One of the things that I have always adored being able to do here on No Ordinary Homestead is to reward my readers with all sorts of goodies to let you know how much I appreciate that you keep coming back to NOH and share what’s on your mind with me. In the past, I have gone with the “old school” method of hosting giveaways, where everyone had to go through the steps one-by-one to enter in various ways…and then left a comment for each one. Yes, it’s effective but it’s also rather tedious for everyone entering. And to be honest, it gets a bit crazy for me as well since I need to make sure people are actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing and that everyone is entering “correctly.
Then, about a year ago, an app came out that sorta revolutionized the giveaway game. It is called Rafflecopter and it makes everyone’s lives a lot easier.
What is Rafflecopter?
Without getting too technical, Rafflecopter is a widget which compiles all the entry data needed for a giveaway, composes it into an easy to process format and then helps spit out a random winner or winners. There’s a lot more that it could do in the long run, but this is what it does for now…and basically that’s all it really needs to do anyway.
This is a great tool for a blogger or website owner, because it really simplifies what used to be a complex and sometimes painful process. There’s no comments to count, no entries to track down…and basically no more stress for the blogger.
But it’s also awesome for the person entering, because it all goes WAY faster for you, the process is more fair because the widget verifies entries right then and there, and you don’t find yourself having to fill out your name & email address over and over and over and over again. 😉
If you’re not familiar with the Rafflecopter platform and you’d like to see one in action, go on over to the Rafflecopter homepage where you can test it out — and maybe win a prize. 😉
How does Rafflecopter Work?
Below is a quick video which Rafflecopter has put together about how one goes about entering a giveaway using Rafflecopter. It’s really simple:
- Log in with Facebook or your email address
- Complete the mandatory entry or entries (usually a question you need to type an answer to)
- Complete any steps needed to get bonus entries (following in Twitter, FB, etc) — but this is really simple because you can follow right there in the widget instead of going to another page
- You’re done!
Why am I going into detail about how this all works??
Next Monday, I’m going to be hosting a giveaway for some super cute baby clothes…and there are going to be quite a few more giveaways coming up after that! Monday will be the first time that the giveaway will be done via Rafflecopter but I will likely be using it for other giveaways in the future. So I wanted to make sure that everyone is on the same page and has had a chance to try all this out. And if you have questions in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email at tiffany AT noordinaryhomestead.com.
In case you want a bit more detail, here’s an infographic that breaks down all the components about what it’s all about and how it works.
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