Do you keep entering blogger giveaways to no avail? Well, you might not be doing all you can to make sure you win. Take a look at these seven tips for maximizing your chances of winning blogger giveaways.
There is nearly an unlimited number of blogger giveaways taking place at any given time. These giveaways help drive traffic to the blog in question, which is why these creators love them so much.
Of course, winning one of these giveaways can seem like a long shot - especially if you’re competing against thousands of other readers. That’s why we’ve created a list of our top seven tips for winning blogger giveaways.
There’s no surefire way to cheat the system and ensure you’re the winner, but there are some strategies that will bolster your chances. Use these seven tips to help secure your first giveaway win and receive some worthwhile prizes.
Why So Many Giveaways?
Before we get into the tips on how to win giveaways, we’re going to briefly touch on why there are so many giveaways from bloggers and other online content creators.
There is a sense of “giving back to the community” with many of these giveaways, but this isn’t the only reason bloggers do them. Sure, they like to reward their followers for allowing them to do what they love, but this is only a side effect of the true reason there are so many giveaways out there.
Most of the bigger bloggers don’t pay for their own giveaways. They will partner with a sponsor who will either offer a product for them to give to their fans or outright pay for the cost of the giveaway. When you’re entering larger giveaways, there’s a small chance that the blogger is taking money out of their own pocket to pay for the items they’re offering as rewards.
Also, you should know that giveaways drive traffic. A lot of people will only follow blogs for their giveaways. After the giveaway ends, they’ll never visit the blog again.
While this percentage of entries makes up a large portion of the giveaway pool, there are also a few people who will stick around for the content once the giveaway ends. It’s these people whom the blogger is targeting.
Giveaways give bloggers and other content creators a chance to gather new eyeballs. They want people to come for the giveaway and stay for the content.
With this in mind, it makes sense to enter these giveaways, knowing that the blogger is getting just as much out of it as you might be.
Follow the Directions!
This first tip might seem like common knowledge, but it’s important to note since many people will miss entries because they fail to follow the directions.
A lot of blog giveaways require specific entry requirements that you need to meet. Some are as simple as a retweet or newsletter signup, while some will force you to visit a third-party site and create an account.
Although it might seem like a bit more work, the latter option can be the most beneficial if you’re serious about winning these giveaways. The more steps you need to take, the fewer people will actually sign up to enter the giveaway.
Don’t Waste Your Time
We covered why bloggers love giveaways in the above section, but that doesn’t mean all of them will be worth your time. Pay attention to offers that seem too good to be true.
A blogger or video creator that seems to be offering items that seem too far out of their league for their viewer count can often be a scam. They will tell you to subscribe to the newsletter, sign up for notifications, and follow them on social media for a chance to win a great prize.
In the end, though, these bloggers will pick one of their friends or collaborators as the winner - never truly delivering on their promise.
It can be difficult to tell whether or not a blogger is truly offering a giveaway, but we recommend using common sense. If a blogger is running a small blog with only a couple hundred pageviews, they probably won’t be offering legitimate giveaways worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. They’re just looking for a superficial boost in traffic. Don’t waste time with these false giveaways.
Check Sweepstakes Aggregation Sites
Several sweepstake aggregation sites can alert you to multiple giveaways going on at one time. These are often easy to use, and you can see which prizes interest you the most. You can probably even find a couple of blogs you’ve never heard of before by using one of these third-party sites.
One of the benefits of using these sites is the ability to find giveaways without too many competing entries. You might be able to find a giveaway offering high-value prizes and only a couple hundred people to compete against. Signing up for these sites can be a bit more work than some of the other methods, but it’s worth it if you want to maximize your chances of winning.
Maximize Your Entry Potential
Most giveaways - whether they’re from a blogger, YouTube creator, Twitch streamer, etc. - won’t only have one way to enter. You might get one entry for sharing a blog, another for a retweet, and another for a like on Instagram.
Those who want to get the most out of their entries should enter the giveaway in as many ways as possible. Look at the details on the blog giveaway and see how many times you can enter. If there’s no limit, enter through as many channels as you can.
A lot of these giveaways have valuable prizes, and a lot of people will enter for their chance of winning. Most people won’t, however, take the time to make sure they’ve entered five to ten times rather than just once.
Sign Up For Newsletters
Newsletters are the bread and butter of blog traffic. Keeping your readers and viewers engaged through a newsletter is extremely helpful for generating traffic on your blog, and most bloggers will want to incentivize you to sign up for their newsletter.
One of the ways they do this is by creating giveaways for newsletter subscribers. Even the larger blogs that offer open signups will often give you more entries if you elect to subscribe to their newsletter.
As you can tell, this is a symbiotic relationship. The blogger will get more signups, more traffic, and more advertisements, and you’ll be able to enter their giveaway for a chance to win cool and valuable prizes.
Blogs that don’t offer additional signups for newsletter subscribers will still alert you when they have a giveaway going on. Signing up for an email newsletter from a few of your favorite blogs will not only give you a chance to win their giveaways, but it will also help support the creator and make sure they can keep creating content that you enjoy.
Check Twitter and Instagram
Twitter and Instagram are two of the best ways to find giveaways online - blogger giveaways or otherwise. You can find a mass amount of giveaways through this method, and enter multiple to maximize your chances of winning.
Almost all bloggers will promote their giveaways on Twitter and Instagram, allowing you to enter through both portals. You might have to follow an account and retweet or repost something, but it’s worth it to give you the best shot at winning a giveaway,
Do a quick search for #giveaways and see what pops up. The only problem with this method is the sheer volume you’ll encounter. Small and big blogs alike will be promoting their giveaways, and more than a few will be rewarding prizes that you’re not interested in at all.
Still, using Twitter and Instagram - even Facebook in some instances - will give you a great chance of winning at least a couple of prizes from blogger giveaways.
Pay Attention!
This is another tip that might seem a bit simple, but it’s one we can’t stress enough: pay attention to the giveaway after you enter. Simply entering the giveaway isn’t enough. You need to stay engaged and pay attention to the drawing and announcement.
A lot of people get hyper-focused on entering giveaways - especially if you’re involved in more than one. In many ways, entering the giveaway is the easy part. It can sometimes be more difficult to pay attention to the blog to see when the winner is picked.
More often than you might expect, the winner of the giveaway never claims their prize. The blogger will usually put a time limit on contacting them, and pick another winner if their initial victor never gets in touch. Don’t be this person. Pay attention to the blog once you enter their giveaway. The only way to truly win is if you claim your prize after the drawing.
Do you have any tips that have worked for you? Have you tried any of these tips and had them pay off with a big win? Let us know about it down in the comment section!
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