I have to admit. The first couple times I entered a few blog giveaways. They weren't spelled out very clearly. Being new to it all, I did the mandatory entries and bonus entries but lumped them all into one comment. One blogger was nice enough to let me know that i needed a separate comment for each if I wanted more entries. I think sometimes us bloggers are so used to typing up or entering blog giveaways that we sometimes forget that there are people that don't know how. Maybe they would enter but don't because they're not sure what to do. I'm going to do my best to explain it step by step in plain language.
As a visual example I'm going to use my Bacon Hot Sauce review and giveaway I have posted. (Ends tonight 7/19 10 PM EST so if you want to try out your new skills :-)
http://bit.ly/bhreviewffcandm You can look over this to see what I'm referring to as a visual.
The Mandatory Entry ----MOST blog giveaways have what's called a "Mandatory entry" You will be asked to complete a certain task. For instance, In my Bacon Hot Sauce giveaway you have to "like" Bacon Hot Sauce on Facebook. The Mandatory entry must be completed in order for you to be officially entered. If you don't complete the mandatory entry in a giveaway, it doesn't matter if you complete 8 of the bonus entries because none of them will count if that Mandatory entry is not completed. Occasionally, you will come across a blog giveaway that does not have a mandatory entry or gives you a choice of items to complete as your Mandatory Entry.
Once you complete the "Mandatory Entry" you must leave a comment on the giveaway post so the blogger knows you did it and you're entering. In the Bacon Hot Sauce giveaway your very first entry comment should state "I like Bacon Hot Sauce on Facebook" with your email address following. You can see examples of this in the entries on my Bacon Hot Sauce giveaway.
Sometimes the mandatory entry will be to "follow" that particular blog. If the only way to follow is with google friend connect, you have to have a google account in order to do that. If they have a Networked Blogs follow you can follow if you have a facebook account. If you don't have these and/or you don't want to sign up for an account, unfortunately you won't be able to enter that one if that is in fact, the mandatory entry.
Leaving your email address in case you win----Also VERY IMPORTANT to leave an email address in the comment to be contacted at if you win. To avoid spammers picking up your email address, Leave your email in this form: Joeshmo (at) gmail (dot) com
Bonus Entries---Not all Blog giveaways will have bonus entries. And the Bonus entries may vary. There might be a lot or there might be a little They could be things like "follow me on twitter" , "Subscribe to my blog by email", "make a post on facebook about this giveaway", and many other options.
One thing to note is that you might see something like this:
Follow me on twitter (2)
OR
Subscribe to this blog through RSS feed (5 entries)
OR
Tweet about this giveaway (leave 3 comments)
When you complete a Bonus entry you NEED to leave a seperate comment for each one you complete. So if you tweet about the giveaway you leave a comment and stated "I tweeted giveaway and leave a link to your twitter tweet" and again leave your email address in each comment . ( I will explain how to find twitter and facebook links in a minute).
When you see a number like i have posted with the "Follow me on twitter (2)" example bonus entry i have above. The Blogger is telling you, you get 2 entries for completing that one task. So if you followed them on twitter you'd leave a comment on the giveaway post stating:
"I follow you on twitter as @Joeshmo" Joeshmo (at) gmail (dot) com"
you would leave that same message 2 times. ( In two seperate comments) in the comment section of the blog giveaway post.
Finding the link to your Twitter tweet and/or Facebook status---I didn't know how to do this for quite sometime until a thoughtful blogger was kind enough to leave simple directions in their giveaway (which reminds me I didn't do that on mine, I'll need to add that. Shame on me)
Anywho, when you Tweet a giveaway status, your tweet will look something like this:
"I want to win the Febreze Home Collection Giveaway @iemommy – http://www.theiemommy.com/2010/07/15/febreze-home-collections
This is one of my actual bonus entry giveaway tweets. You'll see in your tweet on the bottom left corner there will be a time statement. I highlighted that part in orange in the example tweet. Mouse over that time statement then click it. It will take you to a twitter page with just that particular tweet on on it. Look up at the top of your screen. In the place that you usually type in your web address you should see a link that looks something like this: http://twitter.com/angiewith3/status/18932149637
That is the link to your twitter status. Right click on that address. A box will pop up. Find the "copy" option in the box and click it. Left click in a comment box and then Right click. Again a box will pop up. this time choose Paste.
Facebook status works the same way. You find the time stamp and follow the directions above for the tweet to find your link to that post.
I know it sounds like a lot. Once you get the hand of it you'll be entering blog giveaways left and right. You can find blog giveaways by doing searches for terms like: blog giveaway and you can find them on twitter, facebook, other social media sites and probably more that I'm not thinking of right now.
Have fun and good luck. Please feel free to leave comments if you feel there is an aspect I forgot, something you're still confused about, or if you have more tips.
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