| User | Post |
|
5:09 pm
July 19, 2011
|
Kevin @ Avant
| | Chicago, IL | |
| Member | posts 192 | 
|
|
|
I started a post yesterday about the best way to get subscribers. A lot of people mentioned that hosting a giveaway was a great way to get readers in the door.
I was hoping some of you can share your results from past giveways you participated in. How many subscribers/fb likes/twitter followers did you get? And what was your main price giveaway?
I'm thinking of starting one and would like some feedback from bloggers who are more experienced. Thanks for all your help! 
|
|
|
|
|
8:59 am
July 20, 2011
|
Henry @ TotallyMoney
| | London | |
| Member | posts 95 | |
|
|
I would be interested in this as well. I started looking into it after reading your post yesterday. I have done a bit of research myself and came across this article from problogger which seems pretty good. This giveaway from Bucksome Boomer seems like a great way to go and I have signed up for Rafflecoptor (only invite at the moment) which Kay uses in the give away which seems to solve alot of the technical issues.
I would be interested if anyone else had any advice. Did you promote it in any other sites or did you do anything else to get the word out?
|
|
|
|
|
9:46 am
July 20, 2011
|
Derek@LifeAndMyFinances
| | |
| Member
| posts 1298 |
|
|
|
I had a giveaway in May for a $100 gift card. I gained 30 subscribers on the first day! My promotion lasted for 1 month, and I think I gained 75 subscribers. It was definitely worth it. I think my next giveaway will be an iPad or something. I bet that would interest a few people! :)
|
|
|
|
|
10:21 am
July 20, 2011
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
| | |
| Moderator
| posts 1876 |
|
|
|
I ran a Kindle giveaway for my 1st blog anniversary in early May. Got over 1000 entries and gained ~50-75 subscribers.
|
|
|
|
|
11:12 am
July 20, 2011
|
My Personal Finance Journey
| | |
| Member
| posts 3159 |
|
|
|
I've done about 3-4 giveaways now, and can testify that they definitely get results! Would highly recommend them!
|
|
|
|
|
1:30 pm
July 20, 2011
|
FamilyMoneyValues
| | |
| Member | posts 812 |
|
|
|
But how do you select the winners (if you are using blogger – or maybe it doesn't matter??)
|
|
|
|
|
1:43 pm
July 20, 2011
|
My Personal Finance Journey
| | |
| Member
| posts 3159 |
|
|
|
http://www.mypersonalfinancejo…..m-all.html
the link above is an example of my most recent giveaway. The entrants accumulate points by doing certain actions. Once the giveaway is over, I simply tally up the points and award the winners!
|
|
|
|
|
3:55 pm
July 20, 2011
|
Kevin @ Avant
| | Chicago, IL | |
| Member | posts 192 |
|
|
|
Suba @ Wealth Informatics said:
I ran a Kindle giveaway for my 1st blog anniversary in early May. Got over 1000 entries and gained ~50-75 subscribers.
Do you guys usually make them subscribe before they are entered in the contest? If you had a 1000 entries, wouldn't it make sense to subscribe to be entered?
|
|
|
|
|
6:14 am
July 21, 2011
|
MoneyBeagle
| | |
| Member
| posts 1466 |
|
|
|
DebtEye said:
Do you guys usually make them subscribe before they are entered in the contest? If you had a 1000 entries, wouldn't it make sense to subscribe to be entered?
This is what I struggle with as well. It seems to me that in order to have a subscription count as a giveaway entry, they have to subscribe by e-mail. An RSS (e.g. Google Reader) subscription is not trackable. From personal experience, I read so many blogs that I never subscribe via e-mail instead preferring to have the aggregation of Google Reader. Is there a gap that I'm missing somewhere?
I really appreciate this discussion. I've been setting aside a portion of some ad revenue I've gotten over the past few weeks in order to do a giveaway or two. It seems to really work if done right and I think reading this is helping me design it in a way that will be most effective in 1) getting subscribers and 2) keeping them, not just as a 'number' but also as engaged readers.
|
|
|
|
|
6:30 am
July 21, 2011
|
Jason@LiveRealNow
| | |
| Member | posts 727 |
|
|
|
moneybeagle said:
This is what I struggle with as well. It seems to me that in order to have a subscription count as a giveaway entry, they have to subscribe by e-mail. An RSS (e.g. Google Reader) subscription is not trackable. From personal experience, I read so many blogs that I never subscribe via e-mail instead preferring to have the aggregation of Google Reader. Is there a gap that I'm missing somewhere?
When I did a giveaway, I put a code in the rss feed footer, and told people to leave a comment with the code. I modified a script to keep the script from displaying. Instead it said something like "Entry code hidden".
It's not perfect, and it's pretty easy to game, but most people are basically honest. You won't get more gamers doing this than you'll get people who unsubscribe from your email list as soon as the contest is over.
|
|
|
|
|
6:33 am
July 21, 2011
|
Jackie
| | |
| Member | posts 664 |
|
|
|
moneybeagle said:
DebtEye said:
Do you guys usually make them subscribe before they are entered in the contest? If you had a 1000 entries, wouldn't it make sense to subscribe to be entered?
This is what I struggle with as well. It seems to me that in order to have a subscription count as a giveaway entry, they have to subscribe by e-mail. An RSS (e.g. Google Reader) subscription is not trackable. From personal experience, I read so many blogs that I never subscribe via e-mail instead preferring to have the aggregation of Google Reader. Is there a gap that I'm missing somewhere?
I think that there is a plugin you can use to verify RSS subscribers. Does anyone know the name of it?
|
|
|
|
|
6:33 am
July 21, 2011
|
Jackie
| | |
| Member | posts 664 |
|
|
|
I'm running a giveaway right now, but I prefer to do short ones with the goal of finding out more about what interests my readers as opposed to gaining subscribers.
|
|
|
|
|
8:43 am
July 21, 2011
|
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter
| | |
| Member
| posts 2213 |
|
|
|
I have tried to run a couple giveaways in the past and I have never found them too successful. Part of me wants to try again and see what will happen since I am now more established. I would be interested to learn some tips.
|
|
|
|
|
10:50 am
July 21, 2011
|
Super Frugalette
| | |
| Member | posts 484 |
|
|
|
LifeAndMyFinances said:
I had a giveaway in May for a $100 gift card. I gained 30 subscribers on the first day! My promotion lasted for 1 month, and I think I gained 75 subscribers. It was definitely worth it. I think my next giveaway will be an iPad or something. I bet that would interest a few people! :)
You will get tons of traffic for an Ipad.
|
|
|
|
|
9:55 am
July 24, 2011
|
Kay Lynn Akers
| | San Diego | |
| Member | posts 904 |
|
|
|
Post edited 9:56 am – July 24, 2011 by Kay Lynn Akers
I've been successful in gaining new subscribers with giveaways on both Bucksome Boomer and Two Savvy Sisters. We're trying rafflecopter out this week at both sites and it's been well-received. It will auto-select the winners. Before that I used a free plug-in called "And the Winner Is…" and it auto-selected the winner as well.
Books are the least popular giveaway while electronics and gift cards for Amazon, Starbucks or cash are very popular. Most subscribers stick around too!
You do have to promote them though for people to find the giveaway. I use linkys, online sweepstakes, giveaways are sexy and tightwad in utah to publicize them.
|
|
|
|
|
1:27 pm
July 24, 2011
|
My University Money
| | |
| Member | posts 129 |
|
|
|
We were considering having a short blog/essay contest where we judge anyone who wants to put forth an original article about their best personal finance tip for post-secondary students (500-1000 words). The prize would be our first $100 from adsense. The top three articles would then be guest posts and would have at least a couple links to a person's website if they had one. Does this like it would be successful? Has anyone ran a contest like this before?
|
|
|
|
|
1:43 pm
July 24, 2011
|
Brave New Life
| | |
| Member | posts 41 |
|
|
|
I don't know about the results with a PF blog, but I can tell you that I have a running blog and did 2 giveaways. It was insanely successful. For a pair of $12 socks, I got over 100 FB followers, twitter followers and backlinks. With a close-knit community like that, once you get a few people commenting on FB, it goes semi-viral very quickly because all their FB friends are also runners.
If I had more time, I know I could make so much money with that site using that strategy…
|
|
|
|
Login
Search 
Home
Print this Topic 
Topic RSS 
