24 Sep
A Few Notes on Rafflecopter
The winner of the mattress protector has been announced and notified (you can see the winner here) and it sounds like you guys really enjoyed using the Rafflecopter widget! I loved it because it made managing the contest really easy. I have a variety of fun giveaways coming up over the next few weeks, and because I plan on using the widget in the future I wanted to help clarify a few things, because I know it’s relatively new to all of you.
First, winners will be announced on the original post and notified by me. If you’d like to see who own, you just need to visit the original giveaway post.
Second, this time around there were a few of you who didn’t quite do things the way you were instructed. I know it was a new medium, so no finger-pointing or criticism here! I just wanted to make you aware of it because in the future I plan on deleting any entries that aren’t “correct”.
For your first entry you had to like Malouf Linens on Facebook, very simple (note that you can choose to diplay only your first name, or your full name during this part).
Your second entry was for leaving a blog post comment on the blog of Malouf Linens. I’m not sure that all of you did this, and I think I should have closed comments on the contest post to prevent people from thinking they could comment on That Wife for an entry. In the future if comments are to be made on the blogs of those hosting the giveaway, it will be up to them to determine if I should delete entries where you didn’t comment in the appropriate place.
Your third entry was for tweeting about the giveaway. You were supposed to tweet about the giveaway using the text provided (semi-important IMO) and then grab the link to your tweet and paste it into the Rafflecopter widget in the appropriate box (very important IMO). This allows me to double check to make sure people aren’t cheating.
I think some of you didn’t do this because you weren’t sure how? I know it took me awhile to figure out how to grab the permalink for my tweets.
This is a screenshot of my Twitter profile, where you can see all of the tweets I sent recently. Under each one, you can see a time stamp. “20 minutes ago” or “two hours ago”. Right click on that and choose to copy the link and then when you enter a giveaway that tells you to tweet and paste in the link to your tweet, you can just paste that in.
In the future I’m going to be somewhat strict about making sure only valid entries done as instructed are considered for the prize. To me it feels like it’s only fair?
Looking forward to all the things I have to give away to you over the next few weeks!
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
Uhh, were the instructions to leave the comment on the Malouf Linens blog within the widget itself? Because now that the widget is showing the winner’s name I can’t see and there’s nothing in the text of the post about it.
Good to know, though, because I completely missed this part.
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Jenna Reply:
September 24th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Yes, they were, but I know it’s new and people are used to commenting on the post here.
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entering this contest was a pita. could i have just liked them and then unliked them after the contest? i really don’t like following groups on facebook because then it announces it to all of my friends. I also don’t have twitter. so the only contests i enter is when i only have to comment on the blog. and i didnt understand from your raffle thing that i was supposed to comment on their blog and not yours.
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2I didn’t enter the contest, so I can’t speak to the clearness of the directions (which blog to comment on, etc) but I have run a contest on my blog with Rafflecopter, and I loved it! The widget itself has a little explanation of where to find the permalink to your tweet, which is handy.
And doesn’t the widget itself fill in the text for the tweet, when people click that option?
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3I thought it was all pretty clear personally and I think I did it all correctly. I like the widget.
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4Are all the contests going to be open only to US residents (Who determins that? You or the person/business providing the product?). I understand why the rule is in place, but maybe you could allow entries from outside the US, if the person is willing to pay for shipping?
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Mary b. Reply:
September 24th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
THIS. I tired to participate, couldn’t really figure out the widget, and then realized it didn’t matter anyway because I am Canadian. Sigh.
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Jenna Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
It’s determined by the company giving away the product. Sorry international friends!
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Just to clarify, did you have to do all 3 parts to be entered…or were you entered once for each part you did. So, in other words, if you completed all 3 parts, you would have been entered 3 times.
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Jenna Reply:
September 25th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
One entry for each part you did.
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I guess I’m guilty of #2. I left a comment on your blog having no idea Malouf Linens even had a blog. I did visit the website. Personally, I like contests that tell you to visit the website, pick out something you like, and share it on your blog instead. Then you proved you went to the website.
Looking at Malouf Linen’s blog now, I don’t know what I could have commented on without being weird.
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7I’m a rule stickler and like you more because you make people follow the rules
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8