There is no doubt that running giveaways is one of my favorite things to do; not only when I feel the need to grow my blog, but also when I just want to do something nice for my readers, the giveaway sponsor, and sometimes myself. It makes me feel great to give, and I love seen the responses as people enter as well as the excitement when a winner is drawn. It’s comments like “Thank you! I never win anything!” or “This is going to be so helpful because I lost my job and needed this so much!” that really make my heart melt and keep pushing me to do these things.

Don’t be confused, giveaways aren’t entirely fun and games, they take a lot of work and there are a lot of rules to follow if you want to do it legally. However, at least for me, it’s all worth it in the end.

Giveaway Prizes

• Value. Your prize should be something that someone really wants to win. Chances are that no matter what you put up for giveaway someone will enter, but the more value the more entries you get!
• Topic. Your prize should be something that goes along with your blog. This is easy if you’re a lifestyle blog, but not so much if you have a niche (see also, New Blogger Series: Finding Your Niche.) If you’re a beauty blogger and you’re giving away cleaning products, or a fitness blogger giving away candy-it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
• It’s OK to turn prizes down. You don’t have to accept every company giveaway offer you receive. It’s perfectly fine to reply with a simple “Thank you for your offer, but I really don’t feel like this fits with my blog” or “I don’t feel that I can properly support this product as I’ve never tried it” etc.
• Shipping. If you are providing the item or mailing it yourself, keep in mind how much shipping will be. You may want to go for lighter items, or items that you can ship directly from the seller to avoid extra shipping costs. This may also influence where you want the giveaway to be open to, as your price is going to be greater if you ship outside of your own country.
• Gift Cards are great. Everyone loves to win Gift Cards, and you can easily have certain gift cards open worldwide for sites that can be redeemed or shopped with anywhere. Virtual gift cards are awesome also, as you don’t have to do any mailing-you just go to the company’s website, buy the gift card, and email it to your winner! (This is often why I give away Amazon, Etsy, or Starbucks gift cards-they make it so easy!)

Getting Your Giveaway Started

A few key points:

• Your disclosure about it being a sponsored giveaway/post needs to be at the top of the post and needs to be at least as large and noticeable as the rest of your post-it needs to be clear to your readers.
• Your mandatory entry cannot cause consideration. Meaning you can’t really get anything out of it-you can’t require them to buy anything, to follow, etc. At this time it appears that leaving a comment to as the mandatory entry is still OK, otherwise it’s recommended you have a “free entry” where they don’t have to do anything. Your optional entries can be anything though-this is only for your mandatory entry. This also can’t be “go to so and so’s site and tell me what you’d buy) as that’s still consideration-if you do this, make sure you have a free entry before it and that is not mandatory.
• Entries need to be the same value. You can’t make something worth more than something else as that’s considered giving unfair advantage. If you make 1 entry worth 5pts, they all have to be 5pts.
• NEVER extend your giveaway. It’s illegal to change the end date you’ve already announced-even if you only have a few entries-you have to honor what you have already stated.
• Tax Information. If your giveaway has a combined total prize over $600 you are required to provide a 1099 form to the winner with your prize, and you have to collect their information like SSN to do it. Try and make sure your prize is under that amount to make life easier on yourself.
• Be aware of what your blog giveaway really is. There are three different types: sweepstakes, contests, and giveaways. Make sure you’re running yours right. For more information, see: Sweepstakes, Contests and Giveaways-Laws Bloggers & Brands Need to Know by Sara H. Hawkins.
• Know the Terms for any sites you plan to use as entries. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. all have their own T&C (Terms & Conditions) for what you can do with their product, so be aware of what their rules are in order to not violate them. Using a service such as Rafflecopter also makes this easier because they do a lot of the research for you and have set their options up to make sure they’re in line with that.
• Know the laws for various states/countries: If your giveway is open to other countries or has prizes coming from different states, you need to be aware of the laws for each of those locations.
• Terms and Conditions. You NEED a Terms and Conditions when running a giveaway, and it has to include a few key facts:
  • “No Purchase Necessary” must be included.
  • Must state eligibility requirements such as name, location, age, etc.
  • It must include how to enter. “enter via Rafflecopter”
  • Dates and deadlines, such as the exact date and time it starts and ends.
  • The odds of winning. This can be tricky, so put something like “The number of eligible entries determines odds of winning.”
  • Prize Description (be specific) and where the prize is coming from.
  • What you will do if the prize is forfeited or unclaimed.
  • Who is responsible for paying taxes. I put “Winner’s responsible for all taxes related to the winning of this prize.”
  • Include a liability release “My So-Called Chaos is not liable for loss, shipping issues…” etc.
  • How and when the winners will be selected.
  • That you have the right to obtain and publicize winner’s information.
  • ALWAYS put “Void where prohibited by law!”

There are a lot more rules and guidelines than I mentioned above, so make sure you do some further research if you’re nervous. For more information on this, please see these posts by the brilliant bloggers I learned a lot of this from:

• Sh*t You Should Know About Blogging: Giveaways by Busy Being Jennifer
• Blogging Edumacation: Blog Giveaway Rules by Pink Heels Pink Truck
• Blogging Edumacation: Blog Giveaway Rules Part 2 by Pink Heels Pink Truck
• You Me & The FTC by Pink Heels Pink Truck
• FTC Blogger Guidelines & Rules by Rafflecopter
• .Com Disclosures by the FTC
• Sweepstakes, Contests and Giveaways-Laws Bloggers & Brands Need to Know by Sara H. Hawkins

Promoting Your Giveaway

• Create a giveaway image. Having a photo of what your’e giving away with details can really make sharing it easier, as well as make it easier for people to pin it and notice it.
• Keep it simple. Giveaways can be complex to manage and like I said, Rafflecopter or other services like PromoSimple does most of the setup and management work for you. This can let you focus on the other parts of the givewaway and, more importantly makes it easier for you to:
• Have fun. I know that with all the information and rules above it seems daunting, but giveaways can be a lot of fun. Get creative with the comments-ask people who enter to answer a question or introduce themselves. I’ve seen so many fun things this way!
• Double check your facts and dates before posting. Make sure you have things properly listed before you post, so you don’t have to go back and edit things.
• Make your links open in a new tab. If you’re using Rafflecopter it already does this (as long as you properly link-check your links in the widget, if you’re using it, before posting.). If you’re not using it, blogger already has a setting you can check when adding a link to make it do this. This makes sure they stay on your giveaway post even if they go check out another sponsor or something.