Honestly Myranda

A genuine look into my life as a wife and mom of 6

So You Wanna Have a Giveaway- Let’s Set It Up {Tutorial}

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So you wanna have a giveaway? Well the #1 tool in my opinion would be Rafflecopter. I remember going to Rafflecopter when I set up my first giveaway and I was confused to say the least…so today I have a tutorial to help you with the ins and outs of Rafflecopter, and to help your readers entering have an easier time. 
 Go to Rafflecopter.com
Rafflecopter Opening Page
Click on “Plan One Now” and this box will pop up

First things first click “Add a Prize” and enter whatever super awesome thing is being given away and click the green “Save this Awesome Prize” button. 
The “Invent your own option” entry is the most difficult to formulate so I am going to break it down. This is most likely where you will enter links for GFC follows, Bloglovin’, signing up for newsletters and RSS feeds. So for starters click on the green button that says “Add an Option” 
After the above box pops up, click on the “Invent Your Own Option” and this box will pop up
1) Type what this entry is, I am doing follow me so I put “Follow Pretty Living PDX” there
2)In this box I would add a description of how I wanted them to follow my blog, so I am using GFC.
3) Ask for some form of verification, so if it is GFC I ask for their name. If you are checking newsletter subscriptions ask for their e-mail address. I ask for verification, because honestly how sucky would it be if someone won who had done none of the entries. You need to verify those bad boys!
4) Choose a point value, in the iPad mini giveaway so many ladies donated that I made them all worth 1, but if it is just a sponsor’s giveaway I like to up the point value, it’s your call. 
5) You have to choose if you want this entry to be mandatory (they must complete before moving on) and how often they can do it. If it is blogging about the giveaway or posting to Instagram I chose once per day, but with follows (such as GFC) do not click this box. Jennifer wrote a really good post about the legality of requiring people to follow your blog for giveaways, so make sure to check it out before you make your decision. 
Now for the tricky part, inserting the links. Have you ever seen this message when trying to enter a giveaway? 
Yes, and it is super annoying. Well here’s how you can avoid it
When you are in the “Invent Your Own Option” step, highlight the word where you want to insert the link, similar to how you would do in a blog post.
Then click the little globe, where the arrow is. 
After doing so, this box will pop up

You want to insert your link where it says “Your-URL-Here”, but you want to keep the “http”

In the above picture the http is missing, so this will lead to the error message. If you do it like the picture below however, it will work beautifully!

The next issue I come across with Rafflecopter is the tweet about the giveaway option. So to do this correctly, click on the “Add an Option” button and then click “Tweet about the Giveaway”
You should then see this box pop up

Now you want to enter in the text for the tweet that people will see. You see that arrow down there? The message needs to be 120 characters or less, because Rafflecopter will automatically add a 20 character link. Do you see the arrow? Make sure that number is at 20 or above after you add your text, this way the tweet won’t be over characters when your entrants do this entry. You must also decide how many points this entry is worth, how often they can do it and if it is mandatory.

This post is getting a little long, so I will briefly go over the Facebook and Twitter entries quickly, because they are the simplest.

Once again you want to click on the green “Add An Option” button, then choose either Twitter or Facebook.

Facebook-
After you click “Like a Page on Facebook” this box will pop up

This part is pretty self-explanatory, but just make sure you have the full Facebook URL, then fill in the page name at the top, determine point value and if you want it to be mandatory.

Twitter-
After you click “Follow an Account on Twitter” this box will pop up

They already autofill the “@” so you just need to add the Twitter handle, determine point value and once again if the entry is mandatory. Make sure you have the “@” symbol, or this entry will not work.

So there you have it folks, the basis for setting up an awesome Rafflecopter giveaway. Always remember to hit the green button to save everything, and don’t forget to check out Jennifer’s post about  the legal issues.

If you have any questions, or need any help please e-mail me or leave a comment, I would be happy to help as best as I can. I know there are possible giveaway entries that I have left out, so if you want help e-mail me at prettylivingpdx {at} gmail {dot} com.

As usual, if you reference this tutorial please link back to my site and if you like it pin-it! I have installed a hover pin-it button, so when you hover over the photos you can click and pin.

Question of the Day: Do you have any awesome giveaways going on?

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Comments

  1. What a great tutorial! I just learned how I embed links the easy way. Thanks! I was doing it way much more complicated!

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    xx
    beauthi.blogspot.com

  8. Thank you! Rafflecopter can really be intimidating when you first look at it. I'll definitely reference this post if (when) I need to use it to set up a giveaway!