Tips for Participating in a Giveaway!

I am sure many of us have participated in a giveaway in one form or another. Most have probably entered 1 or 2 giveaways, but have you ever considered hosting your own? Or have you considered participating in a group giveaway? As a new seller with Teachers pay Teachers, I think giveaways are a great way to get your name out there. It allows new customers to find you and become aware of your products. This is going to be a really long post about giveaways. How to set them up, how to collect donations from other sellers, and anything else I can think of. If I happen to miss something that you want to know about, leave me a comment. I am certain someone else has the same question.

The first section I want to touch on is participating in another person or stores giveaway. Before a seller host their own giveaway the should participate in one being hosted by an expeienced seller. This allows the new seller to network and gain exposure. An experienced seller will likely have more followers than you. Their giveaway advertisement will send new potential customers to your store or blog. All of the sellers that I have worked with have been super friendly and helpful at answering any questions you have.

These giveaways are generally pretty simple for the participant. As the participant you will need to send the host your product and product cover. Giveaway host may also request other information such as your email address, Teachers pay Teachers store link, facebook link, pinterest link, and links to any other social media sites you use to promote your store. The data is normally collected on a Google Docs spreadsheet. The host will use this data to create a giveaway entry form (more on that later). Once they have created the group image, their blog post about the giveaway, and the entry form they will usually send an email to all of the participants alerting them to the next steps. Of course every host is different and may choose to do things differently. 

It is customary and sometimes required that any particpant in the giveaway creates their own blog post or shares the giveaway through the various social networking options. Check with your giveaway host for details. Remember the more people that share the giveaway the more entrants there will be, thus creating more exposure for everyone.

The giveaway normally last for 1 week, but can be longer or shorter. Sometimes the giveaways will be themed by holiday or grade level. Once the giveaway is over the host will choose a winner. If the host collected the products from each participant they will then forward the products to the winner. If some participants opted to send their product directly to the winner, the host will send out an email with the winners information. Make sure to send your product over promptly and include a nice note in your email.

I am sure you are just ready to jump in and particpate! Where can you find giveaways to participate in? The Teachers pay Teachers forums are a great place to start. Many sellers post topics requesting donations for their giveaway. I will try to host a monthly collaborative giveaway. Let me know if you want to join. :)

I hope that you have found this guide useful. The next topic I will discuss is how to host your own giveaway!

~Mrs. Bearfield~