Thoughts from an Acute Triangle is a feature I started where I discuss things related to books, authors, reading, or just me. This is a place for me to be a little brainy or a little silly. The conversation is always open for comments and if there is ever a topic you want me to discuss, please leave a comment!
One of the things I love love love about the book blogging community is how very generous everyone is! I mean, there's a giveaway every time you turn around! And I, just as much as the next book lover, really appreciate it! The thing I don't appreciate is jumping through hoops to enter.
Now don't get me wrong, I understand that you want to get something back for being so generous, but sometimes too much is too much. I know that if I am confronted by a list of 8+ things to do to win one book, I don't bother. First, because it is too much to keep track, and second, because I just feel like simplicity is best.
To get the most out of your giveaways, you should concentrate on the aspects of your blog you might want more attention on. For instance, instead of having GFC follower, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Goodreads, comments, blog posts, sidebars, tweets, and email, focus on 2-3 that need more focus. GFC, Twitter and Facebook or tweet, GFC, and blog post, etc. These are more than enough, and focuses all the awesome influx of people one gets during a giveaway.
After the required & suggested entries, the next part that irks me is how I have to enter. Comment entering is annoying to me, usually because people aren't specific about what to leave, especially when there are extra entries. If it is clear then I try to not complain, especially when I'm the one benefiting. But, as I've done commenting in the past before I was Google Docs and Rafflecopter savvy, I know first hand how hard it is to count all the votes. And I know I probably missed something. So in that respect, I never know how accurate comment entering is, especially when there are a ton of extra entries.
My two favorite ways to enter are the ones I mentioned above, Google Docs and Rafflecopter. Both are organized and clear. For Google Docs, I can have the form open in one window, and the giveaway/extra entries open in another so it is easy for me to fill out. With Rafflecopter, there are awesome buttons they add for things like tweets, following on Facebook or Twitter, and you can make your own. If I had to choose, I would go with Rafflecopter as my favorite because it is just so so easy to both enter as the follower and edited/moderate as the creator.
I just think that with the overly complicated giveaways, blogs loose more followers than they gain. I think it's important to concentrate on content, and the areas you really want to highlight, rather than bumping up followers with so many required or extra entries.
Those are my thoughts on the subject. Leave me a comment telling me what your opinion is!
Now don't get me wrong, I understand that you want to get something back for being so generous, but sometimes too much is too much. I know that if I am confronted by a list of 8+ things to do to win one book, I don't bother. First, because it is too much to keep track, and second, because I just feel like simplicity is best.
To get the most out of your giveaways, you should concentrate on the aspects of your blog you might want more attention on. For instance, instead of having GFC follower, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Goodreads, comments, blog posts, sidebars, tweets, and email, focus on 2-3 that need more focus. GFC, Twitter and Facebook or tweet, GFC, and blog post, etc. These are more than enough, and focuses all the awesome influx of people one gets during a giveaway.
After the required & suggested entries, the next part that irks me is how I have to enter. Comment entering is annoying to me, usually because people aren't specific about what to leave, especially when there are extra entries. If it is clear then I try to not complain, especially when I'm the one benefiting. But, as I've done commenting in the past before I was Google Docs and Rafflecopter savvy, I know first hand how hard it is to count all the votes. And I know I probably missed something. So in that respect, I never know how accurate comment entering is, especially when there are a ton of extra entries.
My two favorite ways to enter are the ones I mentioned above, Google Docs and Rafflecopter. Both are organized and clear. For Google Docs, I can have the form open in one window, and the giveaway/extra entries open in another so it is easy for me to fill out. With Rafflecopter, there are awesome buttons they add for things like tweets, following on Facebook or Twitter, and you can make your own. If I had to choose, I would go with Rafflecopter as my favorite because it is just so so easy to both enter as the follower and edited/moderate as the creator.
I just think that with the overly complicated giveaways, blogs loose more followers than they gain. I think it's important to concentrate on content, and the areas you really want to highlight, rather than bumping up followers with so many required or extra entries.
Those are my thoughts on the subject. Leave me a comment telling me what your opinion is!
I agree here, i feel like some extra entries are meaningless towards one's blog. If i hold a giveaway it would be a way to "advertise" my blog so more people know it, other extra entries would be like commenting on a review. I never figured out the point of a blog comment since all people say is thanks. I'm holding a giveaway soon (almost 100 followers!) and i plan to make it simple and advantageous to my blog as possible
ReplyDelete- juhina
I'm pretty new to blogging and am trying to organise my first giveaway (50 followers yay!) I don't have a first clue about what to do, so your article was pretty helpful with what NOT to do. I'm going to check out Rafflecopter and Google Docs now!
ReplyDeleteI do comments to enter only because I don't want to deal with goodle docs and all that. I make it simple, just leave your GFC name and email to enter. That's it and since the comments are all numbered it's easy to put into a randomizer.
ReplyDeleteBut I agree with the hoops, I've seen some giveaways where they want you to do 10 entries and they are ALL mandatory. That's insane, if there are too many optional ones I normally don't even bother entering.
I've noticed if it's a highly anticipated book people over do the extra entries, I saw one for an ARC of probably the most anticipated book of the season and they had 10 options to enter and 3 were daily ones.
I agree, giveaways should be simple, with only 1-5 or so ways to enter. I don't think you should have to follow all their friends blogs and tweet every day and comment on every blog post. It makes it much more difficult to enter and just stressful.
ReplyDeleteI use Rafflecopter for my giveaways and it is a lifesaver, it makes giveaways so much easier!
But having to follow ten thousand blogs and tweet every day just for one book is stressful...