New Giveaway Rules -- Please Read If You Enter My Giveaways -- Effective Immediately
Hi All,
It has been a busy few months with my family and blog, since welcoming our second daughter in November. As a result, the time I find to write up reviews and giveaways is usually done in the wee hours of the morning. My hope when I started this blog two years ago was to share my honest and personal reviews of products and items that I have used with my family. Many of these reviews offer giveaways, which I love offering my readers, as I really want you try out these great products. But, due to limited time to promote my site, as I spend the time I have to writing blog posts, I have not been able to get the word out about many of these giveaways, so that more readers (new and old) can have a chance at winning. Because of this, many readers have been entering and winning 2+ giveaways in a given month. With May fast approaching, I have a wonderful Mother's Day Gift Giving Guide and family-friendly products in the pipeline, which will offer some great giveaway opportunities. I am hoping that with your help, you can share my blog on your social media sites, especially the giveaways (current and new), so that the word gets out about my blog.
I love what I do and how my blog has evolved. Many mom entrepreneurs have personally emailed me to thank me for the Spotlight on Mommy posts and Feature Friday Product Reviews I have done for them, as they have seen increased sales and exposure. As a fellow mom entrepreneur, I love supporting other mom entrepreneurs, as I know how hard it is to have a business, while raising a family. In addition to working with mom entrepreneurs, many of my reviews and giveaways come from PR agencies who I have gained their respect through my honest writing, and they continue to loop me in on campaigns they think you will enjoy learning about. Many PR companies have giveaway policies where only one reader can win from their client campaigns in a given month or year. My hope in the next few months is that I will have more time to promote my site, hopefully, in part by your word of mouth and support, so that I can continue to work with these wonderful PR companies and vendors. With that being said, beginning today, 4/11/12, I will be implementing a new policy to my giveaways. You can enter as many giveaways as you like, but you can only win one giveaway every 6 months (Jan. - June, July - Dec.) (unless the vendor or PR agency will only award you with one prize per year, in which I would choose another winner). And, if your name is chosen for a giveaway you won on another blog site, for the same product I am offering as a giveaway, I can longer have you choose another recipient to send the prize to. Instead, you will have to let me know you won (or, I will notified by the vendor that they sent you a prize), so that I can choose another winner.
In addition, anyone caught using
duplicate emails from the same ip address for extra entries will be
banned from winning on my site. Note, as a blog owner, I have the right to delete any
entries and comments that I feel are inappropriate, spam, etc.. Also, note that
prize fulfillment is from the sponsor. I have been receiving a handful of emails each month from people demanding prize updates or wanting a replacement sent as they haven't received their item. Once you share your contact information with me, I forward this information to the vendor, who usually states they will ship within 4-6 weeks of receiving your info. I have also found that a few companies and PR agencies have cancelled a giveaway or run out of prizes prior to sending out a winner's prize. Again, this is not in my control, and usually I don't work with or offer giveaways to my readers from them going forward.
I feel that the above guidelines are only fair, and hope you understand where I am coming from. I am happy when winners of my giveaways share this news on their twitter, Facebook and other sites, as well as email me to let me know that they received their prize and love it, too, as it shows me that I am achieving what I set out to do -- offer honest reviews of products that will makes moms lives easier, as well as share fun and entertaining activities and products that the whole family can enjoy.
I hope you continue to read and follow my blog, and enter my giveaways, even with these new giveaway rules in effect. And, if you do share my blog and giveaways with others, please drop me a line or leave a comment on that particular blog post, so that I know, and can personally thank you. And, feel free to comment on my non-giveaway posts, as it is always nice to hear what my readers think of a product or what I write about.
Thanks for your time, and for your continued support and following of my blog.
Enjoy the rest of your week!!!
Robin
I respect your decision - but I have one question. I won from you a few weeks ago, and have already entered other giveaways that have not yet ended. What happens if you draw my name for those? Do you automatically redraw since I've won once this 6 months?
ReplyDeleteThanks for any clarification!
Sara
Sara,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question. I hate having to spell out the giveaways, but over the past few months, due to limited time to market the giveaways, I am seeing the same winners winning. The only fair thing to do, to offer others a chance to win a prize is to set these new guidelines. Also, I hope that people are following and enjoying my blog, which I put a lot of time and effort in, not just for the low entry giveaways I have. It will get too complicated if I allow the current giveaways that those who have entered previously still be allowed to win, as this will mean the new guidelines mean nothing. I hope you enjoy the DVD you won recently, and hope if you were in my position, would want other readers to win a prize, instead of having a handful of winners entering and winning constantly.
Thanks again for your comment, and I hope you continue to follow my blog, not only for the giveaways, but also for the overall content.
Robin