There are two types of giveaways on my blog and website – mine and other people’s!

Other people’s are usually tied in with a book promotion – I jump in on tours organised by Mother Daughter Book Reviews and I am A Reader, Not a Writer, among others, and those often involve my receiving a copy of the book to read and review or just promoting the books on one day (a Book Blast).  The prizes are more often cash-based, such as Amazon Gift Cards or PayPal cash. I do these because I like promoting a range of books, you might find something new you like, and reviewing them is good for me.  I don’t really have anything to do with the giveaway aspect except following me often gets to be an entry option.

Then there are other giveaways which are mine and mine alone – rare – or are part of a blog hop.  Those are usually themed, and have an element of ‘interesting blog post’ as well as the giveaway itself.  Sometimes these are for other books, but most often I put my own books or goodies out as prizes.

It’s been interesting recently, as I had three raffles finish in quick succession, plus a prize for people commenting on my Bravo Victor launch posts.

May I Suggest was a blog hop giveaway organised by Stuck In Books, and to participate I had to give away someone else’s book.  That seemed very popular.  Most of the other books I saw on offer were YA/NA romances and dystopias, so there were comments like “oooh, a cozy mystery” showing that the variety was appreciated.  But were most people in this blog hop looking for a different genre?  Does it matter, as long as they came, saw and entered? The hop lasted two weeks, got a decent entry and I think the right number of prizes were given away.

My Children’s Book Week giveaway was part of the Mother Daughter Book Reviews & Youth Literature Reviews Blog Hop in … Children’s Book Week!  I didn’t get round many of these, due to time constraints, but it only lasted one week, and I got more entries than the May I Suggest hop – but I was giving away prizes (the Trilogy in paperback plus Princelings swag) that were unique to me and appropriate to the age group.

My A to Z Challenge Giveaway was part of the massive A to Z blog hop challenge blogfest effort.  Considering it ran for a month, and most posts that month had a reminder for it, plus a link in the top of the page, I was very disappointed with the entry.  It was actually less than the May I Suggest entry, both in entry options clicked and individual people entering.  Some of those tweeted it on many occasions through the month.  I thought more prizes would be attractive, but I think I was mistaken on that.  People visiting during the A to Z Challenge are not looking to enter a giveaway, which people on a giveaway hop are.  On the other hand, the people who entered are interested in what I have to offer, rather than what you might call ‘giveaway-seekers’.

So what do I take from this?

  1. I like having giveaways on the blog so I’ll keep offering them
  2. If I want to attract new blog readers, do it as a blog hop, but make the prize appropriate both to the audience and my blog content
  3. If I want to reward my regular readers, keep it simple and offer the unique elements (goodies you can’t buy, like my signed prints).
  4. Don’t expect too much!

So what’s for the future?

There are a couple of blog hop sign-ups listed already for June, July and probably August, so I’ll do a couple of those from different people, to spread the potential audience a little.

I’d like to pick up an idea that Neighbor Girl, Cool Mom and I had last December – to have a Pet Convention Blog Hop.  I found some pet blogs on the A to Z Challenge who linked up to support each other, mainly dogs, it’s true, but Max and Katrina might want to get involved to promote the feline element, and my boys are generally up for some fun.  I’m planning to post about animal blogs on my AtoZ guest post in August, so to have the Pet Convention in September might work.

What do you think?  Have you tried giveaways on your blog?  Do you enjoy them?

 

 

Some thoughts on Giveaways

8 thoughts on “Some thoughts on Giveaways

  • 26 May, 2014 at 5:27 am
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    I haven’t done many giveaways of my own on my blog (I’ve been part of some of those blog tour giveaways). I was okay with the entries I got on the “May I Suggest” hop, but very disappointed in the number of entries when I was promoting Death By Ice Cream after launch. I think I’ll stick to giveaways that are part of a hop–I need the extra traffic that generates to bring in enough entrants.

    On a similar note, I tried to organize my own blog tour. Never again! There were two flaws: I’m not that organized, and I don’t know enough bloggers who aren’t all part of the same circle. I need that boost from the tour organizers.

    My blog is going to be on auto-pilot most of the summer, but I will be thinking about these things again in the fall!

    • 26 May, 2014 at 1:44 pm
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      Your experience of the giveaways is the same as mine, really. Hopping gets more entries. Giving our fans something is a different option. 🙂

      Have fun with your summer!

  • 26 May, 2014 at 9:30 am
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    I’ve done a few with mother daughter book reviews and they went well. Recently I’ve started a game called Judge a Book by its cover. The first two weeks had prizes, as it was early days I’ve had six people join each week (not all the same people). Maybe it’ll catch on, mayhaps not, time will tell, because it’s a snitch like that.

    • 26 May, 2014 at 1:47 pm
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      Pop a link on and we’ll come visiting, Jo 🙂

  • 26 May, 2014 at 12:40 pm
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    I haven;t thought seriously about this marketing tool, but your post definitely has me thinking about it!

    • 26 May, 2014 at 1:48 pm
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      Food for thoguht – and on a holiday, too!

  • 26 May, 2014 at 1:05 pm
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    Yes, we are in! Neighbor Girl is super excited. Sometimes she thinks about it for a minute and this was, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” We do very well with anything from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. We jump in the tours when we think we’ll have time to read it or the books are something of interest but due to time, we usually jump in the Book Blasts now. We were very successful with the Blog Tour we did but we modeled it off of Mother Daughter Book Reviews (she does them so well) and I am just a tad Type A (ha!). The connections from other bloggers are key. In each giveaway we usually make at least one new connection that is fantastic. I am a Reader Tours are great for boosting followers, too. We haven’t done that in a while.

    • 26 May, 2014 at 1:51 pm
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      I’m looking out for a tour I’d like to do in June, but haven’t spotted one yet. It does mean I might catch up on my To-Read list, though 🙂

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