PART 2 (2/4)
To see Part 1 of this discussion click here
What else can put you off giveaways?
Hard to find follower box
If you are asking someone to follow you to enter the giveaway you really need to make sure the GFC follow box is easy to find. Someone isn't going to spend long trying to find it, it can quickly become frustrating.
I definitely recommend making your follower box one of the top things on your sidebars. Not at the bottom or hidden between lots of stuff, it's one of the most important things! At least I would think it is if your asking them to follow you to enter.
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Questions
I have realised lately that people really do love simple giveaways and it will get you a lot more entries and attention if it is simple. I have entered a few giveaways where they asked silly questions which were required. If you want to have a laugh in your giveaway form then ask silly questions but don't make it a required for people who don't have your humour.
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Eva said - Requiring responses to questionnaire type interviews. even when their interesting many of the answers are pretty standard and don't elcit further questions.
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Rules
If there are too many of them or they are not clear enough it can really confuse people and put them off or lead to them entering in the wrong way and making your life hard.
When doing my rules I try to do a rule per a line to make it easier on the eye. Also try not to make the rules too long or people lose interest.
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Karina said - Too many rules (Can put her off)
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Mary said - If the rules are unclear.
I have realised lately that people really do love simple giveaways and it will get you a lot more entries and attention if it is simple. I have entered a few giveaways where they asked silly questions which were required. If you want to have a laugh in your giveaway form then ask silly questions but don't make it a required for people who don't have your humour.
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Eva said - Requiring responses to questionnaire type interviews. even when their interesting many of the answers are pretty standard and don't elcit further questions.
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Rules
If there are too many of them or they are not clear enough it can really confuse people and put them off or lead to them entering in the wrong way and making your life hard.When doing my rules I try to do a rule per a line to make it easier on the eye. Also try not to make the rules too long or people lose interest.
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Karina said - Too many rules (Can put her off)
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Mary said - If the rules are unclear.
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Not sending out email to winner
If I enter a giveaway on a blog which I don't follow but I know they won't email the winner I try to check back. Being honest though I don't usually enter giveaways like this, I find it really frustrating. I sometimes feel people just do it so you don' get your book (I am sure only 70% of people would see it and email!)
Birgit said - Having to return to a blog to see whether you've won or not. Usually I'm a follower anyway and will see it in the news feed, but I think it's good manners to send out a winners notification too.
Small Review said -If they don't email you to let you know you won. It's silly, but I'm always afraid I'll miss the post one day and then I'll be embarrassed that they announced my name and then I didn't claim the prize in time.
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Only open to ...
Ok, I understand postage is a lot and that often giveaways are by publishers who will only send to your country but if this is the case say it's only open to that country in the title of the post OR at least at the top of the post!
If my giveaway is UK only I will put it in the post title to make it clear for everyone.
Birgit said - Getting all excited and then finding in the smallest of small prints that a giveaway is only open for US ... is it asking for too much to write this kind of info in big bold letters?
Twitter...Facebook... Blog
Twitter...Facebook... BlogI myself only doing extra entries for tweeting just because I tend to find things through FB status don't get any new people, just my experience. So I admit I do this sometimes for my giveaways.
A few people who mentioned how they dislike it when you can only gain entries for tweeting or facebook or blog and find it frustrating as they don't have either of them so therefore can't gain the extra entry.
Vivien said - When the only way to spread the word is by twitter, fb or blog. I don't have any of those but can still spread the word to many through goodreads, etc...
Vivien said - When the only way to spread the word is by twitter, fb or blog. I don't have any of those but can still spread the word to many through goodreads, etc...
Thank you!
Thanks so much to these people for fill out the form :
Yiota - Splash Of Our Worlds
Birgit - The Book Garden
Karina - Nocturnal Book Reviews
Jules - The Great, The Good and The Bad
Theresa - Fade Into Fantasy
Kate - That Book Blog
Small Review - Small Review
Laura - All of Everything
Arielle - Chimneys and Magic
Donna - Book Passion for Life
Carol - Dizzy C's Little Book Blog
Lieder Madchen - Songs and Stories
Tiffany, Mary, Vivien, Eva, Nat, Dannielle
Come back next week for the next part!!
Lack of follower box is so annoying, but I just found out today that there is a follow button in the nav bar at the top :o
ReplyDeleteNot sending out an email can be really annoying too. Often I won't blog hop for a few days and I worry that I'll miss the announcement and like Small Review said, feel a little embarrassed :-/
I try not to make my giveaways so complicated. But with Rafflecopter I find the giveaways are way easy now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with so much of this. Not being able to the find the follower box is definitely annoying, and same with not sending out an email to the winner.
ReplyDeleteThe "have your GFC button" visible made me redo my design. Got it! Love these posts.
ReplyDeleteI agree about not sending an email to winners.
ReplyDeleteI know folks would like to know that readers come back, but when you follow lots of blogs the winners announcement can be missed.
I usually assume a comp is country specific unless it says it is International. UK giveaways are rarer as most blogs are USA based. I usually have UK giveaways on behalf of the publishers and make sure I state so.
Thanks for gathering all the info and reviewing it.
carol
LOVE these posts! I'm not sure if I made the rules of my current giveaway clear enough. I thought they were clear (to enter you have to promote the books some way--any way), but I've still had a few people enter who say they have done nothing to promote the books. But, um, I'm not sure how to make that clearer.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see I'm not the only one who feels that way about contest wins where they don't notify you through email!