Are Bloggy Contests Real?
12:01 PM Totally Christine
Well, I am new to blogging, so I do wonder if these contests are real and if someone does win the prizes.
~Kelly
Dear Kelly,
I can assure you that all contests hosted here on Extraordinary Mothers (and on each of the Mommies' individual sites, for that matter) are, in fact, real contests. With real winners. And real prizes.
I have to be honest, though, and tell you that I am familiar with people who have hosted "fake" contests on their sites, mainly because they were looking to increase their traffic for a brief time. Beats me why they would think that it's okay!
That said, please know that you can trust bloggers who have a history of running reviews and contests on their sites. No reason to doubt any one here in the Mommy Blogosphere!
Talk back -- I want to hear YOUR take on contests... Do you host them? Do you like them? Have you ever won a contest, only to discover it was a fake?
February 18, 2009 1:38 AM
I remember this 18yr old guy (Ashwin Khanna) who had a make money online blog. He ran a fake contest for thousands of dollars to boost his traffic. The requirement was of course to link to his blog. He's blog is pretty empty now, lol!
February 18, 2009 4:33 AM
I've never entered a fake contest. But I've seen people hurt by contests where they were left out of "by accident" when it came to the final choosing. That stunk. As for my contests, yes I run them, yes I love hosting them and entering other peoples. My contests are always real and i try to giveaway things that I love and I know other people will too.
February 18, 2009 5:52 AM
i do host contests and love it. they are real and products ship out fast.
i have entered a contest that i never recieved the prize. it's been a year and the blog host keeps telling me it's coming and i've just given up. very upsetting.
February 18, 2009 5:58 AM
i have hosted a contest and it was fun but don't do it tooo often. I've small things never anything big.
February 18, 2009 6:35 AM
All of the giveaways on my blog are real! And I have won quite a few things from other blogs! I even won a Graco Stroller AND carseat over at An Ordinary Life!
February 18, 2009 8:21 AM
I love both hosting and entering contests. I wondered the same thing when I first started but know they are in fact real and I have made some good blogging friends through the experience :)
February 18, 2009 9:35 AM
I've hosted a few contests and love it. I get so excited during the whole process. I've always been the type who'd rather give presents than get {don't get me wrong I like getting too, I just would rather give if I had to choose}. So giveaways are just incredibly enjoyable to me.
I don't think I've ever come across a fake contest. I've certainly not won one at least. That's pretty sad.
February 18, 2009 10:26 AM
I host and enter blog contests/giveaways. I can definitely vouch for them being real, I've won some great stuff - a car seat, Leapfrog activity table, Target gift card - just to name a few things. I've only had one thing not arrive and I think that was a mail problem, not a fake contest.
I'm sure there are a few fake contests out there but for the most part, totally legitimate.
February 18, 2009 10:43 AM
I've won many blog contests and never had a problem receiving the prize. And I love hosting them too! In general I don't think I've ever come across a contest that I knew was fake or found out later was fake. I'm sure it probably happens, which is just sad and wrong, but I'm glad that I've never had a problem. :)
February 18, 2009 10:49 AM
I don't think I've ever run across a fake contest before. I probably wouldn't have known it if I did though. :(
February 18, 2009 11:33 AM
I host contests each week. That said, wouldn't the company representing the product you're *faking* the contest for catch that and call them out? I have a google alert set for even my small company, I'd think PR firms are set up to know when anyone even mentions the companies they rep.
February 18, 2009 12:36 PM
I have won something once and I never received it... I have also entered a giveaway once and when it was almost time for a winner to be announced, the blogger disappeared. She took her blog down, and took her self off the site she was using to host the giveaway. Miraculously she's back now. LOL. SO sad!
February 18, 2009 12:58 PM
I have them on my site. I still have two prizes that I need to send out and money is tight at the moment, STILL. PITA really when I have to pay other bills and have to wait to send this or that out b.c I hate feeling like I've let these two ppl down. IT's really a struggle when the sponsor sends you the giveaway prize to send. That's one thing I don't like.
I have not recieved one item that I've won last fall sometime, but I'm over it b.c it was being sent from Canada and I'm not sure how those customs things work. So we'll see.
February 18, 2009 4:32 PM
I've won a few things and never gotten them, but I also run giveaways on my own site. I have been doing them for years. What bothers me is when a sponsors bails (this happened recently) and you get a blogger who won who harrasses you every day. It's like poeple come on you WON A FREE PRIZE! Get over yourself! It was free to YOU! All you did was comment so this goes both ways. I can understand wanting your prize but at what point do bloggers take it too far. I know one girl actually told me she would contact my sponsors (good luck with that) and tell them all about her problem, and that I faked the giveaway.
It goes both ways like I said sometimes sponsors flake twice on Mommies United I paid my OWN cash and gave CASH to two different winners.
So do tell me Dear Mom when does it go too far? At what point do the bloggers who enter feel so entitled to their prize (their FREE prize at that) that they go too far? What about us who run these giveaways, we are esentailly in most cases a middle man.
February 18, 2009 5:18 PM
I host lots of giveaways each month. It is really fun to be able to provide cool freebies to my readers but it can get a little overwhelming. You have to contact so many winners and keep up with everything going to the correct address. So far I haven't run into too many issues. I did have one sponsor flake on me and ended up having to pay out of my pocket for several pretty pricey toys. But I have NEVER hosted a giveaway that didn't have a winner who received a prize. I think that the vast majority of blog giveaways are completely real!
February 18, 2009 5:34 PM
I have won a few giveaways and never received my prize which totally sucks but there is nothing I can do about it.
I think that pretty much all the giveaways ran in the bloggy land are real with real winners!
February 18, 2009 10:00 PM
I have entered several contest and so far I have received all of my prizes. I now have started to host my own giveaways and as for mine they are all real. I love it and it has really broaden my knowledge of good products and which companies offer awesome costumer service. I love to share all of my experiences with my readers to help them out as well.
February 19, 2009 5:48 AM
I run contests on my blog and I am always dealing with a 3rd party sponsor. Some times a winner will contact me months later wanting to know why they haven't received their prize. All I can do is try to contact the company again and find out why it hasn't been sent out. I appreciate the winners letting me know but I wish they would speak up sooner. I feel bad when the prizes don't arrive but I have now way of knowing that is the case if the winner doesn't speak up!
Also in one case a winner claimed not to have received their prize even though the vendor had a tracking number on the package that showed it was delivered. I didn't know what to think about that situation, it made me uncomfortable but I let the vendor handle it the way they saw best.
February 19, 2009 6:56 AM
I’ve entered lots of blog contests over the last year and I assume they are real. I’ve won plenty of fabulous smaller prizes and one large one and so far I’ve only had one prize that is taking a long time to arrive (a month). I guess if they weren’t “real” I didn’t win them. I can’t even imagine cheating anyone out of their prize. I currently have two giveaways going on my blog to simply generate traffic and frankly because I really love to giveaway stuff. I know how much fun it is to find out you are a winner and I want to do that for someone else. I can’t wait to draw my own winner. My sister could actually use both of the prizes I have currently up (Robeez and Pampers) but I asked her not to enter. I would feel like I could never let her win it anyway for fear others might think it wasn’t completely legit. I agree that if they’ve had lots of contests before you should feel pretty safe but the nice thing about newer bloggers who hold contests is you have better odds of winning and get a chance to check out some really great new blogs.
February 19, 2009 8:16 AM
I used to enter a lot of contests...I don't have time anymore but I host a ton of contests and they're all real! Sometimes I have to ship the product myself which I don't care for but for the most part the sponsor is good about shipping. I did win a contest where the entry was really labor intensive (it was a scavenger hunt on her blog). I won a GC to Target and was told that it was lost in the mail but I found out from a couple of the other gals that they also didn't receive their prize so it made me wonder what to think. I also won a DVD from a site that no longer exists...of course I never received the DVD...sigh.....
February 19, 2009 2:09 PM
I have won contests and never got my prize, three times. Sometimes if you contact the company supplying the prize they will send it to you. I did that twice, one of prizes came and the other I am waiting for since I just contacted them this week.
February 19, 2009 8:18 PM
See raffleindex.com for many blog contests.
February 20, 2009 6:24 AM
I always wonder too about some contests being real, especially when they are giving away real nice and expensive prizes. I have though won and recived quite a few contests in the past few months and really you have nothing to loose by entering other than time. (which I know is still precious) At my site I have began doing giveaways and I DO ship out the prizes to the winners that I pick using random.org. I could not falsify a contest as I believe in karma and I don't want bad karma!
As a side note, I do have 3 great giveaways on my site right now!
February 20, 2009 7:43 AM
I love entering contests and have recently started doing them regularly on my blog, too. I never even thought of bloggers doing fake giveaways!
February 20, 2009 9:33 PM
I have won a lot of blog contests. The percentage is probably about 2% for prizes I haven't received - most of which were not the blogger's fault, rather the sponsoring company who was supposed to have fulfilled the prize. And there are one or two I haven't received and I can't get an answer as to why. Maybe fake, maybe not. But it's not like I'm wasting postage to enter. Only my time.
February 23, 2009 11:18 AM
they are very real, I host them on my site and I know the companys I work with ship them right out because of the thank you e-mails I get from the winners plus I have won several things you just have to enter....
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March 15, 2009 6:42 PM
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Ellen
eering99@hotmail.com
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Ellen
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