Thinking of Running a Competition?

There are many reasons why as a blogger you may decide to run competitions and there are so many ideas on why you should or shouldn’t – personally I have run them since I started my blog over 3 years ago, my reasons? Well, I’m a comper, I’ve won some amazing prizes over the years and I find it just as much of a thrill telling someone they have won, as I do seeing that ‘congratulations’ email pop up in my own inbox.

Of late the divide between bloggers and compers seems to be growing and there is very much a ‘them’ and ‘us’ attitude on both sides of the fence. Now before anyone says ‘but that’s not me’ no of course it isn’t everyone but as happens so often, there is a snowball effect going on, with one blogger or comper saying something, then others joining in – so when does it stop? Well, I am hoping with a bit of understanding on both sides things can start to get better.

The main bone of contention at the moment is bloggers using terms that mean ‘compers’ cannot enter their competitions, either due to how their Twitter feeds may look, that they are a member of a competition site or many other ‘odd’ reasons that have been popping up across the blogosphere and the long and short of it is – bloggers you shouldn’t do it, how would you feel if you were being excluded?

In fact, bloggers are beginning to get in trouble as people are starting to report them to the agencies involved with creating the rules that govern the running of competitions (yes there are rules, you need to abide by when running competitions – exclusion of people is just one, others include making sure you have clear and visible terms and conditions, which includes the end date and time stated in full and which must not be changed once the competition has begun).

Think of it this way if someone said you couldn’t do something because you were a beauty / fashion / lifestyle or any other sort of blogger – you would be a bit annoyed, right?

If you want to make a competition so only bloggers can enter you could make the only mandatory entry to write a blog post, or perhaps make people work a little harder to enter by asking them to write a longer entry question, of course, anyone who does do those entries would still have to entered – there is no way to exclude any group of people if someone enters correctly within the rules they should have an equal chance of winning as anyone else or it isn’t a fair draw.

Perhaps if you want to reward your readers, you could randomly pick someone who is following you already.

If you do decide to down the competition route as normal, you can ask for removal from many sites but is removal really the right way to go? Don’t forget compers are human – many of them also enjoy reading and commenting on blogs and if you are running a competition for a company they also happen to be consumers and personally, well I have found many great reads through comping.

Of course, this isn’t a one-sided issue, while bloggers are making boo-boos by adding rules they shouldn’t be, compers are reacting in anger (which of course is a natural reaction when you feel you are being wronged) as well as feeling as though bloggers only pick friends as winners, so why should they even bother entering, which to me is quite a sad thing for a group of people to be feeling.

So I also want to address that issue because many of us follow the rules and whoever is drawn is the winner. Over the years I have been running competitions I have had friends win, and I’ve also had winners become friends but each one is fairly picked – as long as they have entered the competition correctly they are in the draw – the winner could even be someone I dislike, but if they have entered the competition there in.

So the main point of this post is:
Bloggers:
It is deemed unfair to remove or exclude people be they compers or anyone else ‘just because’.
You should make sure you have full T&C listed for each giveaway.

Compers:
If you come across a blogger who isn’t following the rules try talking to them – point them in the correct direction of the rules, many bloggers have just jumped on the bandwagon.
Most of us do and always will run competitions fairly, so enter and keep your fingers crossed you have just as much chance as anyone else.

Please note this post doesn’t include all the rules and regulations you should follow when running a competition and is here to just address some common issues at the moment, for more information on the ASA rules and CAP code as well as some other great posts on making sure your competitions are above board check out these links:
ASA guidelines https://www.asa.org.uk/
CAP code: https://www.cap.org.uk/
IPM (contact if you do need to put in a complaint about any competition): https://www.theipm.org.uk/

What are your feelings about competitions? Do you enjoy entering or running them?

Pin It!