Reviews and Giveaways

For those of you who wonder what reviews and giveaways are about, here is some key information.

Reviews - A review is a description of a product.  It is kind of like a book report for a product.  You did book reports in school, right?  Sometimes it actually is a book, other times it is a diaper or a bag, or well.. anything.  A review is an evaluation of a product meant to help educate the reader about another person's experience with the product.

Giveaways - A giveaway is sort of like an online raffle with "free" entries.  Giveaways are generally sponsored by the company that makes or distributes whatever product is being offered for free.  They only collect information about the winning entrant, and the only information they collect is product specifications and shipping information.  There is no money or credit card involved in this exchange - unless otherwise noted.  I have recently seen some giveaways that require you to pay shipping or spend a certain amount in their store to get a discount.

Most blog giveaways request that you do something, such as look at a seller's website and find a product that interests you.   This is your "ticket" for the raffle.  Many blogs offer a mandatory response to get your first "ticket" and then additional entries if you desire to do things like follow their blog, like someone on Facebook or Twitter, or leave comments elsewhere.  Each entry requires a separate comment including your email address.

Many people are hesitant about leaving their email addresses on blog comments.  They are concerned about privacy.  Most of the time your email is perfectly safe, it is used for the purpose of informing you if you have won the product being given away.  Some people prefer to enter their email address in the following format: crumsthisnthat at gmail dot com.  They do this to help ensure that their email addresses are not easily accessible to people that are looking for addresses to spam or send scam emails to.

How To Win at Giveaways - Okay, so I've won a few giveaways, not a ton.  I have probably gotten a between $200 and $300 worth of products through giveaways.  What's my secret?  Enter a lot of giveaways.  Find some with low entries and enter them.  A great place to look for low entry giveaways is "Tight Wad in Utah".   Follow instructions on giveaways, make sure you understand the mandatory entry.  Remember that each additional entry needs to be a new comment on the blog.  I usually do not enter giveaways with more than 5 optional entries, the odds get lower the more someone else is able to enter.

How To Find a Giveaway - If you're interested in trying to find a giveaway for a specific product, type it into your search engine.  For instance: "cloth diaper giveaways", or "bee hive giveaways".  Whatever your interest is, it seems like there is someone working to help promote the product.  Another way to find giveaways is ask your friends.  Notice what they are "like"ing on Facebook (sometimes those things are hosting giveaways).  Read blogs.  A lot of bloggers do product reviews and giveaways.  Click the buttons on the right side of my page, they tend to have giveaways on their blogs.  If you can't find what you are looking for, shoot me an email and ask me to help you find it.  I'll look.  Crumsthisnthat@gmail.com

Good Luck!

(and don't forget to enter my giveaways)