WLPW2K: Contest Entry Hoops.
I don’t enter many contests anymore, I don’t have the time to enter most contests. I refuse to jump through hoops to enter a contest. Unless you are offering me a million dollars, there is no way I am doing a 6 Step Program to win a little something.
A few of the things that irk the hell out of me are as follows:
* Asking for my full name: Why would I give you anything other then my email address & first name? When I win, then I will give you that information.
* Asking for my address: I don’t know you & there is a 99% chance I’m not going to win anyways, so why would I give you my home address before I win?
* Asking: To send you an email, comment on your blog, send another email saying I commented, tweeting, posting about it on MY blog. No NO NOOO. I refuse to do all that for ONE contest. Yes, I have seen it. Then I have seen the blog owner get pissy because people entered their contest wrong. I’m sorry but if you have more then 4040 requirements, thats what you get. Also, check your own rules…I have seen a blogger send an email that says enter one way & then on their blog say enter a different way…AND then get pissed. Pfft. Yeah, I’ll be entering your contests.
You can make a contest complex in just 3 steps, but you are turning people off with 409494 requirements to enter. Maybe it’s just me, but I could have written a blog post in the time it takes to enter some of these contests.
Make it simple people (bloggers & authors included) do a Google Doc, it takes less time & it will make YOUR life easier in the long run.
So..after that mini rant, I want to know…
Do you enter contests that have all sorts of requirements? Would you enter my contests if I made them that way? (Mine have always been answer a question in the comment field, unless it’s a week of contests in which case it’s a Google Doc) What don’t you like about contest entries?
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Nope. I hate them.
I will *occasionally* enter a contest where I need to follow someone – prize better be good.
Also, if you expect the people to come back and check to see if they have won (rather than sending an email – which you would have gotten from the google doc right?) DO NOT post the winner on the original post. Make a new post please.
Ugh I’ve never seen anyone do that, but thats brutal
I don’t enter many contests anymore, a few, but not many. When I posted one on my blog there were multiple options for how to enter (comment, buy my story & send receipt, & buy other books from my publisher & send receipt). People could do one or all of them. I don’t see the point in making it hard other than to just be a jerk. *shrug*
Me either!
I don’t! It annoys me! I don’t have time. If I can comment and be entered awesome. But don’t ask me to blog about you,(author) especially if I haven’t
read the book!!!
Exactly!!!
I hate those! Usually with my contests, it is follow and comment with your email addy so I can contact you if you win. Thats it. I offer tweeting as extra entries but not required. With so many blogs out there that I read and such, I try to make it as quick as possible. I don’t even use the google docs. I just have numbers added to each comment.
I usually just count too, I don’t have the time to make it hoopy
I refuse to jump through hoops to win a book when I could be reading one instead! I can’t stand how some bloggers make there contests like a freakin treasure hunt and then expect you to follow them. No, no treasure hunts for me. I have plenty to read as it is!
Amen!
I won an ARC of Sin Undone this year from Larissa Ione on her blog, and what did I have to do? Leave a comment. That’s it, end of story. There are lots of awesome giveaways out there that make it so easy on you. So when in contrast these ridiculous contests that make you do all this bullshit to make them feel like they are sooo important cuz they got you to jump over the moon to feed their Egos are obnoxious and shitty. So there!
Thats why I make it easy, comment and thats it. It’s easier for ME & the contest wanna winners
I don’t jump through hoops either! The most I will do is follow (GFC or Twitter), like on FB, or email subscribe. That’s it. I don’t like giving my address out each time either. I love the blogs that just ask for your name and address, or maybe just a small comment or answer to a question (I can understand this due to spam and people entering their whole address book!). I keep thinking that if I ever have a blog with a contest, I would just do a name and address thing, because who wants to mess with all of that extra entry stuff? And speaking of the extra entries, how about the bloggers who ask for them and then want you to count them up? Some even admit in their entry for it’s because they don’t want to!
I won’t ever enter a contest that asks for my name and address. If I win fine, but not before then
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I don’t enter contests any more. A few months ago, I won a whole bunch of them. One right after another. I even won a netbook. After that, I stopped entering. I figured I’d won my share. Which is so wild, I used to think I never won anything.
While it was nice, now I don’t feel it’s appropriate to enter other author’s contests. I will comment to show support, but as a pubbed author, that’s for their fans. (And yeah, I am a fan of certain authors, but again, I want to leave the bounty for someone else.)
Speaking of easy entry… I really like the GOODREADS giveaway thingie. All you have to do is see a book available for giveaway and click that you want to enter. No comments, nothing. Just a click. It doesn’t get much easier. I’m doing one myself in Sep.
(Yeah, the was totally shameless self-pimping there. But I want to give you stuff. How is that bad? LOL.)
You can just give me a copy, that’ll make it easier
lol
Nope – won’t jump through hoops and most definitely won’t give my snail mail address unless I win AND it’s required to send me my prize.
I rarely enter contests in any case.
Me too!
I hate contests that make you jump through hoops! I avoid them like the plague. Why make it so complicated? I try to keep mine simple with leave a comment or fill out entry form (name, email, address). I didn’t think about people having problems with leaving their address. I figured I was making it easier on them. I think for my next contest I’ll leave that part out. Oh and boy do I hate the “check back to see if you’ve won”. Ugh! Really? How hard is it to send the winner an email? You’ve already done the hard work of calculating points and crap to determine the winner. A 2 line email saying “Hey you won. Send me your addy” takes a minute. If a contest requires more than my name, email and option to tweet, I don’t enter. My time is too precious to me. If I want the book that bad, I’ll buy it myself.
I admit one contest run I didn’t email my winners but made them email me, but thats because I had 13 days straight of contests…I didn’t have the time.
I don’t enter contests that make me “jump through hoops” or follow a blog. I prefer simple entries. One other thing that bothers me about contests is the lack of follow-through. Even when I don’t win, I’d like to see the blog post the name of whoever did. A surprising number of blogs don’t follow-up when contests are over.
I didn’t know people didn’t post who won! I ALWAYS do, hell its an extra post I don’t have to think hard about writing
Urg, the ones who don’t post who won drive me crazy. At least put out a post that says you contacted the winners! When sites don’t do this, everyone is left wondering if the blogger forgot about the contest, if the winners were contacted, if new winners will be pulled… etc. etc. Besides, a post with the winners gives the winners a place to publically say thankyou and for others to do the congrats. : P
I feel asleep trying to enter a contest that required everything but my past years W2′s. After that I said no more. I’d rather just go buy the damn book.
When I do a contest I just ask for a comment. You don’t have to follow me. You don’t have to add up your entires. You don’t have to run around neekid or have my name tattooed on your arse. Just comment. Those are the best contests to enter.
ROTFLMAO! I love you Tori!
I’m not wild about contests that ask you to follow, tweet, post about, etc etc etc. Maybe it’s because I don’t tweet, and it’s difficult enough to post on a regular basis as it is. However, I like to keep things simple. When I have had giveaways, I keep it simple — I just ask for a comment. And try to remember to ask for an email, too.
LOL you and me both on the simple.
I HATE, HATE having to jump thru hoops to enter a contest! Usually won’t do it. I LOVE forms they are so simple. I don’t tweet or facebook, so those entries are useless for me! Please, post the winners and email them!
I’ve just barely started to enter in contests and after a few of those 409494 requirements, I’ve stopped entering.
I like the KISS way, just keep it simple stupid!
I think the contests that ask you to do all that extra stuff to get more entry points are so unfair. If you ever look at who wins the majority of them, guess what, it’s other bloggers. Why? because they earn all those extra points by posting links, grabbing buttons, etc. Sometimes I feel like the blogging community is this exclusive little world and all these people do is pass books around to each other through their contests. If you don’t have a blog to earn those extra points, don’t bother to enter because the odds are way against you.
I was just thinking about this very subject! I will not answer the any contest that makes you jump thru hoops. I do not have a bolg, I do not want to clog Facebook, I do not want to answer quiz questions.
I won’t mention where but I hadn’t entered any contests on a VERY big blog because of all the hoops. To be fair, you can just comment, and ask the author a question and not do anything else. They had a couple really good contests, and I swear, I only did about 5 of the extra point things, and I had 5 windows open, a notepad page to keep track of what I did and then copy and paste it into the post– it took fricking FOREVER. All that said, I probably would have been okay, except they haven’t had an announcement of winners since at least June. JUNE. I feel bad when I’m a couple days late. Sigh.
I still do like WP– post a contest, ask for a comment and pick a winner. Simple. However, I don’t get that many people– is it TOO easy. LOL I even let anonymous people enter– as long as they leave an email.
Like JenM mentioned about it being other bloggers– I really want other nonblogger people to enter too, but it’s like pulling teeth!
One of my pet peeves is not emailing the winner. It really only takes a minute, and I’m not clear why it’s so difficult. If they don’t respond in a week, pick a new person. I TRY to remember where I’ve entered, and it’s not that I don’t care because I really do, but it’s hard, you know?
Ditto on what everyone else has said. I do appreciate the contests and understand that many contests are dependent (usually) on the publisher’s assumption that the blog in question gets a lot of traffic. But I just hate the hoops that can give one person up to X entries — it just feels like it’s a way for the blogger to triple or quadruple their entry numbers in a way that, as someone else pointed out, seems to favor the few that don’t mind the rigmarole.
I can also appreciate the desire to have a giveaway winner be someone who really-really-really wants it and won’t let the book wither away unread — but again, the hoop jumping isn’t proof of an avid reader at all.
omg, I see more and more of that now… it’s just too much work for me to even try and enter.
the simplest google doc that i have to fill in, only my name and email address. and you are in !
it simple and easy.
When i saw on a blog on another day that need more than 5 points to be entered. i just leave that blog. and that’s it !
I don’t like hoops either. I don’t mind the option of extra entries, and I don’t mind having to be a follower to enter. If it requires lots of steps my attention span gives out and I close the window. I rarely do anything extra because I just don’t have time. I’ve hosted contests with extra entries and adding up all those entries is such a pain in the ass. I’m keeping it simple from now on. I’d rather be reading or sleeping than checking links for tweets or blog posts. I’ve only had two or three contests that following was a requirement. I kinda felt cheap after like hey I’ll give you a book if you’ll be my friend LOL