Do You Find it Annoying?

[Mary @ The Sweet Bookshelf]

What do you think about contests that ask you to do a million things just to enter their book giveaway?

+1 leave a comment
+5 follow me
+10 if you're already a follower
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+2 link me
+5 Post about my contest

Personally, I find it a bit annoying and kind of ridiculous. It causes me NOT to enter contests. The probability of me winning anyway is small, but then asking me to do all of the above just for their little contest is a bit ridiculous. I think if it was simple you'd have MORE people enter your contest.

But, I'm a newbie...what do I know? What do you think? Does it work to have all that stuff to do? Does it annoy any of you? Tell me your thoughts.

Mary
The Sweet Bookshelf

[Jenni Cavallaro]

At first I hated it. Now, when I do my own contests, I do the same thing! I think, hey...I'm giving the book away, participate a little by promoting my contest! It's not a neccesity, but there are a lot of people that do promote on their websites and tweets for you. It's a good way to get your blog noticed by other bloggers, and people higher up on the food chain too.

[Jaime Huff]

I do the same thing. Those items that you list (besides the initial leave a comment) are for EXTRA entries. They are not mandatory. If you find them annoying and ridiculous, don't do them. That's your decision. The extras for the person who is hosting the giveaway to obtain more followers and help promote their blog.

[Mary @ The Sweet Bookshelf]

Oh just keep it simple. Comment and follow to be entered. I mean, I just don't have the time or want to bother with all those extras. It's kind of annoying because I WOULD enjoy to enter some of those contest, but once I see a list of things...I'm off. It's NOT about the book, it's about gaining the publicity...and it's just kind of rubs me the wrong way. So I just don't enter...I'm just wanting to know how everyone else feels about it. Or if I'm the only one...

[Joseph Arellano]

Feel free to enter my contest, Mary... LOL! Joseph from http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/

[Joseph Arellano]

Because I tend to agree with you I keep my contest rules very simple. Come check out the rules I just posted for a giveaway of The Art of Racing in the Rain -
http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/racing-in-the-rain-w...

[Jenny Reed]

When there's too many it does make me not want to enter. But I do put things like extra entries for following and for blogging it. Usually when I enter other ones I just comment and I'll follow if it's a blog I really like and that's it. Sometimes I'll blog but not as often.

[BJ Davis]

I won't enter if it gets too long and complicated.

[Pop Culture Nerd]

It does annoy me if there are too many rules to enter. When I do a giveaway, like my current one for Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire, I only have 3 rules for someone to enter: 1) Be a subscriber or follower (meaning you're already one or the other because I like to reward my regular readers), 2) Leave a comment to let me know you're interested (sometimes I'll ask a question relevant to the book just to make it interesting), and 3) Be a resident of the U.S. or Canada (because I pay for shipping costs myself and can't afford international shipping).

I won't even ask for personal info like your real name or address up front, only if you're my winner.

[Maw Books]

You would not believe how much those EXTRA entries have grown my blog. When I do a giveaway it's always a comment to enter. Doing anything extra is always extra. NEVER make it mandatory. That's the key. If it's required to follow a blog to enter, I'll most likely not do it. I also only do the extra stuff for the larger giveaways I've done. But the extra entries help a lot. If other people want to advertise your blog and you don't have to do anything, well why not? I ran a Stephenie Meyer contest once and all of those extra entries brought in another 4,000 comments to my blog and nearly a thousand entrants. Not to mention that I now have some very loyal readers who discovered my blog.

But remember, doing all the "extra" stuff is VERY time consuming when it comes to tallying the entries up. Which is why I don't do it for every single giveaway. Just the ones that I think will have a farther reach than others.

And my current subscribers are truly grateful for being given extra entries for already subscribing. Have gotten some nice comments about it.

[Anysia]

On my last giveaway I was asked to add some of this stuff by the publicist. It's not just about the book for the publishers. It's about getting the word out and if no one besides the blogger doing the giveaway publicizes the giveaway then the word doesn't go very far unless you have a lot of readers... A lot being much more than 100.

I agree that making the extra mandatory is annoying. I always make clear that it is optional on my giveaways.

[Joana]

You bring up a very good point. If the contest/giveaway isn't getting out there and getting seen then it really doesn't benefit the author/publisher either.

When it's mandatory, ugh, I won't enter. It's too much trouble. The only time I actually entered a giveaway that had all of that as mandatory (following, blogging, tweeting, and subscription) was because it was for a chance to win some big $$$ payable through paypal.

On my giveaways I make sure people know that all they have to do to enter is comment and if they want extra entries there are options available to them.

[Mary @ The Sweet Bookshelf]

I agree!