CakeBlast

I updated this post August 2nd but the update has been lost. I should have named it too many entries per method, because that is what I don’t like. I wrote this in response to a lady offering unlimited tweets for extra entries, and another giveaway that had so many forms of getting 10 entries for this and 5 entries for that..there were over 100 possible entries per user! I will not waste my time summiting 5-10 entries for something if someone can come along and enter 100s of times such as the twitter deal.

I fell victim to a “Live” giveaway on twitter where the 56th entrant won the prize. I was entrant 12..then one person entered (I counted) 36 times in a row and won! Everyone else entered once apiece, but it was unlimited entries. The person who submitted entries 20-56 was a winner. Maybe the host expected everyone to copy/paste entries into the twitter box as fast as possibe, but I don’t want to do that to my twitter followers.

I have created another twitter account and easily got 200 followers in one day (although I’m following 600 on that account) . I may choose to burn up that account by submitting 1000+ entries into a blog giveaway (giving me a 50/50 chance or better without breaking any rules). I think it is ridiculous that anybody would set up a contest that way, but next time you enter a contest offering literally unlimited entries. someone may come along and drown out your piddling number of entries by taking advantage of the siteowner’s offer of unlimited chances.

Below is the original post I had updated extensively, lost the updates, and then wrote the long introduction to..

I don’t like it when a blog giveaway offers 1,346,792 methods of entry. It is nice to have a few extra ways to enter such as tweeting (even daily tweets) or becoming a fan of Facebook. Offering a few extra entries for writing a blog is nice, but don’t go overboard and offer 10 or more entries..try to stick with a maximum of 5 extra entries for any one thing.

Many times I have tried to submit a 2nd (or 15th) entry only to be told that I was “entering too fast”). When every entry has to be left in a separate comment, it gets frustrating to have to post “I blogged about this giveaway – entry #12″ over and over and over (with different numbers of course). Even when using copy/paste (ctrl C/ctrl V) extensively, it takes too long to submit 100 total entries (which I have seen some giveaways offer).

Other sites offer entries for adding them to social networking sites, and make the potential number of entries limited only by the number of sites available. This can backfire because many people are not registered with multitudes of social networking sites.

If a person is not worried about self promotion, why have a reddit account, propeller account, del.icio.us account, technorati account, stumbleupon account, and a Digg account? Saying “You get an extra entry for each social networking site you add us to” discourages people who may only be able to add the Giveaway to Facebook. It is one thing to lose out on 5 out of ten methods of entry. But if someone knows that they will lose out on a potential forty-five out of fifty methods (or more) of entry, they are likely to not enter at all and the site will lose visitors..sigh.