THE BLOG THREAD - Questions/Answers/Thoughts/Ideas ~ Either You Love 'em or Hate 'em - Post HERE

Originally Posted by Brittles Well I just found out about a blogger who won his own giveaway. He's one that does many with a bunch of other bloggers and I have always found that it seemed impossible to win from them and after seeing that I won't be entering any more.

Yes - this was in response to that post and I forgot to quote Coastal Sunshine.

Originally Posted by Coastal Sunshine Interesting read about a blogger winning his own sweep. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Swee...2551816200655/

An example of why blogs are the wild west of sweepstakes.

Some blog widget entries make no friggen sense! " get +5 extra entries for each comment you leave on facebook post or instagram post "

Give me a break how in the hell can the blog coordinator somehow put all entries from their widget and comments on their facebook or instagram all in one pool and pick a winner.

God this is so stupid !

Originally Posted by LuckySkunky Some blog widget entries make no friggen sense! " get +5 extra entries for each comment you leave on facebook post or instagram post " Give me a break how in the hell can the blog coordinator somehow put all entries from their widget and comments on their facebook or instagram all in one pool and pick a winner. God this is so stupid !

Is it stupid or fraudulent?

The "creative presentation" blogs are my biggest pet peeve. Leave a "meaningful" comment (daily) at each of the 40 participant's sites. Ugh.

Originally Posted by PiffyBitters The "creative presentation" blogs are my biggest pet peeve. Leave a "meaningful" comment (daily) at each of the 40 participant's sites. Ugh.

Agreed. What gets me are the rafflecopters with umpteen entries that go to yet another rafflecopter. A person could spend hours entering for a single prize. Ridiculous. I like single blog giveaways.

I think I won a teeny tiny prize on a blog ONCE.

Originally Posted by Karen_246 He should have been ineligible to enter that. That is why I don't join in the creative presentation giveaways, and I don't enter my own giveaways.

You are one of the honorable bloggers Karen....I do enter your giveaways when I run across them.

However, I have no idea why no one is willing to name the blogger who won his own giveaway...Java John Z. I am now very reluctant to enter a blog giveaway that he is participating in. I would think that honest bloggers would avoid having him connected to them in any way.

Originally Posted by HistoryMystery Love them! I don't enter all of them, and I don't do many of the extra entries, but I sure do win a lot from them. For those who complain about how many there are in comparison to non-blog sweeps, I invite all of you to go out and find some non-blog sweeps to add to the site. I certainly can't find any that aren't already here. At the same time, I do not complain about the time other people invest in posting ANY contest, whether I am interested in entering it or not. I hope that those of you who find and post blog contests are not discouraged by the rude comments. I appreciate the time everyone takes to post a contest, and I am sure other people do, as well. Remember that blogs are not taking up space reserved for non-blogs. If you got rid of the blogs, there would still be as few "regular" sweeps as there are now.

YES! Thank you to all posters!

this disclamer on many blogs "the blogger is not responsible to fulfill the prize"...Just bugs me I mean the blogger has me for the most part jumping thru hoops to enter their giveaway -signing up for newsletters and getting my friends info (referrals). Yet the winner might not even get their prize-how is that even fair? The last 2 blogs i "won" i never got my prizes. One "blogger" never responded to me. Other "blogger" told me she had done her part hosting the giveaway but that it was up to the prize sponsor to award the prize.I'm beginning to think that bloggers are only hosting giveaways in order to build up their following and could care less about awarding any prizes.

That's why I don't enter blog contests. I don't jump thru hoops!

If a blogger tells me these things, I ask for the contact information of the individual at the sponsor. They never give it to me, but that often has prompted the blogger to do something.

The other thing that I do is to go on the sponsor's twitter and facebook accounts and post public messages about my issue. Most companies respond right away because they don't like the negative issues on their timeline. I tag the blogger's account on my posts. That tends to get their attention, too, and has even ticked a few bloggers off.

These things don't always work, but it's better than doing nothing. I fight for all of my wins....even books on Good Reads. There's no way that I'm going to allow a blogger or website to get traffic to their site by offering a contest, and then not fulfill the prize.

Oh....and then, I NEVER enter a sweepstakes on the blogger's site again. I try not to even click on their site.

Some bloggers, not all.
One blogger told me that it's up to the sponsor not her about a prize I did not receive, but then went on to deal with the sponsor herself. Still to no avail, unfortunately. Still never got the prize, unfortunately, but I know she did try, despite the disclaimer.

Another prize I really wanted but never received was from a recipes site, I'm not sure whether it's a blog. They have lots of sweeps. Emailed them twice, never heard a peep from them.

I do believe the majority of the bloggers though are operating in good faith.

No blogs for me either. I am glad some people love them and do well though.

I am a blogger. I don't post many giveaways anymore because my blog is a business and there is no money in hosting them, especially when sweepers enter. I want people to actually stay on my site and enjoy the visit not just hit it and leave. There are of course newer blogs that are nothing but reviews and giveaways, but those of us that have been around for a long time know that in order to make money you can't rely on a giveaway for it. Content is king.

I wanted to comment on prize fulfillment. As mentioned above, if it is a newer blog that hasn't been monetized or it is a blog strictly that lists giveaways (meaning they post the giveaway as an entry to the contest), 99.999999999999 percent of the time we don't get paid a dime to host them. Meaning we get nothing but maybe traffic which on a smaller blog like mine, might pay half a cent in adsense earnings if I am lucky. Overhead costs of hosting and the time involved are not covered by half a cent. So when a winner thinks I should come out of my pocket to buy a prize that the sponsor didn't send you have got to be off your rocker. I am one of those bloggers that will not hand out PR information, but I have no issue at all with a winner contacting the company itself. I do follow up when a winner doesn't get their prize, and when I am getting the runaround I tell the winner that it is fine to contact the company. As a contest person myself I want the prizes too, I totally get it.

Yes we hold contests specifically to get eyeballs on our site. The main goal is to attract readers. Most of us are good ones who don't only care about traffic. I have readers for 7+ years still reading my articles and still entering the few contests I have. I have some running right now that were part of a large paid campaign and it is all food, otherwise I wouldn't even hold a giveaway unless it was for something over $200 in value. It's not worth the time if I can't pump the pageviews up.

I really do understand that most people that enter don't like all the hoops. I refuse to enter any loop giveaways on blogs and instagram, it's stupid and my instagram gets filled with crap i don't want to see like fashion and crafts. I just wanted to come back and comment that not all of us bloggers are bad, but please remember that for some of us, this is our full time job and it pays pennies compared to big bloggers.

With that being said if you won on a well known blog with a well known brand behind it,I definitely encourage you to contact the company because they can definitely afford to make it right!