Blog Giveaways - Do They Work? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Hi everyone, I have seen a lot of bloggers doing giveaways these days.  I know in part it is to give back to your readers, however, I also see that it's a great way to get comments, visitors, subscribers etc. 

1.) Who feels they are truly effective in gaining readers and subscribers?

2.) Do you typically fund the giveaway yourself, or do you go out and solicit them from sponsors/company?

3.) Are there specific methods in the giveaways that work better than others?

Thanks!

Justin

Yes, they work. :)

1.) Who feels they are truly effective in gaining readers and subscribers?

I do.

2.) Do you typically fund the giveaway yourself, or do you go out and solicit them from sponsors/company?

I do both. I fund them myself and I also seek sponsors. In turn I also sponsor the giveaways of others.

3.) Are there specific methods in the giveaways that work better than others?

Yeah. Make it easy to enter, and I think a combination of cash prizes and tangible prizes works better. Ideally the entry methods should help promote your contest, so you get more entries in turn.

This month we contributed to Mom's Plans and Consumerism Commentary giveaways.

MP asked people to like, follow on RSS/email/FB.

CC asked people to follow via RSS.

On April 30 we had 173 RSS followers and 325 Twitter followers.

As of today we have 292 RSS followers and 365 Twitter followers.

So we gained 119 RSS and 40 Twitter followers in under 3 weeks – and the numbers continue to rise.

We may see a drop off once MPs May Giveaway is complete but I think many will stick around.

My Personal Finance Journey said:

Wow! I may need to do more giveaways in light of these numbers!

Both of those sites have WAY more reach than we do.  That's why I offered to contribute to their respective giveaways.  I found the one giveaway I did for our site – tax software – was not so good as I only got 9 applicants over 2 weeks. Or some low # like that.

Kevin is absolutely correct. I believe that they are great for gaining subscribers and I self fund my giveaways.

MoneyIsTheRoot said:

Hi everyone, I have seen a lot of bloggers doing giveaways these days.  I know in part it is to give back to your readers, however, I also see that it's a great way to get comments, visitors, subscribers etc. 

 

1.) Who feels they are truly effective in gaining readers and subscribers?

 

Oh yes!!!

 

2.) Do you typically fund the giveaway yourself, or do you go out and solicit them from sponsors/company?

 

I have always funded giveaways myself because I wanted to giveaway particular items, mainly gift cards. Gift cards have the greatest appeal.

(Sustainable PF-I am not surprised that the Tax Software did not generate many entries. I do not use Tax Software….there is no need for me to enter your giveaway. If you had one for $25 Starbucks Gift Card…I would be a frequent visitor.)

 

Also, it is part of my marketing strategy to always have "something" to come back for daily. I allow daily tweets on all of my giveaways.

 

3.) Are there specific methods in the giveaways that work better than others?

 

Yes. I went to Online-Sweepstakes and read post after post about what people liked/disliked about giveaways.This is what I learned.

-People do like a shorter time frame. 2 weeks for a smaller giveaway. Perhaps 4 for something larger.

-They do not want to be made to be a subscriber, twitter follower etc to enter the giveaway. However, you can reward them with more entries for following you on twitter, etc.

-They do want entry options but not 10 different scenarios.

-People want to know their "odds". The easiest method is to have comments for each activity performed. If people obtain three entries for following you on twitter, have them leave three separate comments.

-People want to know who the winner/winners are…list them somewhere.

-Pay attention to your giveaway verbiage. What are the directions and the rules? I went to site after giveaway site to figure out what the best "rules" are. People are more apt to enter if the rules are clear.

 

I list my giveaways on something like 8 different sites.

 

I think you need to consider what you want from your readers and subscribers? Is it realistic that someone is going to come back every single day or do you want to consider yourself a resource…something bookmarked to check out from time to time? I think this all falls into the "branding" idea of what your blog is about.

 

My current giveaway is fostering a bit of Yakezie love. One of my entry methods is to have an entrant leave a link to a personal finance blog that she enjoys. I make mention of the "Smart Blogs I Follow" page that has a list of Yakezie blogs.

@Super Frugalette – Thanks for the tips, your recent giveaway is actually what prompted me to ask about this topic.  I have checked out a lot of the giveaways, and I really like your setup and options you offer for entry.  When I do mine I will probably use yours as a template.

@Derek – $25 is very doable, and I will probably go with an Amazon card, that's a great idea…easy to use and everyone likes them, I know I do.  I just need to get a template written up, rules figured out, and then I'm going to try and add this to my goals list for the week…hopefully I can get one out by next week!