I had thought to start a new giveaway policy August 1st. Then the unthinkable happened. Someone deleted all of her entries to a couple of giveaways because I had said that I wouldn't be notifying the winners, except in the comment section of the post. I have seen other giveaway bloggers who do this and it seems to work fine. Heck, I've had winners email me before I even had a chance to email them. So, I'm trying to come up with a way to notify winners, without offending anyone, but if I don't get the email out right away, it will still work.
Let me backtrack for a minute.
The reason I had even considered changing the way I do things is this: My work (you know, where they pay me) is picking up. I'm receiving more books to review, so I'm reading every spare minute I can squeeze a page in. I'm falling behind on getting those emails out. NOT THE EMAILS TO THE PUBLISHER. Once I get the address' for all the winners, I immediately send them to who they need to go to.
So I'm trying to come up with a compromise (cause hey, I want people to be happy and hopefully enter & WIN some books!). I mean that is what this blog is here for.
- Keep things the way they are now. Email & post the winners.
- Just post the winners*edit* in a new post!
- Email & post the winners once a week. Like on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
Think about it, there's a poll over at the top of the sidebar! Your vote does count!
10 comments:
obviously your work comes first and you should do what's easiest for you.
I voted just post the winners.
But not in the original giveaway thread.Make a new post so people see it right away when they comes to your blog.And they forward there mailing address to you.Alot of blogs do it that way.
But whatever way you decide,I'll still be reading your blog and entering your giveaways.
Hope that helps.
I vote to just post the winners. Then ask them to contact you with their information.
I agree with elaing8 about the separate post for the winners. Of course, that could be because sometimes I forget and don't remember the exact day a contest has ended until I see the winners post. : )
However, your work commitments need to come first and whatever is easiest for you should be the priority.
I agree with elaing8!
I think it's perfectly OK to just post the winners - but not on the original post. A new winners post would be easy to find & easy to respond to.
Thanks everyone! Posting the winners is where I was leaning, too! It's important to me to keep up with the giveaways & notifying the winners...
You have to do what's right for you, but I know I really think twice about entering a contest if the blog owner doesn't email winners, because I can't keep up with my blogroll half the time and would miss them, and then people just get annoyed because I'm not responding, and it's a lot easier fo rme to respond to emails then it is to keep up with blogger. I log onto blogger maybe once a week, and onto my email every day. *shrug*
I would say #3. email and post on a certain day and if that is the weekend great. I actually enjoy getting an email that says you won a book. I do a little dance.
You know Susie, it is your blog and you can do it any way you would like. If you need to save time then just make a post. If people use google reader or some sort of reader they should be able to see there name. I think it is silly that someone would remove there posts. After all it is a free book they are getting not something they have to purchase. For goodness sake doing a little work to see if I won a free book is least I can do.
Debbie
I used to make a seperate post for winners, but the last time I picked a winner I just contacted them and they e-mailed me back with their address, I didn't make another post with the winner or announce it anywhere, maybe I will have a link on my sidebar with list of people who won for each month or something, so people can see that I am getting books out to people, just not making another post for the winners.
I do my "winners post" at the same time as the original giveaway and just leave the winners part blank and save under date it is to end. When contest ends, I then fill in the names and post it. LOTS OF COPY and PASTE makes for easy do overs and quick work.
I also make up notification emails ahead of time by copy and pasting how many I need and save them in drafts so I only have to add their email address when I see who won and as soon as I post the winners, I am able to zip out the winners email.
I also make up ahead of time the email that needs to be sent to the publisher with addresses, with blanks for winners. When a winner emails me back with an address, I copy and paste it right into the email which is also kept in drafts until it is full and then I push send. It sounds like a lot of work ahead of time but really it isn't as once I put GIVEAWAY OVER on the original post, I can find a time when I am ready to post and zip out the pre-made emails. I usually make up those things on days I am not working or have extra time. It is almost like having a blank one on file and only changing the book title as far as the emails go...ask my multiple time winners, my emails pretty much look the same except I go in and change the book title.
DOES ANY OF THIS MAKE SENSE? I really am trying to help. So guess I am saying, it is a joy for me to give away books and I want my winners to know so I notify them. I know it is really hard when you enter lots of contests to remember to come back to check on a certain day. THAT would be too much work for me. OK..so people reading this, email me at BOOKIN' WITH BINGO if you want me to explain this "simple" plan..really, it is!
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