Entering Blog Contests and FAQ

So, you want to enter blog contests, but you are confused as to how they operate. I’m going to let you in on how a typical blog contest works. This is how they work on MY blog. There might be rules on other blogs that are different but for the most part they entries are usually the same.

1. The first contest entry is always a comment. If I am giving away a $200 vacuum, chances are the people that sent one to me for review would like you to go to their site and check it out. 99% of giveaways with a prize on the blogs I enter contests on (and I do that a lot) and here on my blog, want you to visit the site to learn about the product. Don’t skim over this usually mandatory entry because anything you post after that doesn’t count if you don’t follow that rule. Take 5 minutes and visit the sponsor. You could win something possibly worth hundreds of dollars, the least you could do is help them out and visit their site. There is nothing that bugs me more than having to write in bold letters that entries that say ” Enter Me”, “Sounds Good!”, “Great giveaway!”, “Thanks” etc are not allowed. Visit the sponsor. If you don’t have time to do that then don’t enter, because you won’t win. Not on my blog anyway.

2. Take advantage of extra entries. Get yourself a Twitter and Facebook account and sign up for Google. I can’t tell you how many winners have won on my site from tweeting! Connect socially by following the blogger’s twitter and Facebook accounts AND subscribe to their updates. These actions are usually extra entries in contests. Here is what you look for on my site:

That’s Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feed (subscribe) and StumbleUpon. You can also scroll down and sign up for email updates:

Tweeting: Just make sure you don’t spam your followers and copy the URL of your tweet. If you don’t know what I am talking about, when you post a tweet it says how many minutes ago you posted it and its a link you can click. If you click it you can copy the URL to paste here for your entry.

Facebook: Don’t lie about saying you like me and the sponsor on Facebook, I do check the entries! Please remember to read Facebook’s TOS which states you can’t go and post on the sponsors pages that anyone sent you. There are blogs that do this and get away with it but I don’t want to chance losing my Facebook over it. I encourage you to write on my page if you want (be nice I am quick to delete meanies). If you love a sponsors product please do tell them that.

Blogging for entries: Oy what can I say. This entry gives me the most problems. You CANNOT use mass sites to blog as giveaway entries. That means you can’t use sites like Cafemom.com as your “blog” . It violates the terms of service on their website by promoting other sites AND I am not taking the heat for your mistake. Blogger gives away free blogs, and so does WordPress.  Also I would love it if you posted more than just the link. Not rigid on that but its nice when people leave longer comments about a cool giveaway. And please for the love of everything good, DO NOT COPY AND PASTE!! Especially images! I have copyrights on the bottom of the site and on my policies page, pasting my photos without permission is stealing but also because its uploaded to my server you are stealing the bandwidth that I pay for. Its very wrong. Please do not take my photos! Save the product stock photos to your own computer and upload them to your own blog please!!

Grab a button: Blogger and WP both use HTML and I have provided the code under my button. THAT you can copy and paste!

Most giveaways use random.org to draw a random number from the total number of comments left for the giveaway. This means you need to leave a separate comment for each entry. Its time consuming, yes, but if you really want to win you will do whatever you can. I won a stroller because I kept coming back doing my daily tweets! If you try to enter and say you did all of those things but only use one comment then you only get one chance.

If you ever find you need to ask me a question about the extra entries or if my site has a malfunction or even the sponsor, don’t hesitate to contact me from twitter or Facebook or email me. My contact email is candyclcATgmail.com. I try to be clear and concise with the giveaways and I know its fun to win so I don’t want to make it difficult for you. If you win I generally will contact you within 2 days.

Now for some FAQ in general:

Q. How did you get all the free stuff?
A. Well, not to burst anyone’s bubble but the stuff is not free. I have to write and prepare the review and if there is a giveaway that’s even more time, and that is time away from my family and from August-May, that is time away from my studies. Aside from the time lost I have to pay fair market value taxes on the items I get. So its not really as cool as you think, and whether its time or taxes, its not free. I love reviewing products but I know that its a bigger responsibility than most people think it is.

Q. I’d love to review XYZ, can you share how others can be lucky like you?
A. No! Review blogging is very much like a business and in that business are contact that really don’t want to be passed around to just anybody. I have spent a YEAR working on gaining readers and traffic and because I did that, companies notice. I worked my butt off to get where I am and it shows. If you want to review products, gain a readership and traffic on your blog. Make your blog awesome so readers keep coming back. Join communities that talk about blogging. I’m not sharing confidential information with anyone.

Q. Is there anything I shouldn’t be doing when commenting on blogs or entering contests?
A. Well you can refer to the question above, don’t ask bloggers for contact information in a comment! Bloggers have contact emails and forms. Not that they will share information that is private but it just looks bad openly asking a blogger for confidential information. Also, when you are entering giveaways, PLEASE remember to come back and visit again even if you don’t win. And feedback is almost always welcome. Well maybe not on blogger sites like Dooce but she is huge and at her status she doesn’t really have to care either way.

And the cardinal sin of giveaway winners… YOU NEED TO ALLOW UP TO 8 WEEKS FOR YOUR PRIZE TO BE FULFILLED. Do NOT email bloggers because you didn’t receive your prize within a week. They don’t hold the prize, the companies do. You should get a gift code right away of course but do not pester the blogger. Be patient!

I know this is a lot of information to take in but you need to know that we as bloggers are getting burned out by people just not following a few simple rules and guidelines. We want to promote these great companies and by your visiting them it helps, and by your entering the giveaways the right way it makes our job so much easier.