One of the best strategies for gaining social media followers, mailing list subscribers, blog comments, Google Plus +1, and repeat blog visitors to your blog is to run giveaways. The main problem with running giveaways (especially for new bloggers) is getting the products to give away. For example, giving away the Genesis WordPress framework would cost at least $60 per license and if you want a successful giveaway, you will want to give away at least three licenses and include some child themes. When it’s all said and done, you would be in for a couple of hundred dollars just to gain some subscribers…
Today I am going to show you some good techniques for getting products to give away on your blog without the large expense.
Team Up With Other Bloggers
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about saving money with blog giveaways is to spread out the expense between multiple bloggers. For example, you can team up with two other bloggers to give away the Genesis framework like before, but this time, each blogger will only buy one license for a combined total of three licenses. Then you can all host the giveaway with the same Rafflecopter code on all three blogs to have maximum exposure.
This giveaway method still requires you to spend a bit of money, but you will only be spending $60 instead of $180, so it’s still a great deal.
Politely Ask The Product Developer For Free Copies
The way that I have been conducting most of my giveaways here on Omega Web is to contact the developer or company of a service / product and ask them if they would be willing to give away a few copies of their product on my blog. Before doing this, however, make sure you are a paying customer of the service. No developer is going to allow you to give away their products on your blog unless you own them yourself and you are a paying customer.
This method works quite well and is 100% free. Don’t get discouraged if large companies like HostGator or GoDaddy refuse your requests or even ignore your emails… This only really works with small companies with small support teams that are willing to give some of their products away.
Give Away Your Own Products / Services
If you run a web design company, have written an eBook, or have written a WordPress plugin, you can give those things away as much as you want!
Get Someone To Sponsor Your Giveaways
This will really only work with large blogs, but you could always get some company or investor to sponsor your giveaways. For example, if you want to give away something big like an iPad, find a company willing to supply the iPad in return for a private advertisement on your site. In addition, you can make it a requirement on Rafflecopter or Punchtab for the people entering the contest to like the sponsor’s Facebook or Twitter page.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Do you run giveaways on your blog? How do you get the products to give away? Share your views in the comments below!
At the end of the day it’s all about value. Businesses should be willing to give products away in order to properly gauge the public’s reaction. We’ve done it in order to help people understand the value of going with medically supervised weight loss programs.
Click here to view our website.
To me the best way to go about this is to give away your own products or services because there are instances where other people might be reluctant to give away their stuff for free on other websites.
cool advise looking out to hosting my next Giveaway, want some collaboration
Great concept. I have held contest for prices and sweepstakes, those are also good ideas to bring it visitors.
Getting sponsors to the giveaways is one of the greatest achievement. However, as you have said it is hard to get sponsors if we are small timers.
I was wondering how you got all of those products to give away. Seems like a nice strategy for attracting attention.
Yep! I’m actually about to start a giveaway for Cash Donator, so stay tuned 🙂
Having a giveaway or some other form of promotion does seem like a good idea, if managed properly..
If you build the right relationships, there is always the chance that people who are more established though, still wishing to get their product or service out, may throw a few freebies your way….(which will help as a self promotion tool for their product or service as word get’s around)….
There is probably a far greater number of opportunities to snare a few freebies that can be offered as part of a competition(best comment, best suggestions for specific queries, or subscription incentive, or whatever etc)…, than we realize….
Because of your comment, I think the next thing I run will be a contest, not a giveaway. It’s a bit harder for people to enter, so maybe they’ll remember my site more 🙂
Also, it will weed out the spam giveaway people.
Giveaways are so effective in attracting visitors. Having a company to sponsor your giveaways would be one of the best ways. It won’t be easy finding one, but it’s worth a try. Thanks for sharing these tips!
I very much agree. If you’re looking for a company to sponsor a giveaway, contact Zyma Web Hosting. They sponsored one for me…
The last time I held a giveaway, a company contacted me about it. It was pretty great, they get a free link and I get hundreds of visitors.
That’s how I got to give away the Zyma Web Hosting a few months ago. Yes, it was nice for them and nice for me – a win-win situation.
Hi Ian,
I just had a fellow blogger ask me if I would be interested in giving away a few copies of her eBook to my readers in exchange for a review of her book. I think I need to jump on that one huh?
Last year I won a free theme from a contest on a blog where I am a regular reader. It always feels good to win and get something at no cost to me. 🙂
Take Care.
Jump on that offer! You’re getting:
1) A free eBook
2) Free merchandise to give away on your blog
3) Free traffic because of the giveaway
Great tips. Never really thought about the power of giveaways until I read this. Thanks.
Giveaways are truly great for sending traffic to your blog 🙂
Since the holiday season is fast approaching, it is a plus factor for your site to give some give away to your visitors. You are right that this idea will keep your visitors coming back over and over again. I really appreciate your smart idea and I’ll be trying to try this out.
Thanks for stopping by, Rusty. I wish you luck with your giveaways.
I’ve been thinking of giving away free stuffs for my returning visitors so I can keep them from coming back. I am on diet niche, where can I get some free stuffs to share?
I’m not really sure where you would be able to find things to give away… You’re probably best off buying them yourself or teaming up with other health / diet bloggers.
Thanks for the advice.
Thanks for the wonderful post.
So would you like to team up with me?
It depends… What do you want to give away?