There are several ways to promote your blog. Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon. The list goes on. Blog giveaways are designed to do two main things:
1. Promote the companies product or service: Usually giveaways are coupled with reviews, or at least a blurb about the product (advertisement). As readers come to the post to enter the giveaway, they read about the product, visit the company’s website and hopefully even if they do not win, that product is on their radar for later.
2. Bring traffic to the blogger’s site: Everyone likes free stuff right? And usually the only requirement for entering the contest is leaving a comment. There is no commitment, shipping is free, and it’s probably a good useful product, again FOR FREE. So, why wouldn’t you enter?
This is what prompted me to write this post. I have done a few giveaways now, with mixed results. If you look at the latest one, Giveaway: Nintendo DSi + 2 Games! ($210 value!), you will see great turnout in the number of comments (entries). Currently that is 669 comments. That is the most comments I have ever gotten on anything. Why? Well, I had some help. I was lucky and got my giveaway shared by someone with massive followers. Not only did this greatly increase my comments, but it brought up my usual traffic in a large way.Β But, should this traffic be counted as genuine? Well maybe. And here’s why. This is also why a good giveaway may work. I gained over 200 Facebook LIKES from yesterday’s activity. This now means that my blog is on those readers radars, and from now on when I post a new post, or say anything on FB, it will show up in their stream. Hopefully they will see something else of interest and return to the site. But a great number of those people may never lay an eye on my site again, because after all… they only visited to try to win the DSi.
In the past, I have relied on self-promotion via Twitter (currently over 4600 followers), Facebook (over 700 friends), and a few Ning sites like Mom Bloggers Club, etc. And I have never gotten massive traffic from them, even when I give away good stuff! Here are a few examples:
- The first giveaway that I ever did was for a $25 iTunes gift card courtesy of Kijiji (now eBay Classifieds). Now TONS of people use iTunes. iPhone’s were at the height of their popularity (yes, they still are), and the gift card could be used to buy music, apps, or whatever on iTunes. The only requirement was that they leave a comment telling me their favorite kids app. I only got 11 comments to that post.
- Little Debbie Cupcake Giveaway: 32 yummy delicious cupcakes. I had to force my friends to enter to win at gun point. LOL!! Well not really, but I did force a few to enter. I only got 5 comments to that post.
- Jawbone Icon Bluetooth Giveaway: This is a $100 earpiece. Only 4 people entered!!! 4!!! I just knew that people would be all over that. But nope.
- Uprinting.com Print Giveaways: These never draw a lot of traffic on this blog. However, I have seen the same giveaways get hundreds and hundreds of entries on other blogs.
- Ti-Nspire Calculator Giveaway: This package was worth around $200. I re-tweeted the hell out of this one, shared it on FB numerous times, told people about it, etc, etc, and still got under 40 comments. But I was very happy with 40, because it was actually the most comments I had gotten on a giveaway to date.
So, what is the key? Obviously, it is ALL in the promotion. Even though I have a decent amount of followers on various social sites, just promoting on my own does not seem to get the word out. It is all about the hype.Β I get ok traffic from day to day, but I am not a popular blog by any means, so the posts just were not getting in front of enough eyes.
Now of course I won’t know for a few days or more whether the latest boost from theΒ DSi giveaway will work to bring visitors back to my site. We will see if my new followers visit again. I sure hope that they will. Now mind you, I have had my site go viral a few other times totally unexpectedly, but I was not prepared for it, so it did not last. It’s hard to keep that up day after day unless you are quick and ready with fresh, useful content.
But for now, my questions to you are…
1. How do you promote your giveaways?
2. Have giveaways worked to bring more traffic to your site?
3. Have you been able to maintain at least some of the traffic boost after the giveaway has passed?
4. When you visit a site just for the purpose of entering a giveaway are you likely to visit again?
5. When entering a giveaway for a product are you likely to still look up and possibly purchase that product at a later date?
Thanks for your input and Happy Thursday! π
1. How do you promote your giveaways?
I’ve only had giveaways dealing with books. I promote on twitter mostly, but I’ll also add at least one post to my FB pages. I’ve also put up email notifications to my friends on goodreads. With each giveaway, I seem to get more responses. My first giveaway, I only had one person enter. Second giveaway, only 4. π The last giveaway I had 34 responses. I currently have a giveaway happening now and already have 41 entrants. From the last giveaway, I notice I got the biggest response the first 24 hours. Then a small surge of responses the last day. This time I got a huge response the first 24-48 hours, and it’s trickled down since.
2. Have giveaways worked to bring more traffic to your site?
Definitely. Right now I get 10-20 visitors a day. When I have a giveaway, the traffic increases 4-6x as usual. However, once the giveaway goes away, the traffic does also, but some still stick around.
3. Have you been able to maintain at least some of the traffic boost after the giveaway has passed?
Yes, some stick around. I went from 1-2 regular visitors from before my first giveaway to about 10-20. We’ll see if I get a boost again this time around.
4. When you visit a site just for the purpose of entering a giveaway are you likely to visit again?
It depends. I keep track of the giveaways I enter. π I’m a giveaway junkie. I start checking back to see who the winners are after the giveaway ends. Between the time the winners are listed and the giveaway ends I’ll post comments on interesting posts. That’s why I’m here now. π If there’s another giveaway I like while there, I’ll enter it, which I did today for another giveaway you posted. π π So, interesting giveaways definitely keep a blog on my list. But if the giveaway doesn’t keep me coming, something else has to grab my interest. Otherwise I’ll forget about the blog and won’t remember it again unless someone twitters something about it that’ll catch my interest. Like a giveaway or interesting post.
5. When entering a giveaway for a product are you likely to still look up and possibly purchase that product at a later date?
I’m usually a person who looks for books on blogs. So unless it’s a book that’s caught my interest, I most likely won’t purchase the product at a later date. Blog reviews play a significant role in my book purchases these days. If I feel that way about books, I’m sure other people feel the same about other products.
Though you didn’t ask, I will say the surge of entrants probably has a lot to do about the product. Obviously, enough people know about your site, as you received 100s of entrants for the DSi. Most game consoles are well-known, and people want one. I’m sure you would have gotten a similar response if you’d offered a Kindle. Other products aren’t so well-known, like the label maker. I’d never heard of it before you mentioned it. A lot of people aren’t willing to enter a giveaway for an unknown product no matter how popular the site is. However, people will come from all around to enter the giveaway for a product they want even if they can’t stand to look at the site.
One thing to keep in mind is giveaways appeal to people’s greed, not necessarily their desire learn what a blog has to offer in terms of post content. The ones who are interested in the content will return whether or not you have a giveaway.
I could go on, but this has gotten rather long as it is. π
I think doing giveaways during the Summer months are tough because people just aren’t checking blogs on a regular basis. I also agree that it depends on the promotion/advertising it is getting. I feel like Twitter is over-saturated with people advertising giveaways so I tend to glaze right over those kind of tweets.
Thanks for your input Tam. I also think it’s all in the name. For example, this post right here. I can think of a couple of other big names that could have posted this exact post and would have already gotten 55 replies or so. Those same sites get dozens of comments to each and every post no matter what the content.
I think the site has to be worth returning to. I have entered in giveaways and not returned to some sites because they didnt hold my interest in a certain area. I seem to notice that my traffic stays pretty good..but your right its about getting the word out, and who helps you get the word out. People are so afraid it seems to help spread the word for fear that the reader will leave and go somewhere else. Sad almost.