Friday Faves (3): All About Contests

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey on extra entries in contests. I loved reading the responses, they were truly eye-opening.

First, I wanted to get a benchmark on how many contests readers entered per week. I enter a lot of contests. Probably in the neighborhood of 25 per week. Apparently I am very alone in this:

Many contests I see require their entrants to follow their blog. I wanted to know how likely someone would be to follow a blog just to enter a contest:

Now, the reason for extra entries is to encourage promotion. How many people actually do it?

These results are accurately reflected in the contest that I'm running now. Probably about 15% of entrants are actually promoting the contest for extra entries.

So, what makes people stick around to read a blog? Giveaways? Awesome Reviews? Frequent Posting?

And... most importantly: how do you feel about extra entries in contests?

I also wanted to include some comments that were left by participants about extra entries and contests in general:

Giving extra entries to fellow bloggers who promote you does disadvantage the followers who don't have that opportunity. I guess I'd rather see contest prizes going to readers, not other bloggers. Readers and followers want to feel welcome and part of a special community, whether they blog or not. Putting them at disadvntage in contents makes them feel like second-class citizens.

If I have to jump through too many hoops I will generally pass because its likely that I will find another blog giving away the same thing.  I won't follow a blog just because of the give away, there has to be something else there for me.

On one hand... I like giveaways because you have a chance to win some seriously cool stuff (mostly books). On the other hand... It seems like the requirements to be a follower, tweet/blog/whatever just mean that the contest is only to grab more followers.

 I think giveaways are a cheap way to gain followers...if your content is good, you will gain readers.

As long as I can enter once simply by leaving a comment, I don't really care what blogger does as far as extra entries  - as long as they are just that - extra.  The beauty of them is that other people will do your promotion for you.

And... my favorite comment:

Do I get an extra entry for completing this survey?

Har, har har

So, in conclusion, these are my thoughts on giveaways. I think it boils down to how you view your blog. Is it important to you to have hundreds of followers? For me, it's not. I started my blog initially just to share my book recommendations with family and friends. Over the last year it has evolved into something more than that. I admit at times I get caught up in "follow-itis," mainly because the blogs with massive followings get better contests and promotional opportunities.

But, I am so happy with my following right now. Not to get all mushy, but you guys seriously leave the best comments on my reviews and posts. Some of you I see posting on almost every entry that I write. What matters most to me is that you keep coming back.

So, from now on, my contests are going to be as simple as possible. One entry per person. And, I'm going to work my hardest to get some more international contests available for those not in the US.

The Neverending Shelf did a similar survey a few months back. I think her results were similar to mine.

Anyway, thanks again to all who participated. You guys are the best!

Also, if you're here from the blog hop, hello! So glad you stopped by!