Many of you who have begun entering these Rafflecopter-hosted contests have screamed out your enthusiasm for how much quicker and easier it is to enter blog giveaways than before. I have to admit that I really like Rafflecopter too because validating entries and drawing winners is much more streamlined and efficient. However, some of you have expressed that Rafflecopter is a tad confusing or is just not working as it should, so I wanted to create a step-by-step tutorial for how to use Rafflecopter and so that you can start entering this type of giveaway as quick and easy as possible.
Rafflecopter is still in a testing stage and so it is not perfect...yet. Several of us contest bloggers are working closely with those folks and they are ironing out bugs and making improvements to the program all the time, so don't be surprised if you see a few changes now and then. I also have become aware of a growing population of folks who love Rafflecopter so much that they will only enter those type of giveaways now! In order to accommodate those of you who fall into that category, I've created a special Rafflecopter tag (located on my navigation bar) which will help you quickly and easily find all the Rafflecopter giveaways hosted here.
At any time, if you ever have any questions regarding Rafflecopter or its use, please don't hesitate to email me at melissa@mommylivingthelifeofriley.com so that I can help you right away!
So without further ado...here's my tutorial for using Rafflecopter:
Step 1: Mandatory entries must always be completed first!
This is one of the great things about Rafflecopter, for it will not allow you to complete any entries before the mandatory ones. The contests on my blog always have two mandatory entries and both of these must be completed before any optional entries will count. An upside of this is that everyone who enters any of my giveaways will automatically get two entries. Here's how to complete the mandatory entries:
The first thing you will see is two entries highlighted with a green "I Did This!" button. These are the two mandatory entries. In order to complete them, start with the first one and click the "Do It: Click for Instructions" link. This gives the specifics needed for how to complete each entry.
After visiting the Dove link mentioned in the above example and following this blog via Google Friend Connect (located on the left sidebar), you next want to click the "I Did This!" button so that you can register your contest entry. Immediately, a box will pop up asking for three pieces of information: name, email address (always hidden to the general public) and an extra info box. Look at the picture below for an example of how to complete the first mandatory entry:
After you click "Enter the Giveaway" your entry is automatically added to the list of entries at the very bottom of the Rafflecopter program. Next, it's time to enter the final mandatory entry to the contest:
Step 2: Complete as many of the optional entries as you'd like.
Once you've successfully completed both mandatory entries, you will see the "I Did This!" buttons on all of the optional entries immediately light up. This signifies that you can now pick and choose and complete as many optional entries as you'd like. Don't feel like you have to go in order here, for these are all available to you once the mandatory entries are completed. In the same manner as before, complete the optional entries to the giveaway and watch how these too are added to the bottom of the Rafflecopter program.
Step 3: Come back again to complete as many of the daily entries as you'd like.
Below the optional entries, you will also see a section listing the daily entries allowed. As you might guess, these can be completed once per day, everyday, and are a great way to rack up a lot of entries to a giveaway you really want to win!
Some final thoughts...
For those of you who have been faithfully entering the giveaways hosted on my blog for quite some time (THANK YOU!), you will notice that with Rafflecopter, some of the optional entries I used to award are no longer there, such as being able to tweet a giveaway THREE times per day, instead of just once, and earning an extra entry for entering an altogether separate giveaway I was hosting. I apologize that these aren't available, but I am working closely with Rafflecopter to get these entries integrated into their program. The response from Rafflecopter has been very positive too, I may add. So don't be surprised if one day out of the blue you notice these entries have been added to the Rafflecopter program.
I hope this has been a helpful tutorial for those of you new to Rafflecopter. Again, please don't hesitate to contact me at melissa@mommylivingthelifeofriley.com if you have ANY questions whatsoever. I am so honored to have you all stopping by and entering the contests I'm hosting and I definitely want to make sure that your visit here is always a pleasant one! Have a wonderful day and GOOD LUCK! :-)
View Comments (14)
If you don't keep cookies, you have to click the mandatory entry again for the the daily entry to be visible. Do you just put in your name and email or do you have to put all that info in again?
vlbsweeps at gmail dot com
I know that Rafflecopter is aware of this situation and is working on a way to remember previous entries without the use of cookies, but for now anyway, I would recommend maybe keeping cookies if you happen to enter a lot of giveaways that use Rafflecopter. I'm sure every blog might recommend something different, but for me, I would say that if you need to complete the mandatory entries again in order to activate the daily ones, just make sure to write "DUPLICATE" in the extra info box of the mandatory entries. Thanks for the great comment! :)
Love this! I can't wait to get my invite to start using it on my Kyjen giveaways! I would love to know how you set up your tweet, facebook, buzz and blog ranker on the right side of your blog though! Been looking everywhere for the widget!
Hi Kimmi,
Thanks so much for the great comment! As for the side links I display on each post, it's from a plugin called Smart Sharing...very customizable so that you can configure it to match your own theme. Thanks again for stopping by! :)
Keeping cookies isn't practical when a giveaway runs for more than a week,. Plus I have an issue on a few blogs that even though I haven't cleared cookies, I have to do my entries every 2-3 days, and it's annoying. I also don't like that giveaways end at 12:01am ET (regardless of what the blogger normally runs) so that takes some getting used to. I like it a lot better than Google Docs, but that's not saying much! I've entered a dozen or more giveaways using it, not sure that I'll continue to do so - I guess it depends on the item being given away.
Thanks so much for the feedback Donna. I really appreciate it! I've forwarded your comment to Rafflecopter so that they can hear the opinion from an experienced contest entrant. I can tell you that the points you've addressed here are all ones I've personally brought up to them and I know they are supposed to be working on them at this time. The cookies issue is definitely at the top of their list of concerns. As for me and my blog, I've decided to use Rafflecopter on any and all giveaways where the prize is worth $50 or under. Anything over that will be hosted in the traditional way I've used in the past. Thanks again for the great comment and have a wonderful day! :)
Hi Melissa:
Thanks for forwarding my comments along :) Also thanks for letting me know when you'll be using it. Once they get some of the kinks worked out it'll definitely be a great tool for entrants and I can definitely see the benefit to bloggers so I understand the appeal :)
Sure thing Donna! :) The good news is that I already heard back from Rafflecopter and they assured me that most of these issues have been fixed in the new update which should be coming out very soon! I'll be sure to keep everyone updated as the new changes take place. Have a great day! :)
This helps but I entered your Educational Insights Rock Cards giveaway and I didnt keep cookies so I had to put the tweet in on the Mandatory entry, sorry for any confusion. Next giveaway I will put Duplicate in Mandatory entry and then go down and do daily tweet. I am guess this is what you want us to do if we cant keep cookies. I sent a email about this issue before reading these comments. Sorry.
I appreciate that you have taken the time to explain how this works and you have addressed the issue with cookies with Rafflecopter. I also appreciate that you actually post the end date of your giveaways as most blogs using Rafflecopter do not. Thank you :)
Hi Reggie,
Thanks so much for stopping by today and commenting! I'm glad posting the end date is helpful and I will definitely continue to do that. As for the cookies issue, I hear through the grapevine that Rafflecopter will have that fixed soon {fingers crossed} and will definitely let you know when it's not necessary to do the "DUPLICATE" entry any longer. Thanks again and GOOD LUCK! :)
I hope I did this right new to this....
when it tells me to leave a comment on the website I can never find out where I'm supposed to leave it
Hi Debbie,
If you're entering a giveaway, all comments must go in the Rafflecopter program to count in the drawing. That's why I purposely have my blog's comments for that particular post turned off, to eliminate confusion. Inside of Rafflecopter, there should be a blank where you can enter additional information. So the entry might ask you to visit the sponsor's website and tell me your favorite feature of any item and then you would click on the entry in Rafflecopter and enter your favorite feature in the blank that's there. Then you're all entered! If you have any other questions or need anything at all, please don't hesitate to email me here: melissa@mommylivingthelifeofriley.com Thanks so much for taking the time to enter the contests on my blog and good luck! :luck: