a peek inside the fishbowl

This is a bit of a continuation of this previous post.

I’ve been asked about the ins and outs of hosting giveaways a couple times so I thought I’d address it here.

The “giveaway” I’m talking about here is the kind of giveaway in which the blogger is approached by a company to host a contest on the blogger’s blog, the winner of the contest wins the prize that is being supplied by the company.

A good giveaway is a win-win-win situation all around.

• For the Company:  In exchange for providing the prizing they receive a post written about the product they are trying to promote. (Hey! Isn’t that like an ad?)
• For the Blogger:  more traffic. More traffic = more potential readers. Giveaways have broad appeal and tend to get lots of hits.
• The Blog Reader: great odds of winning something good. ETA: And as someone who’s been blogging for awhile, I LOVE to be able to give you stuff. I really do. Let’s call it a prize for showing up and being so nice.

I’ve been keeping 80% of the pitches I receive in a special little folder (I’m planning on pulling some of them as examples eventually), so I can tell you with certainty that recent pitches for giveaways that have come my way have included ones for: butter/baking stuff, cereal, baby wash, cleaning products … that kind of thing.

There are a bunch of things that bloggers need to consider when co-ordinating a giveaway, even before tapping out that blog post.

The NUMBER ONE RULE IS THIS: Do not be afraid to say no.

I’m going to say that again, because it’s important.

Do not be afraid to say no.

Are you a green blogger who’s been pitched by Clorox?
A parenting blogger who’s being offered a bag of dog food?
An eco-blogger who’s being offered something made in a faraway sweatshop by a sketchy company?
A health blogger being approached by McDonald’s?
A happily single businesswoman who’s being offered a case of diapers?

Unless you have a LOT of readers who need diapers or dog food, say thanks but no thanks (politely!), otherwise your giveaways for oddball products are going to make you look greedy and hurt your readership. Besides, less is more.

If you take blogging seriously you must remember that (1) credibility is everything and (2) transparency is critical.

Your giveaway has to fit the general topic of your blog. Here’s a hint, if it’s interesting to you it’s probably going to be interesting to your readers. Do not drop your pants for anything and everything. Say no if you feel any mild discomfort or itch. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s not right. Be picky. Another offer will come along! I swear. You were chosen for a reason. And it might not be because you have the highest traffic or greatest number of comments on your pithy posts. PR professionals are looking for people who are PR-friendly and know how to engage their readers … ideally across multiple platforms.

(Speaking of which, don’t be afraid of asking how they found you and how they chose you. The answer might be interesting and you may use it to your advantage down the road.)

So let’s get down to the “how to” part of hosting a giveaway on a blog.   

Prizing
Doh. Obviously! What’s the prize? Get as much detail as possible, up front. You want to avoid confusion and potential disappointment.

Also, don’t forget to figure out WHO will be shipping the prize! You don’t want to be stuck with shipping costs. It’s best if the provider of the giveaway takes care of this part, so make that clear at the outset.

An important consideration re: prizing is the dollar value. Unless I am totally kookoo in love with a certain product, super low value goods are just not worth my time (or yours, for that matter). I’m talking about soup and cereal giveaways here. But more about that in a bit.

Many bloggers are starting to charge an admin fee for hosting giveaways. It makes sense if the item in question has a low dollar value. If you’re charging a fee you should state this clearly in your giveaway post, otherwise you are teetering into “sponsored post” territory and this makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

The fee makes sense. It takes time to administer a giveaway; the writing of the post, monitoring the entries, doing the draw… etc. You owe it to yourself to consider how much time you’re going to spend on this. Charge accordingly regardless of whether you’re receiving product as well. Is your hour worth $10, $25, or $50? If you’re worried, start low, and bump up your admin fee with every new giveaway.

If you are not sure how to approach the idea of charging an admin fee in an email response, try this for starters (feel free to copy and paste):

Hi [insert name here] –
Thanks for the offer of the XX! [insert personal and witty line here.]

I just wanted to let you know that I have been getting so many requests for giveaways of this nature that I’ve had to start charging an admin fee of $XX. [ed: I need to charge HST on top of this too, which I would mention, but you probably don’t.] A well-written and well-hosted giveaway takes time to write and to administer. I would also be broadcasting it to my other networks, which takes up time too, as I’m sure you can understand! Either way, let me know. Thank you for thinking of me!

Best regards, 

[your name]
[Blog URL]

You’ll probably get a polite message back from the PR department to let you know that there’s no room in the budget for admin fees. If that’s the case, say thank you and goodbye, and leave it at that. Be happy that you’ve made your point. The point is: YOU ARE WORTH SOMETHING.

Before I go much further, let me ask you this: do you have a large advertising billboard displayed on your garage? How about your front door? Or maybe you have a loudspeaker attached to your roof that’s blaring commercials for Clorox, DogFood, DiaperCompany to your friends and neighbours? No? Does this seem like an odd idea? So why is it ok for Clorox, DogFood/DiaperCo to ask you to promote their products on your (virtual) front door a.k.a. your blog merely in return for product?

PR companies are about placement. Their goal is to have their client’s products placed in newspaper and articles, TV reports, and now blogs. Your giveaway is most likely coming from a PR company that has been hired (in other words BEING PAID) to get people talking about their client’s product. At the end of a campaign a PR company needs to tally up all the media articles and blogs that referenced this product. If they got a lot of mentions it makes the PR firm look good. And then they get to keep their client because the job was deemed to be well done. That’s what they want, and they want you to help them keep their clients. For free.

I’m getting off track! WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

Timing
I like to give blog readers a full week to enter. I realize that not everyone reads every day, but I assume at the majority read at least once a week. Peak times for my blog are Mondays and Fridays, so that’s when I’m most likely to post a giveaway. I want to make sure the greatest possible number of people see it.

Who can enter?
This is something you need to ask whoever is providing the prize. Is this giveaway for Canadians only? US too? Lately I’ve been doing a lot of Ottawa-area giveaways, so do make this clear in the “rules” part of your post. Which brings me to…

Make it fair – lay down the law a.k.a. develop some contest rules
My rules have evolved over time. Think about how the giveaway is going to unfold and start from there. Be as clear as you can. Take a look at some of my recent giveaways here. Feel free to copy and paste rules that fit your own giveaway.

Why are rules important? As someone who is married to someone who used to write contest rules as part of his job, I know they are critical. In fact, Mark used to run the rules past a team of lawyers. I don’t have money for lawyers, and I also don’t want to get sued by someone. It’s unlikely to happen, but the possibility remains that some weirdo might get upset because their entry got lost in cyberspace and is feeling particularly litigious and decides that you should pay the piper. It is scary to think about.

To tweet or not to tweet?
I understand when giveaway hosts (a.k.a the blogger) asks giveaway entrants to tweet and retweet and post to their facebook and tell all of their friends for extra entries. I get it; it’s a great way of getting your link out to a broader number of people and (hopefully) gain new readers. But it’s also spammy, and in my personal opinion… to ask your readers to do this in order to qualify for entry may promote your blog but may also be a big turn off. I feel dirty asking my readers – people I value so much – to spam all of their friends for my benefit. (If they want to, great, if not, that’s ok too.) 

Also, as a reader, when I’m confronted with a giveaway that asks me to jump through a hundred different little hoops I don’t bother entering at all. Tread carefully.

How do you do a random draw?
The idea of a random draw is to make it absolutely fair for everyone involved. I’ve given this a lot of thought. Here’s how I do it:

1. 1. Copy and paste the list of all entrants from the comments into a blank Word document.
2. 2. Carefully delete the content of the comment – keeping only the name. At this stage you will want to make sure that the comments qualify as per your rules. Did you ask them to tell you the name of their pet? Share a childhood memory? If you commented, you must remove your name from the list otherwise it changes the odds. If the comment didn’t meet the criteria or entered past your deadline delete that name from the list.
3. 3. Copy and paste your polished list into the LIST randomizer at Random.org.
4. 4. Hit the “randomize” button ONCE.
5. 5. The name at the top of the list is your winner. Notify the winner via email and post their name within the comments of the giveaway post.
6. 6. Take – and keep – a screen shot of the randomized list in case someone gets huffy and wants to accuse you of cheating.

Last thoughts:

• Unless your blog is specifically set up as a Blog Just for Giveaways, don’t make your blog all about the giveaways. I think readers like the idea of getting free stuff, but YOU and YOUR writing and YOUR STORIES are the main reason they keep coming back, and this is true whether you have 50 people coming to your blog every day or 5000.
• Unless you have a special arrangement (for example, as part of their contract, Fishbowl patrons have the opportunity to host one giveaway per quarter) the dollar value of the giveaway must be, well, decent. Don’t cheap out. You, your time, your audience, and your space is worth more than a can of soup. So hold out for the good stuff. (See above for what I wrote about dropping your pants.)
• If PR companies don’t know your terms they can’t be blamed for sending you boxes of stuff you don’t want – whether it’s for a giveaway or not. Consider developing a pitch policy (here’s my example) and posting it somewhere on your blog.

Wow. This was much longer than I had intended. But does it makes sense? Let me know if you have anything to add or if you have any questions! I am happy to answer.