RDD: Hosting Giveaways [and a giveaway!]

Hey Y'all! My name is Amanda and I blog over at Royal Daughter Designs. Every Tuesday I share quick and easy tutorials for customizing and beautifying your blog in my Tutes on Tuesday series.

Today Chelsea and I are swapping blogs to bring you a how-to guide on everything you need to know about giveaways!

Did you know that Chelsea is basically the reigning queen of giveaways? To find out how she makes the best of her entries, and how she keeps track of which giveaways she's entered, check out her post on my blog today.

Today I'm going to share with you five tips for hosting a successful giveaway. Are you ready? Great, then let's get started.

1. Define your purpose.
It is vitally important to evaluate your motives behind hosting a giveaway. Ask yourself, "what is my goal?" Is it increase your GFC numbers? Then you'll want one of the entries to be to follow your blog. Is your purpose to highlight your sponsors? Then you'll want to include multiple backlinks to their blogs, shops, and social networking locations.


Without a purpose, your giveaway will likely come across as thrown together at the last minute. Defining a purpose will set the tone for your giveaway.


2. Giveaway something people will want
The odds are that you can't afford to giveaway a DSLR or a Kindle Fire, or an iPad. We can hope, right? But   that doesn't mean that you have to cheat yourself out of giving away something that everyone wants. If you don't own a your own shop or business, get creative:

• Everyone loves a gift card. It can be a $5 Starbucks card, or a $50 Target card. It doesn't matter, people love free money.
• Want to support handmade shops? Give away a shopping spree to an Etsy or Big Cartel shop of the winner's choice. 
• Free advertising is free advertising. Even if your blog is small and just starting out, give away ad space on your blog. 
• "Pamper" your readers with a girly basket full of pampering goodness. Bath salts or bubble bath, fingernail polish, a face mask, and a sweet-smelling candle can do wonders for the average frazzled stay-at-home mom.

If you are a shop or business owner, consider giving away shop credit, rather than a product. Most people love having a choice, and you never know, they may end up spending more than their shop credit, which is money right back into your pocket.



3. Use Rafflecopter
I know you've used it by now. That handy little tool that allows you to enter giveaways with the simple click of a mouse.

Why use Rafflecopter?

• It's free. There's no charge to use Rafflecopter, and they don't send you a bunch of junk e-mails.
• It is super-d-duper easy to use, both as the giveaway host, and as the giveaway contestant. 
• Your e-mail inbox won't get crazy-full with giveaway entries.
• It picks a winner for you. No counting your entrants, or drawing from a hat. Rafflecopter does all the work for you!
• Rafflecopter clearly explains modes of entry.

4. Advertise your giveaway
And I don't just mean on twitter and facebook. Did you know there are about a bazillion blogs out there that host weekly (or even more frequent) linky parties specifically for giveaways? Here's a few that I really like:

• Mama to 4 Blessings (weekly - usually on Friday or Saturday)
• Musings from a Stay at Home Mom (weekly - Saturday)
• Go Graham Go (weekly - Thursday or Friday)

Another way to advertise your giveaway is to list them on giveaway blogs. Those are blogs who's sole purpose is to share giveaways. (If you go check them out, I'm giving you fair warning: you may waste a few hours entering giveaways!) There a many options, but here's a few that you might find helpful:

• Blog Giveaways - new giveaways listed daily.
• Etsy Giveaways - listing your giveaway here is great, because it is listed individually, not as a group. 
• Tip Junkie - you must be a  member to list your giveaway.

There's the tried and true method of advertising your giveaway on twitter and facebook, so don't forget to do that! A lot.

5. Specify your terms and conditions

• How to enter. If you're not using Rafflecopter, you must clearly describe how to enter your giveaway.
• Eligibility. Is your giveaway limited to the US? Or is it open worldwide? Your readers need to know these things. 
• Winner selection. If you're not using Rafflecopter, are you using random.org, or are you drawing names out of hat? Let your readers know how a winner will be chosen.
• Approximate value of prize. Let your readers know the value of the giveaway prize. 

There you have it!


So are you guys ready for a giveaway from Chelsea and me? We;re both giving away a large ad space on both of our blogs for the month of February, and I'm throwing in a $10 Starbucks gift card as well!


And...not only are we hosting a giveaway right here, but if you head on over to Royal Daughter Designs, you'll find a very similar giveaway, only Chelsea is contributing a $10 Target gift card. That's right, folks, there's going to be two winners! One winner here at Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles, and one winner at Royal Daughter Designs!

a Rafflecopter giveaway