Giveaway Entry Tips & Info

I just wanted to give you all a few tips and some info on entering giveaways here on my blog. I love that you all enter, but there are some of you that make the same mistakes over and over. While I would love to be able to email everyone about it, I just don’t have the time. So please take a moment to read over these things to increase your chances of winning and just get some general info on how things work on my blog giveaways.

When commenting now you will see the DISQUS form. Please make sure to include your email address in the space provided – it will NOT be shown publicly – but I will be able to see it and email you if you win.
An even better method is to register with DISQUS (it’s free) and then you can just stay logged in – just make sure your email is available in your profile in case you win. You can also add your own custom avatar if you are registered.
Read the Required Entry part of my giveaways and make sure you do that before you do the extra methods of entry. Without the required entry, the others won’t count. Also, don’t try copying others entries as many folks don’t enter correctly. If you copy them you are just wasting your time.
Extra twitter entries sometimes allow just one tweet, sometimes a daily tweet. It will be specified in each giveaway. Check the rules.
The extra entry for subscribing to my feed only counts for email subscribers. This is because the email method is the only one I can verify. If you already subscribe, leave a comment for that because it counts too.
Even though you may be able to leave a comment after the end date and time, it doesn’t mean it will count. I only select winners from those who have entered within the time frame stated in the rules. Even if you are one minute past the cut off date your entry doesn’t count.
Cheating by entering under multiple names or email address is not nice and not allowed. If I find you doing this I will ban you from all of my giveaways. Just enter for yourself, not others. If you know someone who would like the prize, just send them the link so they can enter on their own.
All of my winners are notified by email only (see the first 2 items above). If I can’t reach you, your entry is thrown out even if I know who you are on twitter or some other place. I really try to keep things fair for everyone.
I do not use random.org to draw my winners. The winners are picked randomly, usually by my son not looking. I’ve been doing this for years (on my other sites before my blog even) and it works for me.
In most cases the sponsor is shipping the prize to you directly. For a few of the giveaways I have the prizes myself though and will ship them to you. The sponsor is ultimately responsible for the prizes however and if they should fail to follow through I will do my best to get the prize to you, but I can’t be responsible personally if they don’t for some reason. Trust me though, I will always work super hard to make sure they do. This really hasn’t been an issue for me and I hope it never is.
I never sell your info. Once I pick winners and they claim, the rest of the entry information on my computer is deleted. The only time I pass it along to the sponsor is when they are shipping a prize to you directly.
You can win multiple prizes on my blog – just not multiple times within any one giveaway. I have lots of regular readers who have won multiple times. The more you enter and the more often you visit the better your chances of winning.
You don’t have to have a blog to win. I have quite a few folks who visit regularly and who have won but don’t have their own blog – it isn’t a problem for me.
Once a giveaway is over I move it to the winners section of the Giveaway & Winners page and I put “pending” next to winner. Once the winner is confirmed I change it to their name. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get all caught up, but things are happening behind the scenes.
Most of my giveaways end at 11:59 pm CT, that does not mean at 12:00 am I am picking winners. I may not pick for a couple of days after a giveaway ends – but again only entries that are submitted before the end date will count.