I’d rather give the goods to a blogger charity auction.

By: Cheryl Arkison

Cheryl Arkison — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:42:33 +0000

Ooh, I really dislike when people offer up extra entries for additional efforts like following them throughout the social media world. (Craft blogs are really bad for that.) Yeah, so your surface stats look good, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much.