Group blog giveaways have been around for awhile. Group giveaways are events where bloggers come together to offer one large or several smaller giveaways during a specific time period. For me, many group giveaways have proven themselves as excellent sources of new traffic, new visitors, and new engagement on the blog.
As could be expected with anything that is almost exclusively online, group giveaways have evolved – a lot. In this post, we’re going to take a look at a few different group giveaway options, as well as share some of our thoughts and experiences with each type. Here’s a quick graphic that breaks down the different types of giveaways we’ll be discussing here:
The key to any successfully group giveaway is organization and good communication. Failure to have both may create problems with other bloggers (errors in code, problems with links, etc.) as well as problems for readers (things don’t work.) Make sure you review our post on tips for hosting a group giveaway to get an idea of the “basics.”
Group Giveaway Hops
We love hosting and participating in group giveaway hops. These events typically bring in like-minded new readers, generating lots of new traffic and visitors to the blog. We, and several other blogs, are usually successful at securing a larger grand prize due to the high visibility and online exposure these events offer. While finding a giveaway sponsor may be a challenge for smaller blogs, the large participation is a great selling point to help pitch sponsors. These hops are usually free to join.
Group Giveaways
We are also fans of group giveaways where several bloggers chip in money towards a larger prize. Whether it’s a new camera or an Amazon gift card, the larger prize items usually draw in more giveaway participants. You’ll find that most of these giveaways are priced to cover the cost of the prize.
Some hosts build in a nominal fee to cover any advertising costs (giveaway posting, blog button design) and/or their organization time (emailing participants, verifying links, coding social media pages, managing the giveaway form, etc,) which can be considerable. Check out our “How to Run a Successful Blog Giveaway” post for a glimpse into what goes into giveaways.
Group Giveaways (with Perks)
On the surface, these are very similar to regular group giveaways, with the exception of additional ways to get visibility/social media follows for your blog. There is almost always a fee for social media links and recently, there are options to pay more to be considered a co-host, to have blog comments as an option, hosting a social media follow page, or for additional links.
There usually is no limit to the number of bloggers who participate, so the entry form can become very long (we’ve seen some with over 300 different entries.) Be aware that some readers may have negative feedback when entry forms are too long. Imagine – if you had to enter a contest and you can either fill out one form or fill out 200 forms. You still want to win so you might fill out the 200 forms, but you might not like it either.
Free Group Giveaways
Free group giveaways are a more recent trend. It typically involves a smaller ticket item that someone has received for review, and the host then offers other bloggers the chance to get their social media links on their giveaway. It is usually free with the exchange of posting the giveaway and sometimes there is an option to pay an extra dollar or two for additional links. Sometimes these events are limited, sometimes not, which can result in having 100+ entry options for a $10 prize.
Personally, I am not a fan of these giveaways. For the past several years, bloggers have tried to establish our blogs as legitimate businesses that offer valuable marketing and advertising partnerships. While this is a great way to spread the word about a giveaway, as well as an easy way to gain more social media followers, it is giving the sponsor hundreds of dollars worth of promotion, absolutely free. While I’m sure the sponsors love getting the free advertising, it can work to undermine the hundreds of hours of work you and other bloggers have put towards establishing their site as a reputable advertising partner. In fact, a disturbing trend has started to appear, with sponsors expecting free advertising because a blogger has coordinated one of these free events.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that many new bloggers are looking for ways to grow and make a name for themselves by providing this extra brand exposure for their sponsors. However, once you start giving advertising away for free, it will be almost impossible to get them to start paying you the industry standard pricing once you’ve built up your blog. It’s always assumed that once you’ve gotten your numbers up and have increased traffic, that they’ll start paying you fair prices, but that’s not always how it works out. Veteran bloggers know this from experience.
Admittedly, I love blogging whether I’m getting paid or not, but when a person starts trying to monetize their blog, there are professional standards and guidelines that you’ll want to adhere to. One of those things being – nothing is free. Remember that hosting a giveaway is a benefit to both the you AND the sponsor. You are doing them a “favor” just as much as they are doing one for you. You’ll be investing a significant amount of time, coordinating, managing, and promoting the giveaway. Your time is valuable and you should be fairly compensated. If you consistently host free giveaways, you’ll make it that much harder to charge the fees that you should be earning.
Conclusion
When managed and coordinated well, group giveaways – whether they’re hops or prize based – can be an excellent way to grow traffic and readership for your blog. As you can see, there are many different types of giveaway events. Make sure you read all of the event details and requirements before joining any blog event.
What group giveaway events do you like?
Dawn Lopez says
July 17, 2012 at 6:42 pmWow.. just wow. I literally just had a conversation with a fellow blogger about this new trend in group giveaways a few minutes ago. Great infographic and info BTW! Awesome, informative and fun.
My two cents: I am not liking this new trend at all. I think that it will eventually really take away our value as bloggers. It might be free now but I think we will all pay for it down the road once sponsors realize they only have to offer a ten dollar product to get promoted by 50 blogs.
Jennifer says
July 17, 2012 at 8:08 pmThat was me! I was the other blogger, and I completely agree.
JanetGoingCrazy says
July 17, 2012 at 7:08 pmI could not have said it better. I have watched this trend grow from a single blogger offering just a couple of links in a giveaway for help with promotion into bloggers now trying their hardest to make money off of fellow bloggers. You hit the nail on the head when you said thse “other bloggers” could have received the item for review as well. If a company can send one $50 product out and receive promotion over 10 blogs, why would they choose to send Tec $50 items out? That’s just basic marketing! We need to take pride in our blogs and choose to grow in content and true readership, not just numbers of fans and pass thru pageviews.
tazim says
July 17, 2012 at 7:13 pmI also don’t like the free group one where there is a small value prize .I feel as though it cheapens my blog. I know these give bloggers new follows, but at what cost? These types of giveaways usually require a ton of promotion.
Nikki says
July 17, 2012 at 7:26 pmI made the mistake of doing a few of those group giveaways for low-value items. I can’t even say why I did them, maybe I thought it was a good idea at the time. It ended up being more stress trying to remember to post, and I was basically working for nothing other than a few likes on my Facebook page. The only group giveaways I do now are for book tours, because that is to support and promote the authors, not some random company that I’ve never even worked with personally, and in many cases, never even heard of. Besides, the book tours always have pretty great prizes. I’m sorry if I’m rambling, I’m on pain meds. 🙂
Jennifer says
July 17, 2012 at 8:00 pmI love this!!! Personally, I do not like the new free group giveaways going around. They definitely devalue us as bloggers. Plus, I have been starting to enter more giveaways and when I see all those entries I run like hell!!
Gena says
July 17, 2012 at 9:20 pmI agree…with everything. This was very well said and I think all bloggers, big and small, need to realize that doing the free, small, group giveaways with only a few “likes” to gain from it are ridiculous.
Staci @ 7 on a Shoestring says
July 17, 2012 at 10:00 pmLove the infographic… and, boy, did you nail it! I have seen bloggers charging for entries into giveaways with prizes well under $10. I also heard of a rep asking how many bloggers you can get to sign up to promote said $10 item. Our value as bloggers is diminishing as we type. 🙁
Michele says
July 17, 2012 at 11:28 pmGreat infographic! I totally agree about large group giveaways. I was doing them and driving myself batty trying to post to social media,etc. Then I started analyzing my site traffic and realized no one was paying attention. Now I am sticking to small group giveaways and hops, liking it much better!
THANKS
Michele
Kristin says
July 17, 2012 at 11:39 pmAMEN to all that. This new trend is making me NUTS. Dozens of bloggers promoting a $25-50 item? Are you kidding me? That’s absurd. You’re right about the potential change in sponsors’ attitudes…but what about those who enter giveaways? They’re going to lose interest because they’re going to see this for what it is…a crappy deal for them!!!
Ugh. Make it go away!
Jennifer says
July 20, 2012 at 9:46 pmI was just trying to state this case in a group today, I seem to be in the minority so I really love this post. somehow I think it’s going to bite us all in the ass in the end. we have worked hard to show our value to companies and prove working with bloggers is a benefit, now that we have them listening, and wanting to partner with us, bloggers are going ahead and posting for free? it doesn’t make sense. it’s a disturbing trend.
Miriam says
July 22, 2012 at 6:03 pmIt seems like the the philosophy between bloggers has segmented into two different groups. One group that uses it mostly for numbers and one group that view it more than that – numbers, value-add for readers, partnership with vendors, and a legitimate marketing/advertising tool. The first group is probably more likely to do all the “free” stuff while the second group will more likely weigh pros/cons/costs/etc.
I mentioned it on another post somewhere – I believe bloggers who are “just trying to make money” will go the free route because they think beefing up the numbers is the only way to get advertising partners. What they don’t realize is that it actually detracts from the value of their blog instead of adding. Other bloggers view their blogs as a business (to make money.) But the difference is they have a more business-minded approach when it comes to giveaways.
I could go on, clearly I have a lot to say on this topic, LOL.
Lisa Hackney says
July 22, 2012 at 7:21 pmWhile I really enjoy the hops because I get to see a bunch of different blogs that I might not be aquainted with yet, they draw a larger number of entries and very little chance to win. I prefer the giveaways sponsored by a specific blog because if you are an avid follower, then you know about them… not just for those who do a random search on the internet. =)
Miriam says
July 25, 2012 at 1:38 amI tend to enter more of the “smaller” giveaways as well. Seeing hundreds of thousands of entries can be a little daunting. Plus, I like hosting giveaways for my readers since y’all are such a big part of why I blog!
ellen says
July 30, 2012 at 10:19 pmI saw this inforgraphic on another blog and typed in a ton as a response.
With the exception of the hops, where the bloggers join in (hopefully) with blogs they know are both reliable and established (for the most part) I honestly feel as if it cheapens the blog. Blog hops let me get to know other blogs that I might not have visited before and it is kinda nice.
I am seeing tons and tons of the follow this follow that where really dissimilar blogs join together not knowing each other nor knowing the reputation of the other and it seems it is a numbers only game. They never follow back nor do they interact with the readers- heck some never post anything ever but the huge contests or their content is so bad maybe thats the only visitors they get.
When I see established blogs acting as hosts to something that has 150 (or more) follows and know it is a paid in type contest I really am disappointed.It honestly makes me look at the blogger different.
I know why it is done, I understand the numbers, the ratings, the klout etc game that sponsors have, I understand the fact folks want to be ambassadors and get free washers/dryers/laptops etc but I dont understand if so much energy and time can be expended pursuing numbers why they can’t get some decent content.I am seeing a lot of disturbing things like not disclosing affiliate links or not saying it is sponsored etc. Or in the large contests not disclosing who exactly is sponsoring and never announcing results.
I am glad there are blogs out there that still care about our comments when we visit, what we as readers say, and those are the ones I have subscribed to for years .