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Once upon a time I wrote an article on how to host a blog giveaway. But with all the blog changes I have going on I began doing some research on blog giveaways and realized it is just not something I am comfortable with anymore. Lots of blogs are writing about the subject and I have had a few very smart conversations with friends regarding this topic. Let’s begin with why I personally choose not to run blog giveaways going forward.
- A month ago a ran a giveaway here on the blog to win a field trip with my family. I got ONE entry! Big ego slap! But I puzzled and I puzzled til my puzzler hurt and then I finally asked some friends why they didn’t enter. The biggest two reasons were that my friends see me all the time anyway and they are totally over blog contests. Fair enough. I realized my readers (friends and family) don’t come here for a chance to win something. That made me happy.
- I started having conversations with smart friends in social media who brought up the fact that blog contests may not be exactly legal. I did some research (easy to read discussions here, here, here, here, here and here) and found there is a lot of gray in this area. I don’t monetize this blog and don’t really care (other than my ego) how many readers I have so why would I risk the thin ice here?
- Whispered conversations of how some blog contests are faked. It’s scary to announce a friend won your contest because you are afraid everyone is going to say “its obviously rigged” but then how can you ask your friends to enter? Weird double edged sword there. While 98% (randomly made up number) of all bloggers are completely honest and forthcoming, I don’t want to be lumped in with the few that aren’t because mostly all of my readers are personal friends. I can see the disclosure now: “Entries open to US Residents 18 and older and who don’t know my real hair color“….which is gray, so now you are all not eligible. Sorry!
- I started getting statements from PR firms to the effect: Please clearly state that this is not our contest. We are just providing you with a prize for your giveaway. Bells went off here.
So after my above reasons some of you may be wondering what laws I am worried about. Let me try to break it down as best I can and try to help you avoid some of the pitfalls if you run giveaways. It’s important to understand the terminology used in a lottery (all definitions below from this link. I bolded what is common in blog giveaways.
- Prize: Anything of value the sponsor awards in a promotion. For example goods/services with a monetary value or items of intrinsic value.
- Chance: A process beyond the participant’s direct control determines the outcome. A few examples of chance are a random sweepstakes drawing or an instant win/collect and win game; ultimately luck is the deciding factor.
- Consideration: Anything that requires a participant to expend a monetary amount or significant effort to participate. For example the purchase of a product, multiple store or internet visits, correctly answering trivia questions, downloading a file, or attendance at sales presentations.
So the first thing here is to avoid running an illegal lottery you have to remove one of the above. The easiest is consideration. Don’t ask people to visit another website and return to yours to comment. Make it as easy as someone leaving you a comment with only the contact info necessary to award prize. Eliminate “extra entries”.
“Sweepstakes are regulated by both state and federal law. Sweepstakes (typically random drawings for prizes) possess two of the three characteristics of a lottery: chance and a prize. Therefore, to avoid classification as a lottery, a sweepstakes promotion must not involve consideration.”-Contests and Sweepstakes
Use the third party draw service from random.org This goes beyond the little screenshot image that some bloggers post and keeps a record for winners and losers for 5 years. It documents that every entry was actually given a fair shot and documents date/time.You could, also, run a contest. Contests remove the element of chance.
“Contests take a number of different forms. Anything where you can display a skill or a special attribute, from cooking and essay contests to cutest kid and bikini contests, is fair game”-Contests & Sweepstakes
My advice here would be to use another judging agent (the contest sponsor or impartial third party) to pick the winner. That way your best friend can enter and if her kid really is deemed to be the cutest by the third party, great. Always include rules! and remember that while the rules in the US are confuzzling enough, I have heard adding Canada into the mix can be really rough.I have run giveaways doing pretty much everything above. I am not an attorney (not even close) nor should any of this be taken as legal advice. It is just a compilation of reasons why I am no longer comfortable running giveaways. It’s confusing stuff and just not worth it to me considering all the work involved. Before you run your next giveway please follow the advice here from the FTC.
…each state has laws that may require promoters to make disclosures, seek licensing, or post a bond. Since state laws vary, check with the Attorney General’s Office in the state(s) in which you plan to advertise.
Thoughts???
Quite honestly, this post has me feeling a bit uncomfortable about giveaways now as well. It might not be too long until the FTC imposes strict guidelines on bloggers’ giveaways as well.
I agree. I think it is only a matter of time before regulation comes just like the FTC disclosure issues.
Great post. Really makes me think about running giveaways in the future or not. I am definately going to check my state’s laws and go from there. Thanks!
I am not sure if you would have to check the laws in all the states it is being promoted in? What a mess
First of all, I love the new look. It feels so calm and soothing here.Secondly, I have been feeling a little weird about reviews and giveaways lately for a lot of reasons but this post is just one more reason to stop with the whole mess.
Thanks hun. Still need to do my header in all my spare time and change a few things around 🙂
Barb, I am running my first “giveaway” this week! No entries yet, and after reading your post I’m considering calling the whole thing off. You make some excellent points and like you, I know most of my readers are friends so what am I trying to prove?? 🙂 Thanks for the info.
The fieldtrip thing was a big eye opener for me. I thought I would get a decent amount of entries and then I realized tons of my friends are bloggers. They don’t care 🙂
This is a very informative post. I have never done give aways nor do I really try to monetize my blog. After reading your entry, I am even more firm in my decision to not have contests give aways. I initially started my blog as a place to write and be creative. And, in all honesty, I’d rather read a blog that is there for the same purpose as my own. It seem that more often then not, the blogs I come across are in essence “advertisements” for other products in the written content. The post that is genuine is the one that will hold my interest. Thanks for the post
I’m new to blogging and found your article extremely informative. Thank you.
Interesting article! I look at giveaways on blogs as dessert- not needed but awfully fun:)You make some great points to consider, and I’ll be watching FTC guidelines closely. That said I hope the blogospere finds a way to have giveaways at least occasionally, because I may be the only one but I find them so fun! I rarely win the ones I enter, but when I do it totally makes my day….probably month! I’ve also learned about products I really like now from reading about them on giveaway- so for me they have actually been pretty helpful.Out of curiosity- given your new point of view would you still accept products/trips etc… from companies for yourself or to review? Just not give them away? Or is your feeling that you are not comfortable with any company/product accepting for you or for reader giveaways?
Hey Shannon-I think reviews and sponsored travel are a completely different thing. I am fine with properly disclosed reviews and travel. On this blog I rarely do them anyway-or I review stuff I pay for myself. On my blogs that are more set up for reviews the key is total transparency.
I have a few thoughts here.First… you make this all pretty clear (just how unclear it all really is!)So… a long time ago (in bloggy world 12 months 🙂 I stopped running any giveaways on my blog for similar reasons you state. Bottom line for me is what exactly do I the BLOGGER get out of running basically PR/marketing for a company brand?? I can name about 5 things the company gets… but at the expense of my time, I just couldn’t see the point any longer.Your point about Canada laws thrown in the mix is really a good point. I recently dealt with an interesting blog in Canada who wanted the company to ‘decide’ whether to run a giveaway on the little Canadian blog? I thought… really? Don’t you have that all sorted out… well, she answered, it depends, sometimes the companies want one thing some want another… oh REALLY??!Cuz I think the law is the same no matter what the company is??When I talk to a company about the whys and hows of running giveaways on a blog (and I’m no lawyer either…) I tell them you have two reasons to run a giveaway. First, as feel good-giving back to your community of people who already love your product. This is usually a small dollar amount, but gives them something back… Second, is as a PR/marketing get as many eyeballs on your website as possible. Make it a larger item, maybe it’s product, maybe it’s cash and product.. etc.If all companies are prohibited from this type of behavior along with the brands, I think there will be some really good ideas come out of it actually…. those of usa in the blogging world for a while now agree giveaways are getting harder to run, taking more time and less ppl are entering right??Time for a whole new idea, I’d say… and you know me… I’m always up for brainstorming! :)And I’m super sad I won’t get a late night with you in NYC again!!
Carissa–great points as always. I couldn’t agree more on the work involved and for what? Traffic that goes away as quickly as it came?I put in my “work with me” that I don’t run giveaways but am willing to entertain “out of the box” ideas in the hopes that something creative will come from it. I kinda like the idea of switching to contests if bloggers want to run them BUT then you bring in the question of validity. It would have to be done really well by a third party I think (and sponsors are smart enough to keep their hands clean here).
Wow I’ve never really thought about rules for who holds a giveaway. I do hold giveaways on both of my blogs. I live in Canada though so I will look into the rules here. I am forwarding this on to others.
I’d love to hear a Canadian perspective if you find anything interesting in your research!
This is excellent information. Good things to consider for sure, in order to be fair and legal and all that. Thanks for the post. MOST helpful!
I found this about Canadian law and contests/sweepstakes…http://contests.about.com/od/sweepstakes101/f/caskillquestion.htm
My take is that it’s unlikely an outside authority will intervene anytime soon – I’m sure down the road there will be much more specific guidelines. So, my take is that there are no right or wrong answers, each blogger has to find his/her comfort level and figure out if running giveaways is helpful or a hassle.
I agree. I found for me it isn’t worth it but think it is an important for bloggers to think about their own position 🙂
Playing catch up on reading… missed your contest and sorry you didn’t get more entries. I have quit entering the contests of bloggers I know “personally” just so that no one can question the blogger’s ethics if I win their contest. It also looks like a lot of work for y’all and although I have won some wonderful prizes, I can’t blame you for your position.
Thanks for the great info. I’ve only done book giveaways, but I totally understand how it would be sticky if your friend enters and wins.
Wow— so true- I have only done one giveaway for those who helped me rename my blog and I had my daugher pick names from a hat but you are so right!!! Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for this great article. I was considering buying something myself to have a giveaway on my blog. I’m new to all of this and it never occurred to me that I could be breaking any laws. Everything is so complicated anymore!
I think what it really boils down to is how people choose to define “consideration.” I don’t see signing up for an e-mail list or something similar to be an expenditure of considerable time or effort, especially if it’s only required for “extra” entries.And I highly doubt that any state or federal authorities would ever get involved unless there were true and documented instances of unethical behavior on the part of a blogger holding giveaways.As far as future laws governing online giveaways, I’d also have to imagine they wouldn’t regulate giveaways with prizes valued under a certain amount. That would certainly give most blogs out there the freedom to host legitimate giveaways without fear that they didn’t do everything “perfectly.”I don’t think any of these things should seriously concern bloggers who host giveaways. When the intention is good, they set forth clear rules, don’t require expenditure of considerable time or effort, and follow through with sending off the prize to a winner picked at random – what’s the problem?