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I actually run a blog dedicated to contests You wouldn’t believe just how many blog contests are being run out there! When I first started my blog, I thought the pickings would be a little slim. Delightfully, I was wrong!

I did win a contest once over at 5 Minutes for Mom. It was a lot of fun. I got a Mandisa CD.

As part of our group writing project, Yvonne and I drew from the GWP participants and gave away an Amazon gift certificate. (Over now.) That was also fun.

Giveaway roundup posts… Well, right now I’m doing it monthly at OpinionMom. I wonder if I should do it more often. I’m not really getting a lot of traffic from the roundup posts …

Anastasia - thanks for stopping in today. You are right, there are a ton of blog contests and keeping track of them all (so you can enter the ones you like) is tough.

Laura - I saw that you had won at 5m4m - too cool. On your contest round up posts are you just grabbing everything or are you going for a theme? You might do better with a theme.

I have run two contests on DevDad, one of which is going on right now. My digital camera contest went very well, and I think everyone had a good time. It was a little bit of an issue to track entries, and even now, I’m still working on making sure everyone has received their prizes, but it was very cool, overall. Right now, for my iMac give-away, I finally wrapped up the sponsorships (I launched it knowing that I could end up just paying for it on my own), so I’m pretty excited to get that going.

For other contests, I’m getting ready to launch one on BlogHelper.org, but I’m not sure how it will be formatted.

Mike

My biggest problem these days is that between Erika and myself, we are running some seriously cool contests on the new Reviews blog on the eMoms site - and I can’t win anything from my own company!! :’(

Seriously, though, I do think they are a good idea and that it’s good for blogs and businesses. I tend not to enter unless it’s something I’m dying for (a Dooney & Bourke bag over at Pinks&Blues comes to mind!).

I’ve also given away prizes for others’ contests - so I support giving free stuff to bloggers 100%

You seem to be rockin’ the house down around here with yours lately - glad to hear it’s going so well!!!

As Laura said we offered a $30 Amazon gift voucher for the Shared Answers group writing project we co-ran. I think it was definitely a draw card, and the winner was thrilled. Prizes seem to add that extra level of interest and fun.

DevDad - when you have a contest you have a contest - how do you manage to give away such great stuff?

Wendy - guess what I won at Pinks & Blues???? I can’t wait to see my D&B bag along with all the other goodies.

Yvonne - I did a giveaway of an Amazon GC at one of my other sites and it really was a great draw - the winner was truly grateful. I like giving away iTunes gift certificates, too.

I have recently worked out a really cool contract with Therapy Shoppe.com to do three giveaways a month. It is a hit! I do one on Discussingautism.com, one on My Two Boys, and will do one on A Chosen Child when that launches. It hits my niche perfectly and really draws new traffic.

I also just won a shirt from Ryka. Made my day yesterday after my hellish colonoscopy. If it could go wrong…it did.

Char,

With DevDad, I decided that since I was new to the “scene”, I would go for it, and get myself out there. The first contest was 100% out of pocket, but I’m cool with spending a few hundred dollars to find visitors, and perhaps more importantly, establish tons of relationships with those with similar interests.

For the new contest, I decided to really “go for it”, and decided to do the contest, whether or not I had to pay for the item on my own. I love blogging, and there are the benefits of having people engaged in the blog(s), but I also plan to launch some other projects on the basis of DevDad’s readership, such as BlogHelper.

Mike

Wow, a few hundred?

I actually contacted a few of MY fav. vendors and several replied. Signing Time jumped on as did Therapy Shoppe. Many of the smaller vendors are more than willing to donate one product to get hundreds of visitors to their site. I know Therapy Shoppe is reaping the benefits.

Hey Char! Great topic, I love giveaways. I’ve won a number of things and it’s always exciting everytime. I’ve also held some giveaways that were very successful. I’ll probably do another one in conjuction with the next 30 Day Organizational Challenge coming up in the next month or so.
Have a great weekend!
Laura

YOU WON THE BAG?!

You suck.

pickel - that is great that you have an regular contest sponsor that is so targeted to your audience. I bet they get a better ROI by being a consistent sponsor.

Laura - I need to take your challenge next time you run it - don’t let me weasel out.

Wendy - oh yeah - and it comes with a bunch of other cool stuff too

Char - we were SO THRILLED when we found out that your name matched the number we picked for the giveaway!! We have all our giveaways up on Mama Loves Giveaways (acessed through Pinks & Blues. Our new contest is up today - it goes along with our Pinks & BOOs Halloween Guide!

Jane, Pinks & Blues

I have won quite a few blog contests… I’m addicted to the contests! I have won books and more books, MomAgenda Kitchen Folio and Daily Planner, American Idol DVD game, t-shirts, hats, One2Believe Jesus doll, $50 g.c to Olive Kids, $50 g.c to Kind Living Designs, ad space, scrapbook stuff, Starbucks g.c., vintage table cloth, dress for my littlest girl, hair bows for my two youngest girls, no purse sew kit, candy dish, a necklace, dvds, a reversible car seat cover, and the list goes on and on.

All aforementioned items were won since July of this year… started with the Dogs Days of Summer Giveaways.

I scout out the contests/giveaways daily and post a daily Edition of Contests Galore on my blog (a contest roundup with the majority of contests listed being NEW ones). My blog: Laura Williams’ Musings http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com I also post reviews, daily life snippets and more in addition to the daily contest roundups.

Right now, I am also running my own giveaway (my first ever sponsored one).. If you scrapbook you may be highly interested… if you don’t check it out to.. you still may want this item.
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2007/09/review-giveaway-real-women-scrap-by.html

I post a giveaway list from around the blogosphere every Tuesday & Thursday I think the biggest issue is they don’t get much publicity. Keep your eyes peeled though, later tonight I’m going to be listing a giveaway of my own…well a sponsored one and the prize….a stroller.

Yes I’ve won in a number of giveaways, that’s why I started listing them I felt kind of bad that I kept winning and no one really knew about them. hehe, course now I’m not winning so much.

Happy Friday. Anyone watch any good movies lately?

Contests are beautiful things :). That contest by DevDad sounds sweet. I better take a peek at that too.

Okay, I’m back again.

Actually, it’s amazing that I ever won anything. I read about a lot of the contests, but usually they are over before I can enter.

If you are doing a giveaway, I definitely recommend doing the Amazon GC. There’s no shipping charge and you can send it anywhere.

I just found out I may get to do a giveaway drawing at OpinionMom next month. (I asked my contact for one of the products I am reviewing for extra so that I could give some away.) However, I have to pay the shipping myself and that probably means U.S. only. Bummer!!!

There’s no way I can keep up with homemom3’s giveaway lists, but at list I include hers on my monthly list. I guess I’ll just have to make the posts more interesting.

On somebody’s blog I read that they had used some sort of randomizer site to pick the winner. Of course, now I can’t remember where I read it. Does anybody know anything about that?

I just noticed there are three Lauras commenting here. Should I go to first name last initial like in grade school?

Wow - we have a lot of Lauras!! Hello to all of you!!

I always use http://www.random.org to pick my random numbers.

Char- I just wanted everyone to know I posted that giveaway at my site.

http://homemom3.blogspot.com/2007/09/homemom3-chicco-stroller-giveaway.html

LOL on the Laura’s comments. I am on a scrapbooking Design Team and there are three of on it… the owner’s name is Laura, them myself and another Laura. We go by nicknames. LauraS is the owner, LauraW is me, and then the other Laura is angel-Laura (her username has the word angel in it.)

I have won just one contest, a box of Fruit Cheerios on 5 Minutes for Mom, which I had sent to my sister since I wasn´t in the right country. Lately, I´ve been considering hosting a contest on my blog, it´s just a matter of figuring out how to go about it!

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