May 14, 2011

Tips for Giveaways and Contests on Your Blog

Last month I shared how hosting a giveaway or contest on your blog can help increase readership.  Since then, I've come up with a few more tips that you might find helpful.

Contacting the Winner
When hosting a giveaway, make sure you tell your readers they they must leave their contact information in a comment.  Even those logged in with a blogger account don't always leave a trail to find them; not everyone has a blog and even those that do may miss that you left a comment that they'd won.

It's much easier if your reader leaves you their email address right on the comment for the giveaway, so make that a prerequisite right up front.

Back It Up
I had also mentioned keeping a simple database for each contest or giveaway that you run so that you'll have the information all in one place come time to draw for the winner.  One fellow writer who does a lot of giveaways said that she thought that was an extra step and that the comments contained all the required information.  That works for her, but I prefer more control.

I  keep my own records and that served me well with the debacle that occurred with blogger in the last 48 hours.  Recent posts and pages disappeared on blogger and while some have been restored, not all have been.  Many posts that were reinstated are missing comments and I'm not sure whether all will be able to be recovered.  Since I kept the information for each of my giveaways in an Excel spreadsheet, I've still got the data I need to finish out my contest fairly.

Current Giveaways
Head over to my current giveaways page to see how I run contests on my blog.  While there, go ahead and enter any that interest you, and bookmark that page to watch for future contests.

Good luck!


5 comments:

  1. Say, that's good info, my spouse the tipster does giveaways; I showed this to her and she appreciates it. Thank You.

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  2. Good tips. Thank you! I think I'll be doing some giveaways one of these days, and it's nice to have an idea of how.

    I’m blogging my way back from Z to A and yes, I do realize that is evidence of my insanity.
    Peek-a-Boo! I See You! Writing Fictional Characters
    and
    Overachieving is Overrated

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  3. Great tips, thanks! I'm hosting my first giveaway on Monday so we'll see how "organized" I can make it.

    I'm a new follower from the hop :)

    http://anirishitalianblessing.blogspot.com/

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  4. Excellent tips!

    I am a new follower from Relax and Surf Sunday. I'd love a follow back. :o) Have a great day, and thank you for your service to our country! My dad was a Marine and my husband is a former FMF Corpsman.

    -Danielle
    www.flipflopreviews.blogspot.com

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  5. Great tips! Following you here too!

    April @ Mama on a Green Mission

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