I've been book blogging for awhile now and I have participated in a number of giveaways and I've held a number of giveaways (which reminds me that I still need to draw my winners for my 100 Follower giveaway). The thing that sort of irks me about so many of the contests that I come across these days is all the "Hoops" one has to "jump" through in order to even have a decent shot at MAYBE winning. I just don't understand why we have to make things harder than they have to be in this community.
Know I'm not knocking any one's "system" (to each their own) but I can honestly say that if your going to make me jump through a "million hoops" for the chance to win a book, there is a good chance that I'm NOT going to enter your giveaway. If it's a book that I REALLY want I'll spend the money and buy the book myself. I can honestly say, that I have only entered a handful of giveaways recently and they all were BASIC entries (leave a comment with email address, which are my absolute favorite giveaways, to name 1 example). The reason I tend to NOT participate in giveaways that have so many "hoops" is that I feel like those giveaways are a job and I already have one of those. If I come across a giveaway that I find is TOTALLY awesome and I'm going to enter or I have entered, I'm going to share it with my followers both on the blog and twitter. I shouldn't be "required" to share it just to participate.
I totally get that a lot of book bloggers use all these different entries as a way to "network" and "market" their blogs but for me it has gotten to the point that all these different entries are repetitive and boring. My questions to you are: how do you feel about giveaways who have all these different entries? Are you turned on/off by all these different entries? Do you like it when bloggers keep their giveaway entries "basic"(example: leave a comment and include a way to contact you if you were to win)?
10 comments:
First I really don't mind entering giveaways that requires to many entries, as long as it deserves the entries it needs. maybe because it's a prize pack or just that the book is just a MUST have for me.
I get turned off with some giveaways when they tend to have all the hoops but the prize is pretty much lame.
I like it when it's basic yes, what ever the prize pack is.
I don't enter unless they are easy. Of course, I also don't enter unless I actually want the prize.
Actually, I don't comment unless it's easy. I rarely comment if I have to do any of the captcha stuff.
I think it's totally okay for a blogger to require you following their blog via GFC in order to be entered. To be honest, even if a blogger doesn't require it, I'm always following their blog if I enter their giveaway. Most of the time their spending money to give away a prize and I think it deserves at least some recognition.
But I think that's all that should be required. I'm a fan of extra entries, because then you can decide yourself whether you want to spend more time on entering this giveaway.
What I extremely dislike is when someone wants everyone to post comments on certain posts or reviews. I hate leaving meaningless comments, and to be honest, they rarely have a meaning when they're forced.
Overall, I think it's okay to be requiring at least one thing that could be good for the blogger (following or at least tweeting about it), but more than one required entry is too much.
I don't enter giveaways where I'm required to be a follower or post about the giveaway- I may do these things (and usually will follow), but I don't feel that I should have to do them.
I will enter giveaways where I have to leave a meaningful comment if I really want the book, since I think its a good way of filtering out those who haven't read the accompanying article.
I don't enter too many giveaways these days but if I do, it's only the simple ones. The only extra entry I'll do is tweeting. That's it.
Oh, and if it's a requirement to follow the giveaway host's blog in order to enter, I do NOT enter.
As a giveaway host, I keep my giveaways simple. I use Google forms, that way everyone's email isn't out in the open in the comment section. Name and Email address is all I ask for.
If it's a requirement to do more then fill out a form/ leave a comment and follow I don't enter.
If it's a book or prize pack I really want, then I'll do some or all of the extra entries.
But when it gets to the point where you HAVE to tweet and you HAVE to do a blog post and you HAVE to jump off the roof and sent in a video nothing it worth that.
The simpler the better I always reckon. It has to be easier for the person running the contest too. One would think so anyway.
I like a simple and basic giveaways. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
As a blog owner who runs multiple contests, I try to keep it simple. More often than not, I go the comment route, only because my *guests* want the comments. And I require the email address so I know how to contact the winner. If a person doesn't want to leave their address in a comment, I always give them the option to email me to let me know they commented and want to be in the drawing.
I dispise the "extra" entries only because it's not fair to everyone. Not every person has Facebook, Twitter, their own blog and so on to rack up those extras. Or like me, I want to keep my personal FB page free of useless "likes" and our blog's FB page is maxed out on friends/pages.
The only time I require any sort of following is when I'm doing a blog hop, a "congrats I reached x number of followers" contest, or for a contest specifically designed for gaining followers on a social media site.
Well, there's my 2 cents. :)
Jen
http://www.romancing-the-book.com
I like basic entries. Although i prefer a form to having to leave your email address in the comments. Although the good part about the latter is you can see how many people have entered.
I sort of like rafflecopter now. And there are usually a number of entries. But all but one are optional. I like that.
One thing i've noticed is that a lot of people have extra entries where they assign point values. And i've noticed that some give tons of points if you promote it on your blog or post their button. I get that it is a lot of publicity. But i always feel that not having a blog (which i don't) is such a huge disadvantage. Why only give away books to other book bloggers (who can get lots of free books directly from the authors/publishers).
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