The last few giveaways that I have featured on my blog have not gone as well as I would have liked. It seems that people are having difficulty completing the entry requirements. And some people are saying they’ve performed certain tasks when they haven’t. It disappoints me that people cheat. Below you will find simple instructions for entering giveaways on this blog. Keep in mind that every blogger is different, while these instructions work here, they may not work everywhere.
- Look on the sidebar for “Current Giveaways”. That is the list of the current giveaways. Don’t want to do it that way? Scroll down a bit to the drop-down menu “categories” and choose “Giveaways” from the list.
- Once you’ve decided on the giveaway you’d like to enter, click on the link provided for the giveaway.
- Please read the post about the item your bidding on. Often giveaways that I host are for a specific item or event date and there may not be an option to choose your favorite color/size/or event date.
- I use Rafflecopter for all of my giveaways. It is super easy and quick for you to enter. Thanks to recent improvements made by Rafflecopter, it is even easier for you to enter. Start at the top of the entry form, where you’ll see the prizes being given away for that particular giveaway, and how may days you have left to enter.
- Typically, the mandatory entry is very simple – something like “Click the I Did It Button to enter”. The mandatory entry is REQUIRED in order to complete the remaining entries. Next to each of the additional entry methods, you’ll see “Do It” – and “Click for Instructions” or “Click Here” These options will tell you exactly what you should do and how to complete that entry. They’re usually something simple like “Like” my blog on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
- Once you complete an entry, click on the “I Did This!” button and enter the required information (your facebook name, twitter handle, etc.) For most giveaways, there are additional options giving you even more chances to WIN!! For example, by liking and/or following the sponsor, tweeting about the giveaway, and more!
- The terms and conditions for each giveaway are found at the bottom of the Rafflecopter form in the Terms and Conditions section.
That’s it! Giveaways are typically open for two weeks, and you can typically tweet about the giveaway each day for an additional entry. Be sure to check the rafflecopter form for the giveaway you’re interested in.
With ALL giveaways on my blog, entries are verified. Entries found to be fraudulent are deleted as well as ALL other entries submitted by that entrant. So, if you say you’ve done something, do it. Cheaters don’t win here.
Winners have 48 hours to respond to my email, you’ll want to provide me with an email address that you actually check. It’s not my fault if my email message should get caught in your spam folder, be sure to check there too.
Once the winner has been verified and responded, the name of the winner will be added to the bottom of the post. Rafflecopter forms are removed – as well as “linkies” – to help the site load more quickly.
I hope you’ll find this helpful and I look forward to having you enter the exciting giveaways that are currently open and those that are coming soon!
ok–that was clear to me 🙂
I hope those cheaters don’t mess with u!!
Thanks!
I don’t think some of the “cheating” is intentional. I recently found out that a lot of the buttons for twitter on the Rafflecopter would be greyed out but if I checked my account, I wasn’t actually following the person. So even though the Rafflecopter looked like I was following them, I wasn’t. To you that might look like I cheated, but I didn’t do it on purpose, the buttons are just not functioning properly. This may be a Twitter problem and not a Rafflecopter issue though.
Also, I recently got signed out of my Rafflecopter for some reason and couldn’t remember which account I had used to sign in with before. I sign in with Facebook now to make it easier to remember which account but any of the giveaways I’ve gone to the in past now look like I haven’t entered before, and with the amount of giveaways I enter everyday, I can’t remember every one so I might accidentally enter again without realizing it. I understand if I’m disqualified for this because it was my own fault, but you might want to look into that twitter thing or at least warn your readers to double check the twitter buttons.
I find that if you click on a grey twitter button it will open up a preview of that person’s twitter account and you can see from there if you are actually following them or not. It takes longer but is an easy way to verify before you enter that as an entry.
I hope this helped explain some of the rampant “cheating.” I’m sure some people are cheating for real, but if it’s happening a lot you might want to see if the Rafflecopter form is working properly too.
Thanks for the feedback.
I agree that Rafflecopter still has some quirks/bugs to work out, but the cheating I’m referring to is more obvious. Such as saying you’ve left a comment on a blog post, but when I view the post there is NO comment.
And, duplicate entries aren’t viewed as cheating. It’s easy for me [and other giveaway hosts] to see if you’ve completed the entire set of entries twice. If you’ve cleared your cache – or log on from a different computer – the Rafflecopter form will appear as if you haven’t entered before.
Thanks so much for sharing your comment. And rest assured that what you’ve mentioned, isn’t cheating in my eyes. I’m talking about the real cheaters!
I just reported the same thing to Rafflecopter on Facebook. I couldn’t believe the number of Twitter accounts I thought I followed, but hadn’t. Now I have to get in the habit of double-checking by opening each account window 🙁
Argh. This is why I went from posting a few new giveaways a week to doing one (or less) a month. I had SUCH problems with the participants. It’s a shame when it takes you literally 20 minutes to choose a winner because so many people aren’t doing what they say they’re doing. The worst are the people who skip the Rafflecopter form entirely and leave a comment like, “Enter me!” or “I could use this!”
yes i really like the new rafflecopter. im not very good on a puter and dont no how to copy and paste links or url’s. the only one i think i do right is twitter. ive tried to post facebook links and urls. today though,i was looking at other peoples urls and links from fb and mine didnt look like thiers. im not gonna try any more fb links or urls,until i figure out how to do it. i hate to loose entries ,but dont wanna be disqualified. if i did something wrong it was not intentional.
Thanks for the comment, Darlene. When copying info from Facebook, click the time of your post and copy the URL that is shown in your browser. That SHOULD be a direct link to your post. If you want to check it prior to submitting, you could always paste it into a new browser window.
Also, it is a violation of Facebook rules for the giveaway host to ask you to post anything on Facebook, so you’ll NEVER see me ask you to do that.
~Emily
As a fan and sometimes giveaway participant I go to the page but don’t even bother entering when I see 100+ tasks and the prize is $5.00 amazon card or something similar.
But when I do enter and do all the tasks it worries me when there is not space for User name. Mine are slightly different. I would like to see an extra info space on all tasks incase we need to leave extra info.
example
GFC and G+ is Cheryl saves
Facebook is Cheryl Barnett Saves
twitter is Cherylsave
Thanks for the great feedback, Cheryl! When I enter through Rafflecopter I do not sign in with my Facebook account, I just use my name & email. I can see how having the “extra info” space available would be helpful!