First Give Away on blog

[stacylee]

I am running my first contest on my Walmart cooking blog! I decided instead of just giving something away for no reason, you would get an entry into the drawing if you joined as a facebook follower or (if you are already a follower) you referred someone to me.

Prize is a $10 Walmart gift card. I figured that was an easy $10 for someone. Good idea?

Quirky Momma - how have your give aways been going? Anyone else?

[Melody]

I do give aways from time to time and I think it creates excitement. I'll check your blog today. Great idea Stacy.

[sidikunplugged]

Nice! Maybe I'll follow too

[QuirkyMomma]

Great Idea Stacey! I have been having great success on my giveaways in regards to participation, that said I have to publicize them (here is a big contest list I made of places to submit family-friendly giveaways) in order to get traffic. Unfortunately, that traffic rarely visits the rest of my site. For that reason, unless I am getting paid to do a giveaway or I really, really like the product, I have been toning down my giveaways. The traffic spikes were nice to look at in analytics though

[Nathan]

I love your new site design, Quirky Momma. It looks nice!

[QuirkyJessi]

Originally Posted by Nathan

I love your new site design, Quirky Momma. It looks nice!

Ooo, me too.

And yes, it's a good idea. You'll need to promote the contest if you're hoping for a lot of people to participate, though.

[QuirkyMomma]

Awww... thanks guys. It was more work than I ever imagined it would be! Glad you like it!

Stacylee, how did your giveaway go?

[stacylee]

I got 9 new facebook followers, and 3 of them were people I don't know. I am happy with that, because I wanted to get over 20 followers - I think you get more exposure on other networked blogs that way.

I put all the names in a hat and my son drew a name. I will have to try another type of contest at some point in the future, but at least I achieved my goal - and it only cost me $10.

[QuirkyMomma]

Stacylee, Where did you promote it?

[stacylee]

I really only promoted it thru my personal facebook page (I have many friends, but not all of them were following me - still aren't lol).

I also made a post on my blog about it. I think I got at least 2 followers from facebook once my followers jumped over 20. You know how similar blogs appear as links on the side of the page? It is always exciting to get a follower that you don't know, or a comment from someone.

When I do my next contest (not anytime soon), I think I will explore other ways to promote it.