I’ve received many questions regarding the etiquette of giveaways on blogs and it’s oh-so-appropriate because I’m currently hosting the Quarterly Bloggy Giveaways Carnival!
Selecting a winner for your giveaway is fairly simple. Many people use a random number generator to pick a number. They then match that number to the comment number and voila! Instant winner. Of course, this is easy if your comments are numbered. TypePad does not number their comments, so this is a little more work for us TP users.
If you don’t have very many participants, you can print out the comments and put them in a hat and draw a name that way. I’ve seen several giveaways done this way.
I know still other people who use a scrolling method. They open the comments section of the post so they can see all the comments. Then they randomly scroll up and down and choose the comment they land on.
Find the way that seems fairest and easiest for you and go with it. Be honest and quick. Don’t make your participants wait for you to get around to picking a winner!
On a final note, those of you participating in the giveaways at any blog, make sure you include a working e-mail address in your comment! You can’t be contacted if the host can’t e-mail you!
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Is giving an e-mail necessary when you’ve left your blog link?
Melanie,
Thanks for giving me the heads up on this site. I wish I’d found it sooner. It’s exactly what I need. I’m now one of your e-mail subscribers.
When I do a giveaway I keep track of the entries (and bonus entries for linky love) on an excel sheet. It’s more time consuming, but Blogger doesn’t number my entries and I make it more difficult by adding bunus entries.
PS I have a giveaway going on now. Stop by and see it. It’s linked at the top of my page.
Excellent web pages Successes and prosperity to you!
What about a blog that their mother or best friend always seems to wins. Isn’t that unethical? I know a coupon/mommy blogger that does this all the time and it makes me so mad but what can a person do.